Even Good Queries Aren’t Stunning (II)

Posted on by Saundra

So, I posted my very first query letter, which was a pretty bad query letter. Agent/Writer/Deb Extraordinaire Mandy Hubbard popped by to say it wasn’t half-bad. And it wasn’t- with some tinkering, I did manage to get a couple of partial requests with it.

Here’s the thing- I think most competent writers will produce an okay query letter. I know you’re scared, and your whole everything is tied up in your novel, and it’s a big deal to be searching for an agent and OMGSTRESS. But seriously– if you’re a competent writer, your query letter is probably okay. Not great, but okay.

That’s why it’s important to send your query out in small batches. I would send it to 5 or 10 agents at a time. If I got no response or instant rejections, then I’d revise the query letter until it got a better response.

So let me show you a successful query letter. Notice I’m not calling it a good query letter. Because at the end of the day- it’s still a query letter. I learned from the first one, I had a draft of this that I tested, I tinkered and this is the version that I sent that got several partial requests, which ultimately led to representation.

Dear Ms. Agent:

Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisiana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared. His mother believed he ascended to heaven, the police thought he ran away, and his girlfriend felt he was murdered. Decades later, certain she saw his ghost in the town cemetery, fourteen-year-old Iris Rhame is determined to find out the truth.

Enlisting the help of her best friend Collette, and forced to endure the company of Collette’s latest crush, Ben, Iris spends a summer digging into the past and stirring old ghosts in search of the truth. What she doesn’t realize is that in a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret.

{ The difference between this and the Weston query? It sets up the conflict immediately. This is what’s going to happen in this book, and this is who’s going to do it. It also sets the tone, because it confides in the reader, guess what– there’s something the characters don’t know, dun dun dun! }

My name is Saundra Mitchell, and I’ve been a writer for fifteen years, both in film and fiction. Currently, I write the Fresh Films short film series, and shorts from this series have been juried selections at Academy Award-qualifying festivals for the last three years. In fiction, I’ve recently published “An Accounting of Sins,” short fiction, with Edgar Literary Magazine, and “Revival Season,” flash fiction, with SmokeLong Quarterly.

{ I still include screenwriting information in this query because by then, I was doing well enough to name check the Oscars, so I thought it might help. (It didn’t.) But, this time, I had excised the random, extraneous publications and focused on my fiction as my primary credits. }

“Last Summer’s Iris” is a Southern Gothic young adult novel, complete at 50,400 words, and I’d like to offer it for your consideration. I’ve enclosed five sample pages; please feel free to recycle them if they’re unneeded. Thank you for your time; I look forward to hearing from you.

{ Hey look, I gave the title, I gave the genre, I gave the category. Now the agent knows exactly what’s on offer here. And by this point, I had figured out that no matter how good (or bad!) the query was, I got a better response rate if I sent pages. If an agent asked for more than five, I sent more. If they didn’t say either way, I sent five pages. I also gave them an out to just throw them away instead of trying to stuff them in my SASE and search for make-up postage. }

Sincerely,

Saundra Mitchell

{This part, I still got right.}

Since I wrote both of my queries, you can see that they’re pretty similar.

But now that you’ve seen both, I think it’s clear why one was more successful than the other. The Weston query contains shockingly little information about the book. It’s almost a query that says, “I wrote a thing. Will you look at it?”

Whereas this query, for the book that became SHADOWED SUMMER, says, “I wrote this book. It’s about X, it contains Y, and it features Z. Will you look at it?”

My bad query wasn’t half-bad. And my successful query is still a query letter; the pages mattered the most.

So please take a deep, deep breath, and relax just a tiny bit. Querying is incredibly stressful, especially lately– but don’t let all the talk terrify you into believing your query letter has to be the word of the Muse dripped in gold-blood ink on the page. It doesn’t.

Write your query letter, send it in small batches. If you’re not getting a good response, revise the query letter! Send five pages (or more if the agent requests them.)

