rynling: (Mog Toast)
[personal profile] rynling
Former 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.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

Profile

rynling: (Default)
Rynling R&D

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1 23456 7
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 10th, 2025 01:14 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios