For some of you who don’t know, I am the chapter President of Chicago North RWA. It is a great group and I have learned so much through the group. The mission of the chapter is to support our members on their writing journey and in their publishing careers.
Lately we have been incorporating publishing terminology into our chapter meetings to expand the knowledge to the group. I thought it might be a good idea to share some of those definitions with you each week and give you some examples when I can. So, without further ado…
Query or Query letter — a letter addressed to an editor that inquires about a publishing program's policy for receiving manuscripts, or a letter to an editor that accompanies a manuscript (partial or full) and synopsis for review by the addressed editor.
Here is a sample of what I put in my query letter for Ordinary Me book:
While behind the wheel during driver’s ed, high school sophomore Kate Sterns inadvertently foils an escaped convict’s getaway. When her heroic actions land her face on the front page of the Wainscott Gazette, she thinks her life is over, and it is, at least her life as an ordinary anyway. Overnight she is plucked from the ordinaries and plopped into the “in crowd.” At first Kate is in denial of her status change, but then she likes it, that is until she’s labeled a snob, her locker gets trashed and one other minor thing-- she’s being stalked.
The philosophy that writing about high school experiences, to show that so called freaks in high school can turn out normal, inspired me to write Ordinary Me, a 41,000 word young adult book. Being a high school survivor myself, I strongly agree with this wisdom and I believe Ordinary Me will not disappoint as Kate muddles through the obstacles and triumphs of her sudden notoriety.
Thank you in advance for you time and consideration.
******
Here are some other sites for more information on queries:
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/search/label/queries
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/
http://www.agentquery.com/
Have a great week!
Best,
June
www.junesproat.com
5 comments:
That was a good post with some great information. Thank you.
Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com
Thanks, Marilyn!!
June
For some "hands on" looks at query letters, I'd add Query Shark to your list.
I placed an example of a query and how to lay out your book to an editor or agent here on ACME and it is archived and quite useful, and it is important that people understand the nuances of terms like these, so thanks Marilyn for bringing this subject to us now. A great book that covers this territory too is my DEAD ON WRITING found both on Kindle as ebook and paper book from wordclay.
I placed an example of a query and how to lay out your book to an editor or agent here on ACME and it is archived and quite useful, and it is important that people understand the nuances of terms like these, so thanks Marilyn for bringing this subject to us now. A great book that covers this territory too is my DEAD ON WRITING found both on Kindle as ebook and paper book from wordclay.
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