You can do this! And if #queryfail, #queryslam and Slushpilehell are getting you down, here’s a gif by Omar Noory that I enjoy when I need some perspective:

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Give It to Me Short ‘n Dirty: Query Bulletpoints (III)

Posted on by Saundra

Maybe you don’t feel like reading an essay about queries. Why would you? You need to get one written, RIGHT NOW OMFG EMERGENCY NOW NOW NOW. Okay, yo. Cool. I can give you a short ‘n dirty query bulletpoint list so that you can skim it real fast and get back to work.

  • A query letter is a BUSINESS LETTER. If you’re sending it by postal mail, format it exactly like your standard business letter. That link there will take you to Purdue University’s guide.
  • If by e-mail, you’re going to start with the salutation and leave out all contact information with your signature except your name, your e-mail address, and your URL.
  • WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Don’t print it on sparkly paper, don’t enclose confetti, don’t scent it with your favorite Axe spray, don’t. Don’t enclose food, bugs, hair, MONEY, character family tree– seriously. The only thing that goes in that envelope is the letter and SASE.
  • WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Do not attach documents, pictures, totally cute cat JPGs, no GIFs, do not doge or lolcat the subject line, do not ask people to follow links to your query letter which is elsewhere, do not ask them to read the book that’s posted on your website.
  • WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Don’t tell the agent about your aunt Suzie or how much your kids like your book. Nobody cares.
  • Do tell them if Oprah Winfrey personally promised to endorse your book and include her assistant’s e-mail address so they can verify that.
  • Your characters cannot sign contracts. Do not let them write your query letter.
  • Don’t write a query letter that’s longer than a page. If in e-mail, 3 substantial paragraphs should do it.
  • Paragraph One: My name is FROG WOBBLER SR, ESQ. I am querying you about my novel SNOT ROCKETS. It is a MIDDLE GRADE novel, complete at 45,000 words. I read in BABBLE DAILY that you’re especially looking for SNOT-RELATED MIDDLE GRADE, so I think this might be a good fit.
  • Paragraph Two: Concisely, in ONE paragraph, tell us who the protagonist of SNOT ROCKETS is, their conflict, and the resolution.
  • Do not explain your themes, the important lessons children will learn, discuss the symbolism, etcetera.
  • Don’t talk smack about other books. SNOT ROCKET may be middle grade for smart, discerning kids who don’t like paranormal garbage like SHADOWED SUMMER, but that’s something you say in your inside voice. You don’t know who the agent represents, or everything they love.
  • Only talk about what IS in your book, not what ISN’T.
  • Paragraph Three: My work has been published in (name of publication, and not “my mom’s gardening newsletter,” either.)
  • If you have REAL, substantial awards, mention them here. I am a PUSHCART PRIZE NOMINEE. Do not include super-local, dinky things. If the agent has to Google the SOCIETY OF LITTLE FREAKY FROGS OF THE MIDWEST to find out if it’s real, it really doesn’t count.
  • Paragraph Three (II): If you don’t have publications or real, substantial awards, then wrap this up short and sweet. This manuscript is available for your request. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
  • Paragraph Three (III): Even if you do have publications and awards, wrap it up nicely; see above.
  • Sincerely,
  • FROG WOBBLER SR, ESQ, frog@wobbler.com, www.frogwobbler.com
  • And now…
  • THE RULE THAT SUPERCEDES ALL RULES FOREVER AND EVER AMEN:
  • If the agent’s submission guidelines contradict this, DO WHAT THE AGENT SAYS. It is a test. It’s a test to weed out people who don’t pay attention, aren’t concerned with guidelines, and probably will be a pain in the ass to work with later because they’re just gonna do what they want alllllll the time and have to be wrangled and jeez, they only get 15% for this, and it’s not ENOUGH AND…

That’s it. Nothing else. No bells, no whistles, no foolin’ around, no extraneous detail. It’s a business letter with three paragraphs: about you, about the book, about your gratitude. The end.

(Get back to work, slacker!)

Everybody Starts Out Writing Bad Queries (I)

Posted on by Saundra

Everybody writes bad queries, at least at first. There’s no set way to create one, advice conflicts on what to put in one, and frankly, it’s a skill like any other- you must practice it to excel at it.

In light of #queryfail #queryslam and SlushPileHell, I’d like to take another approach. Most people don’t have their learning curve slapped up on the Internet and soundly mocked, and I don’t think writers should, either. But people are going to do what they’re going to do– what’s important is how we respond to them.

