Stand Out

With the economy dipping down low, there are obvious implications in the publishing industry. Everyone from agents to editors are going to be more careful about what projects and clients they take on. Nobody wants to take a risk when the business itself is already risky. They want a sure thing. They’re going to be searching for the professional newbie in the pile. The one who has done their research, is easy to work with, takes the time to ensure small mistakes are corrected and the like.

That means us aspiring types must take the time to personalize our queries, ensure our queries make sense and express in simple terms what our story is about. We have to showcase. We have to sell. Now is not the time to sit back and say, “I am so wonderful, they will come to me. They’ll ignore a few typos and ill placed adverbs because they’ll see how stellar my story is. My talent will speak for itself.” Not. Give it your best shot, folks. Dazzle them. Make them jump up from their desk and whoop in joy for finding someone who knows the business and has taken the extra few days or months to ensure their submission is A1.

Case in point, Kristen Nelson of The Nelson Literary Agency read 35,000 queries in this last year. Of that, she read 88 fulls and of that, found 2 new clients. 2 in 35,000. You heard right.

Make sure you stand out. Make sure you’re the best you can be.

Query La-La Land: A Pleasant Place to Visit

I hate writing queries. Have I mentioned that before? I was test driving some exercises for someone which was great. That is until I realized that now I have to apply it to my own query. Honestly, I am really hoping that by some fluke of god/nature/wizards falling out of trees/fairy godmothers granting random wishes/falling stars and all that other good, obscure and random stuff that I will not have to actually have to write a query and I won’t actually have to query around.

Ha!

It’s nice here in la-la land. We have mochas. And I do recommend the delusions, they are surprisingly tasty.

Queries: Head Spinning Out of Control

Well, yesterday I felt like I finally had it. Yes, I had it! I had the ultimate plot synopsis that was witty, funny and telling for my query letter. So, I posted it on AQ, my handy, dandy, trusting critique source for all things writing related.

Ack. Good feedback, but I have no hook! Can you believe it? After all that hook work and I don’t have a ‘real’ hook in the plot synopsis. Plus, they felt that I had left one of the most intriguing parts of the story as a minor incident and several suggested I make that the hook. Problem is, that means I will have to rewrite the whole thing.

And that means my head is spinning around and around and around…

Hooks

I’m getting to the point where I am just about ready to again, start querying for an agent. I’ve learned a lot and have improved my writing considerably since I last sent out queries about five months ago. I’m hopeful for the next round. I’ve even read Noah Lukeman’s book on how to write a good query. I’m going to be armed and dangerous this time, so watch out!

As part of preparing for querying, I have been working on my hook. I thought my hook before was pretty good, but it was bulky and didn’t say as much as it could have. The hook, if you are unfamiliar with the term, is a one sentence blurb about your story that contains the most important element of your story and should catch your reader’s interest and make them want to read more. It’s harder than it seems. Well, that’s not always true. For one or two of my stories it has been simple. But with the story I want to shop around, I’ve been so immersed in it that I have all the different themes and plots and subplots floating around in my head that it took me awhile to step back, look at it and say, ‘ah, there it is’. Now I think I have it.

Want to read the rough version of the latest hook? Here goes:

A lonely, trusting astrophysicist has what appears to be a picture perfect life, but under the surface her career and love life are slowly spiralling into a pit of humiliation, leaving her on the brink of desperation.

The $50,000 question (besides being is there such thing as a pit of humiliation?)is: is this hook actually interesting and going to intrigue anyone?