I've mentioned once or twice that my serious journey as a writer began in January 2007. Three months later, my manuscript was finished and I was eager to send it off to get published. Let me pause to laugh.
Okay, so truth be told, I did "polish" it for a few months before I sent my first queries. I put "polish" in quotes because I would not let anyone see those copies today. I hang my head in shame for giving a copy to my best friend and asking her to read it. (Sorry!! So sorry!!) Wow. And I actually sent pages from that out to agents and a publishing company.
Need I say rejections did follow? Did I really need a rhetorical question there? Should I answer that?
Rhetorical question - What is something you should never start your query letter off with for 800 dollars, Mr. Trebek? Correct. I got that part right. I did my homework when it came to writing a query letter. I just didn't know how to finish a manuscript.
And so, here I am, finally ready to call what was once nothing more than a barely edited rough draft a polished piece of work, and am ready to leap back into the agent hunt. Anyone who has ever been in my place can sympathize with the query letter jitters. My Facebook status this morning requested bug killer for the butterflies in my stomach.
I have read my manuscript hundreds of times over the years, editing, redrafting, editing, and redrafting some more. Friends and colleagues have read it and offered advice, some story-based and some grammatically/editorial-based, and all greatly appreciated. I've done tons of research on the subject matter within the story and the publishing industry alike. I'm as confident in my story and my abilities as a writer as I can be right now. I realize there's always room for growth, and I welcome that, but I can't procrastinate forever to keep on growing.
My problem rests within my query letter. I sent out six queries during that first (and only) naive round. My third was to Nathan Bransford, (my then dream agent) who requested a partial. Nathan Bransford requested a partial based on that query letter and I sent him 33 pages of what I consider to be an awful manuscript! O_O I received a very nice, personal rejection soon thereafter. He even said I was a talented writer. (Thank you very much!)
So...back to the rhetorical questions (although, since I could use an answer, I suppose this one isn't really rhetorical). Do I stick with my original query letter or do I use one of the new incarnations I've created since then?
4 comments:
I was all pumped to read your new blog entry and to leave a comment & then I read your blog entry and realized that I have no knowledge of the subject matter and any comment that I have on the matter is sheer guesswork. So take this with a grain of salt but I would read over the original query letter and if it still feels like a winner, send it out as it.
I'm so glad I'm organized! I didn't realize just how many times I've changed my query letter over the years. (I saved every one of them with a date. My computer found, um, let's over 100 copies, that sounds reasonable enough. ^^' ~ 'it was way more.' Yeah - organized may be an understatement.)
The original one was very simple - a teaser intro followed by a one paragraph synopsis of the story, and a then quick thank you. My gut is telling me that a simple letter like that can work in certain situations, but that it doesn't offer enough representation for the story's complexities. Instead of sticking with one letter, I'm going take each submission at a time and tweak it as necessary and by the guideline submissions. Either way, by the end of tomorrow, possibly today, I'll have a submission out there.
It sounds like your approach is very reasonable and well thought out. I will be thinking happy "Secret Agent Man" thoughts for you. :)
Domo Arigato Gozaimasu, Nerd Girl-Chan! ^_^
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