So I’d like to share with y’all my first query, for my very first novel. It’s NOT a good query. I’m not proud of it. But I want you to know that I learned from this lousy query. And I learned from my naively crafted* first book. And eventually, I got competent enough that my query sold my book, I got manuscript requests, and I signed with an agent.

So here it is, in all its awful glory, so you can learn from it too!

Dear Ms. Agent:

Short skirts, cheap gin, and jazz reigned in 1928, but they never made it past the front gates of Weston Prep. More gothic than ivy, Weston tried to make gentlemen of near-society boys, but when JT Keller, a sheltered Catholic boy from Baltimore, and Jesse Stein, a townie who preferred playing Juliet to Romeo, accepted places in the class of 1932, Weston pretty much failed.

Initially homesick and baffled by strange customs, JT slowly absorbs some of the best, and the worst, traits from his new friends in their quest to run the school, scheme a way for Jesse to move in, and at the same time, oust the roommate they never wanted. In “Weston Boys,” JT discovers his father isn’t perfect, friends keep secrets together and from each other, and that an entire world can end in a single, black Monday.

{TOO LONG! What’s the book about? Who the heck are all these random people?! And why should we care about JT and his daddy issues??}

My name is Saundra Mitchell, and I have been a working writer for twelve years. For the last four years (and currently,) I’ve been the head writer for Dreaming Tree Films’ short film series, “Book of Stories,” with over forty short film productions, and next year, principal photography will begin on my first feature, “A Rain of Blood.” I have also published fiction with ATM Magazine and Smokelong Quarterly, poetry with Poems Niederngasse, Doll World Magazine, and Parnassus, non-fiction with @Internet Magazine and The Familiar Magazine, among others.

{This is all completely random. Writing scripts is interesting, but has nothing to do with writing novels, or my ability to do so. Neither does writing essays or poems– and the one thing that really matters, the fiction publications, are smooshed in with everything else.}

“Weston Boys” is my first novel, a literary piece in the vein of O’Neill’s “At Swim, Two Boys,” and Wolff’s “Old School.” I would like to submit it for your consideration; it’s complete at 75,511 words, and a full or partial manuscript is available on request. Thank you in advance for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

{This is also a mess. First of all, one does not call oneself literary- and I should have used the full name of the authors I’m namechecking. Second of all, I haven’t told this poor agent whether this is a picture book, YA fiction or adult mainstream fiction. Third of all, saying it’s complete is all the agent needs to know- they’ll ask for a full or partial based on their needs.}

Sincerely,

Saundra Mitchell

{I got that part right, at least!}

Saying Yes: The Art & Craft of Self-Promotion

Posted on by Saundra

As authors, we’re pressed to do more and more promotion on our own- and because we love our books best, we’re our own best advocates. Some people will tell you that your own efforts won’t make a difference.

But you can see where your book is being stocked as a direct result of your marketing. You will see the increased and regular traffic added to your website; and you’ll see it when booksellers and librarians you contacted return the favor. And when a house sees the effort you put into marketing, they’re often willing to invest more as well.

We can all raise the visibility of our books, and raising visibility is what marketing is. So let’s get started!

Point One: Online

Print publications dwindle, newspaper coverage for books shrinks, and everyone agrees that the Internet is the next new frontier for marketing books. But with such a vast resource, where do you start?

1. Bloggers

Since the advent of easy-to-use interfaces, bloggers of all sorts have flourished, but none so much as book bloggers. These bloggers have communities- they share not just reviews, but recommendations, actual books, regular features that discuss covers, trends, themes, and so much more. The Romance community is especially rich, and YA boasts a full-bodied community made up not just of adult writers and librarians, but of actual teen reviewers.

Reaching out to bloggers is your first, best step when it comes to promoting your own books. Make it a point to follow lots of blogs. Pay attention to those who read and like books like yours. Make a note of their review policies- and four to six weeks before your launch, query them. This is a business letter like any other- introduce yourself, pitch your book, offer a copy for review.

Be aware that the Internet is global. Though some sites give a bio that will tell you whether you’re mailing to Montgomery or Mumbai, most don’t. So be prepared to pay for international postage. In promoting my book, I’ve sent copies to every single continent except Antarctica.

