Lo! It's the Query Cat!

The Saturday Slash is a free query critique offered by my fabulous and talented writer friend, Mindy McGinnis a.k.a. Bigblackcat97 (for those following her on Twitter) a.k.a. BBC (as she is more fondly called on Agent Query Connect). I think I may have mentioned this here before.

But! I'm mentioning it again because I volunteered to have my query go under her hatchet.

Yep. Today. No kidding. My query is in the hands of the hatchet-wielding Query Cat. If you'd like to take a peek, or give me your 2 cents, or simply see if I've made a fool of myself, go here.

And while you're there, you should follow Mindy because she's fun and hilarious, and an all-around awesome person. Plus, her debut NOT A DROP TO DRINK is slated to come out Fall 2013 by Katherine Tegen/Harper Collins. Squeeness! Besides, her blog Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire is full of great info, agent interviews, author interviews, and random thoughts that could only come from a YA librarian with the best Angelina Jolie pout I've ever seen. :D

As I have mentioned many moons ago (heh. I was trying to see if I can squeeze "many moons" in one of my blog posts. Seems like today is the day!), I've finally entered the world of queries. If you've never queried before, and if you've seen other writers bemoaning the state of their query, you've probably thought to yourself, Come on, it can't be that hard.

Reality check: It IS hard.

So I'll share with you some tips to keep yourself sane.

1. Have a handy snack nearby.

Okay, I'm pregnant so I ALWAYS have a snack nearby. But you'll need it, too. You will spend HOURS staring at the screen, vacillating between including the word "that" or the adverb "mysteriously", and hey, should I include my protagonist's pet dog who was there fighting off the alien-monster-werewolf-hybrid attacking the city?

2. Start by laying down the answers to these questions:

WHO is your protagonist?
WHAT does he/she want?
WHAT/WHO is getting in their way of obtaining their goal?

The answers may not reveal you your hook line necessarily, but they will give you an idea of where the focus of your query should be. And it should ALWAYS be on your protagonist. Not the pet dog, no matter how adorable he is.

3. The less character names and places, the better.

If you start giving us the cast of characters  right away, we WILL get confused.

Annah and Brock have been best friends for a long time, until Annah's sister Michelle, starts dating Brock. Tensions rise between the siblings. Even Sparky, Annah's trusty pet dog, senses the discord. But when an alien-monster-werewolf-hybrid mysteriously appears one night, Annah may have to push aside her resentment, and aid her sister and her best friend in fending off the unwanted visitor. As the alien-monster-werewolf-hybrid lashes havoc on their city, despite Sparky's valiant efforts to protect the sisters, Annah and Brock are separated from Michelle...

I could go on and on with this fake query, but really, it's so convoluted I'm getting a migraine. Time for a snack...

4. NO rhetorical questions. EVER.

What would you do if the fate of the world rests on your shoulders?

Agent: Erm...yikes. *cringes* Employs form rejection button.

5. Make sure to PROOFREAD for typos and grammatical errors. Then have someone else take a look at it.

And finally, when you are ready to send:

~Don't send out a mass email to the agents you are querying.

~Don't address the letter as such:
      To Whom It May Concern:
       Dear Agent,

~In other words, know who you are querying and address them by their names.

~Research. Most of the time, I see literary agents tweet about passing on a query because they don't rep the genre. Only query those who represent the genre of your novel. Please. If you do, you're saving the agent's time, and helping out all of the other writers who are following submission guidelines properly.

~FOLLOW submission guidelines. This should be a no-brainer. Most agencies have their own website. You can also check AgentQuery.com or QueryTracker.net for more info on a particular agent.

~Be polite. Always. If you get rejected, don't respond by emailing the agent back with rage and
mindless threats. It's not personal. Just take a deep breath, and move forward.

~Be professional. This is a business, after all.

~And be very, very patient. Getting responses can take a loooong time (sometimes, you don't ever get a response.)
Good luck!

If you haven't seen me around the blogosphere, blame it on the QUERY. Such a simple word, and to someone who doesn't write, it simply means a question, or an inquiry. But if you present this word to a writer, expect this:

Photo by hang_in_there

 Or this:

Photo by surlygirl

Or maybe just something like this:

Photo by libertygrace0

Luckily for me, I have my writer friends to keep me sane. And AGENT QUERY CONNECT. Seriously, you need a query critique? Get thee to their forum, now! And don't forget to pay it forward by helping others with their query. We all know that good karma is highly useful in the querying business...well, it's not to guarantee you an agent request, but to get good, constructive feedback from other writers.

Also, the fabulous and pouty-lipped Mindy McGinnis or BBC or bigblackcat97 or... (I swear this woman has a lot of names!) of Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire has a regular Saturday Slash  where she grapples with your query and chops it down with a hatchet. Minus the blood and gore.

And then of course, there's Query Shark. But only go there if you have guts. Sharks like guts, right? (Alright, bad pun.)

Good luck with your querying endeavors, my good people! I'll just be right over here, tinkering with my own query. Ciao!

I've come across this word recently among writers. Branding. What does it mean for us? We're not, after all, a can of tuna needing a brand on grocery store shelves.

If you were to read a book without a cover and a title, or the author's name, would you know who wrote it? If you were to come across a single page of words, would you know where it came from?

Branding is unavoidably linked to Voice. Yikes, you say. Here we go again, talking about the undefinable, elusive, water-in-a-colander VOICE. Because it's true--if you read other writers' blogs, you're bound to find a post or two on Voice. You can find a good article on this subject here by Joyce Alton. Also here. And if that's not enough to whet or kill your appetite, here's one more.

So, you ask, are we really discussing Branding or Voice?

From The Write Angle's post asserted that Voice is no longer limited to the manuscript. The query letter has to have voice. And it's true--I've seen a few queries that are impeccably clean and follow the 3-paragraph rule, but are sadly lacking voice and therefore, become sterile. Flat. Unappealing. Then you have those jaw-dropping rule-breakers who get away with it because their BRAND, their VOICE showed through and caught the agent's attention.

I'd like to add to this and ask: Since our mss and query letters have to have Voice, does this mean our synopses should too? I'll let you mull on that one.

Back to our BRAND....

With all kinds of social media at our fingertips, getting our brand out there is easier than ever. The question is: What is YOUR brand? How do you portray yourself? How do you deliver your tuna goodness to the masses? If they see a page of your writing, will they recognize it as yours?

Think about it the next time you're shopping your ms.

From Creative Tools