Monday, June 27, 2011

Dear goodness, another query???

Hey, I've made another revision of my query letter!  Just thought that I would show that I'm still working to make it better.  After taking a couple of classes and dragging my friends into editing for me (Thanks especially to Jess, Kat, and Gwyn!), I've made a yet another version.
You know what's crazy?  I'm still not satisfied with it.  I want to know more about my female lead.  BUT, it does address several main issues.  It's under 250 words; it introduces the book first; it demonstrates the conflict and doesn't bog the reader down in a multitude of subplots.  The entire purpose of a query letter is to get the agent to ask for more.  It's the synopsis that actually tells the story; the query is just a hook.  But still...  Maybe it's just perfectionism, but chances are, you'll see another version soon enough, if this one doesn't start getting responses (and quickly!)

By the way, a good query letter should supposedly net you at least an 80% request rate.  If it doesn't, you're supposed to rewrite it.  Mine didn't.  So, I took a few classes and rewrote it.  Wish me luck!

How many versions has your query gone through?  Have you ever taken a class, or found a book, that made the difference between a form rejection and a manuscript request?  And what was your biggest error?

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