And remember that even when you buy the book and pay postage, you’re not buying a good review- you’re not buying a review at all. Just because you send a book doesn’t mean they’ll ever read it. Or review it. Or review it positively. You can’t buy a review- but you can try to raise your visibility. That’ll help you keep some center when someone ignores or pans a book you mailed to them.

When: Start 4-6 weeks before your book comes out. Bloggers have big To Be Read piles, and to get your reviews to appear clustered around your launch, you need to start a little early- but not too early!

2. Giveaways

I think giveaways are the most effective tool you have in your Internet arsenal. LibraryThing and Goodreads will run giveaways for you, and many book bloggers will, too. Giveaways are full of so much good, I’m not even sure where to start with the extolling.

They raise visibility, especially when bloggers run them. Bloggers link to each other and many of them have an automatic feature that reposts headlines from other blogs on their sites. Sometimes, they give out extra entries for readers who link back to the contest- remember, the whole point is to raise visibility.

Then, get your book into the hands of actual readers, many of whom are reviewers themselves, or participants on review sites. And again, bad reviews will occur for even the best books. Nevertheless, I’ve seen time and time again people replying to a bad review with something like, “I’ve heard of this, I can’t wait to read it.”

This chill in the face of apparent disaster counts for spoilers, too. Although it makes me wildly crazy to see the ending of my mystery posted everywhere- visibility is visibility. Reinforcing your cover, reinforcing your title- that’s your ultimate goal, and if you get some awesome reviews out of it- that’s extra.

When: Goodreads/LibraryThing- start 4-6 weeks before your book debuts, or when you get author copies. Bloggers, start 2-3 weeks out.

3. Social Networking

This is the most contentious part of being an author online. Should you do it? How much should you do it? Where should you do it? And in the end, I feel like two things are true: social networking should be something you do for yourself, but if you genuinely enjoy it, it can be promotionally helpful.

The people you meet in debut groups and lit loops, on Facebook and Myspace, are also people who can point you toward opportunities you might have otherwise missed. And you can be that same person for other authors as well.

But I don’t want to say join everything! Be a hoover! Because hoovers, frankly, suck. Showing up just to scrape PR off of other people’s hard work and goodwill sucks, and we’ll talk smack about you. But if you find a community you love, where you make genuine friendships- you’re also going to find tons of amazing support and opportunity there.

When: Start when you get your contract, and keep on going.

Point Two: Offline

Again, promotion is all about raising visibility. You probably don’t have the contacts to get into print on your own (if you do, use them!) But you do have the ability to make sure the right people know your book exists. Besides readers, who are the right people?

1) Independent Booksellers.

Indies still account for the major motion in book sales for any author. They’re the pulse of the industry and you’re getting nowhere if you don’t have a pulse.

a) Postcards. While your publisher has a sales staff, they have a lot of books to push. You have one, so make the most of your indie outreach. Send at least 200 postcards to independents- to stores that specialize in your genre, and to general stores in your area. Most importantly, WRITE A NOTE. By hand.

While most postcards probably do get thrown out, you’re achieving two things: raising awareness because your cover is on the front of the postcard, right? And if they do read the note, you’re telling them why your book is ideal for their store. They want to sell books, so help them.

Tell them if you’re a local author, that your book is set in their hometown, that your book is perfect for Cat Lovers Books & News because it features tons of cats. Whatever you tell them- have a reason for sending that card that’s beyond simply “I have a book and I want you to sell it.”

If you have no compelling reason why your book fits their inventory, you’re wasting a stamp because they’re not wasting the shelf space.

When: After the catalogue in which your book is available is published. There is NO POINT in contacting booksellers until they can order your book.

b) Review Copies. People often wonder what they should do with the review copies their publishers send them. If you get tons and tons, by all means, have a giveaway. But if you get only a few, take them to your local indies. Introduce yourself, leave your book and leave your contact information. The chain stores take orders from a corporate headquarters, but your local indies are- well, independent.

These are relationships that will be valuable to both of you, and not just on launch. If you have a signing, it will probably be with an indie. If you have a launch party, you’ll want to have it at an indie. If you do school visits or corporate visits and you need someone on point for book sales- yup, that’s your local indie.

