Query Letters
Sep. 19th, 2022 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingFormer agency intern insights on querying!
https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/comments/wwnacl/discussion_former_agency_intern_insights_on/
This will differ per the agency, but due to the volume, we were not required to read the whole letter. If we lost interest or the letter was poorly written, we could ditch at any time. Taking our 700 queries a month as an example, I probably tossed 150 of them BEFORE I even got to the blurb because a) the writing in the introductory paragraph was incomprehensible, b) the writer was a complete jerk (this happens so much more than you'd think), c) the writer had absolutely no confidence (woe is me, you'll hate this anyway, you'll never read this). Agents don't want to work with people who can't follow the rules. They also don't want to work with pity-partiers or egomaniacs. So those went to the trash before we even read the blurb. My advice: don't ruin your chances by writing a shitty opening paragraph. And get the agent's name right at least.
This is solid advice for all walks of life.
For what it's worth, I have two very good (I like to think) query letters for two novels that don't exist yet. I can sound like a professional while targeting the specific expertise of individual agents to explain what's unique, interesting, and marketable about my stories, I just... you know... need to write the actual novels.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/comments/wwnacl/discussion_former_agency_intern_insights_on/
This will differ per the agency, but due to the volume, we were not required to read the whole letter. If we lost interest or the letter was poorly written, we could ditch at any time. Taking our 700 queries a month as an example, I probably tossed 150 of them BEFORE I even got to the blurb because a) the writing in the introductory paragraph was incomprehensible, b) the writer was a complete jerk (this happens so much more than you'd think), c) the writer had absolutely no confidence (woe is me, you'll hate this anyway, you'll never read this). Agents don't want to work with people who can't follow the rules. They also don't want to work with pity-partiers or egomaniacs. So those went to the trash before we even read the blurb. My advice: don't ruin your chances by writing a shitty opening paragraph. And get the agent's name right at least.
This is solid advice for all walks of life.
For what it's worth, I have two very good (I like to think) query letters for two novels that don't exist yet. I can sound like a professional while targeting the specific expertise of individual agents to explain what's unique, interesting, and marketable about my stories, I just... you know... need to write the actual novels.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-23 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-24 12:57 pm (UTC)For real, though.
Still, the odds aren't great. This just means that you have to be the 1 in 1000 instead of the 1 in 8000. Apparently people wrote a lot of novels during the pandemic.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-27 04:15 am (UTC)I'm still not sure I even want to be traditionally published, but it's still worth keeping in mind, I guess.