When: After the catalogue in which your book is available is published, and you have ARCs in hand.

2) Librarians.

Librarians are the other gatekeepers of the book world, and you can’t afford to ignore them. Libraries are major markets for books, and they’re direct access to readers. Again, always remember that promotion is about raising visibility.

Someone who reads your book at the library can still recommend your book to buying friends and family. They’ll be the ones to ask your library to buy future works by their favorite authors. Don’t ignore the libraries!

a) Postcards. Follow the same rules as you did for sending to indies, though for libraries, it’s a little simpler. Unless you’re independently wealthy, send postcards to all the libraries in your home state, and again, make sure you write a personal note on each one.

For YA and kids’ book authors, I’d also suggest sending postcards to every single school library in your town, in your market. (PB authors, don’t bother high schools. YA authors, forget the elementaries.) When reaching out to school libraries, make a note that you’re a local author and if you’re available for school visits.

When: After the catalogue in which your book is available is published. There is NO POINT in contacting librarians until they can order your book. For school libraries, keep in mind the school year. There’s no point in sending a postcard to an empty building, either!

Point Three: Outreach

Outreach is the trickiest part of self-promotion, because it requires you to be canny about your own market. And you’re required to think about your beautiful book as a product. Since every book is different, every outreach attempt must be different. And sometimes, you can’t tell whether they work- until they work. So rather than give you a specific plan, let me give you some general outreach ideas.

Market Outreach: Figure out who your audience is, and give them finished copies of your book. If your book is about martial arts, offer 10 copies to your local dojo, for example. If your book is about zombies, offer 10 copies to a local horror film group. Or, seek out book groups in your area, and offer copies to their members. People who love books enough to join books to talk about them also talk about books when they’re not at the club.

But here’s the pinch: you have to give them your book and walk away. Feel free to include ONE bookmark or ONE postcard with your URL or other information in each copy of the book, but you have to give up the goods and walk away. People don’t like to be pressured; they really dislike it when you’re pushy. Give readers the ability to follow up, but don’t require it.

When: When you get your finished author copies. Don’t use ARCs for this unless you have a metric buttload of ARCs.

Risk Outreach: Risk outreach is the most fun to do, but it’s also the biggest gamble. This is writing a letter to your favorite celebrity, and including it in a copy of your book. Or unstealing your book- leaving it in strange places for people to find. Or guerilla readings- getting up in the middle of the mall and reading from your book just on a whim.

It’s the long shot that you shouldn’t spend a lot of money on, but it’s a lot of fun if it pans out. Please don’t break the law when you do your risk outreach. Jailtime puts a serious crimp on an adrenaline rush. (Although it might get you some print inches…)

When: When you get your finished author copies.

Possibility Outreach: This is the craft of finding opportunity; this is the art of saying YES. Pay attention to the writing community, to your loops, to the trades. When an opportunity arises, say yes. Whenever possible, say yes.

Yes, you will judge a local book contest. Yes, you will write a few lines on what it’s like to be a writer. Yes, you will write a profile for yourself for the State Library.

If a popular blogger is hosting a blogiversary, YES, you will donate a prize. If a ‘zine is doing a theme week, YES, you will guest blog. Anytime, anywhere, that you can be visible, that you can make your book visible, say yes.

And I know some of you are hyperventilating now, so let me add the caveat: you don’t have to say yes to everything.

My family has limited means and single car- so I have to say no to lots of travel and appearance opportunities. But I can say YES to anything online. If you hate the Internet, you can say yes to events in person. Possibility Outreach is easy- all you have to do is say yes and follow through.

When: Anytime, but you want to concentrate your interviews, your blogs, your visibility in the 2 weeks leading up to your book’s release, and the 6 weeks after.

Finally-

To be honest, all marketing is possibility outreach. While it seems daunting, if you break it down into smaller parts- what can I do online? What can I do offline? What crazy thing can I do just because it might work?- it’s easier to manage.

We have so much lead time in publishing- instead of worrying about when your next revision letter comes, or when your copyedits will come, or when you’ll get news about the next step in the process- be the next step in the process.

I can do this. You can do this. Just say yes.