Because there seems to be a bit of confusion:
QUERY LETTER: A short, one-page letter sent to an edtior or agent, meant to interest them in your work. Should include:
1) mention of previous pertinent fiction publishing credits (if any, and do not lie about this). This means if you have published other novels or short stories to reasonably large markets.
2) title, approximate word count, truthful admission of whether or not it’s complete, and broad genre of book (no need to get into all the sub-sub-sub genres of your story here — plus it should be reasonably obvious from your description)
3) short, one-or two paragraph “blurb” style description of your story. Make it sound as snappy and intriguing as possiblem, like the descriptions you see on the back cover or inside flap of published books.
4) Other pertinent information:
(a) Platform: If you are uniquely suited to write this story, tell them. It’s a medical thriller and you’re a doctor. It’s a spy story and you’re retired from the CIA. It’s about secret societies at Yale and you went there. (Not platform: it’s about kids and you have kids, etc.) Other platforms include: you’re a syndicated columnist for a national newspaper, you have a website that receives thousands of unique hits a day, you have your own TV show, you’re a celebrity, you’re a politician, you’re the child of any of the above, etc.
(b) If the story in question has won awards, or if you have won really, really big awards for other stories.
(c) If a NYT bestselling author has offered to blurb the book (include quote).
(d) If you work in the publishing industry, or have an MFA, or are otherwise more into the fiction-writing scene.
Good rule of thumb for #4, if you think it’s something that would make YOU want to read a complete stranger’s book more than before, include it, If not, don’t.
Do not ever lie. Ever.
5) Thank them for their time, and don’t forget to include your contact information and an SASE.
6) The first five or so pages of your novel. (tell them to recycle). Some people don’t agree with me about this, but I say include a sample of your writing. I’ve never done this, but I’ve heard it a lot recently, and it makes really good sense to me.
COVER LETTER: a short one page letter sent with your requested submission materials. Should include:
1) Reminder to agent/editor what you are sending and why (e.g., “we met at the RWA national conference in Reno in July, where you requested my 80,000 word collegiate chick lit novel, SECRET SOCIETY GIRL,” “thank you so much for requesting my 80,000 word collegiate chick lit novel, SECRET SOCIETY GIRL, about an ordinary Ivy League Co-ed who just happens to be a member of one of the most powerful secret scoieties in the world,” or “Thank you so much for agreeing to read my novel, which my second cousin, your client Gertrude Weinerschnitzel, recently mentioned to you. TITLE is BLANK words long, and tells the story of BLANKET BLANK BLANK BLANK.”
2. Any “platformy” info from query.
3. “Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.”
4. Some people like to enclose a copy of the original query and/or request. This can’t hurt. Also, if you have been introduced by your second cousin Gertrude, include the whole two paragraph blurb.
5. Enclosed requested material.
SYNOPSIS: a description of what happens in your novel, from beginning to end. These really aren’t as painful as everyone makes them out to be.
1. Introduce your main characters, their goals, motivations, and conflicts. Breeze through the backgrounds in a sentence.
2. Hit the high points. No need to slavishly describe every scene in the novel. Cover the big turning points in the plot (what some call the tent poles), concetrating on who, what and why, and make it sound as smooth and seamless as possible. Pretend that you are telling a friend what happened in a great movie you just watched. For instance, if you are writing a synopsis for STAR WARS, it’s enough to say, “After Luke’s family is killed by stormtroopers in search of the two missing droids, Luke and Ben realize they need to escape the planet. They sneak into a nearby spaceport and hire rogueish smuggler Han Solo to take them off-world in his souped up ship.” You don’t really need to get into what happens at the bar in Mos Eiseley, you know?
3. Tell the whole story. Do not say, “and if you want to know what happens…” This is amateurish, and pisses people off. They do want to know what happens, and they want to know it up front.
4. Keep it as short as possible. A good rule of thumb is no more than 1 page for every 10k in your novel. I’ve written books from 60k to 115k, and my synopses are usually 7-8 pages long, though can be as small as four. It depends on how complicated your plot is. If you’ve got some huge epic fantasy with a lot of worldbuilding, it will probably be longer.
5. Double spaced.
So, are we all clear on the differences? Good!
November 29th, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Probably people will listen to you, due to the big contract and all, but I am constantly trying to get people to STOP saying “QS&3″ because if you’re sending a synopsis and three chapters, it’s NOT a query.
Also, I don’t advocate sending 5 pages unless you know the agent or editor is okay with it (i.e. Nancy Yost, I think it is) because, for example, if an agent-only house will accept unagented queries and you stick in five pages? They’ll rubber-band it back with a nice little note telling you that you broke the rules. I suspect that might get you on a blacklist, too, but I could be wrong about that.
November 30th, 2005 at 1:50 am
“QS&3?” Yeah, that’s annoying. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that, or if I did, then I blocked it our. How do you feel about “Q&S?” Isn’t that the Hq M.O.?
I do think that houses/agencies that HAVE specific guidelines about what to send (some agencies, for example, want to see proposals straight off) then you should send them exactly what they ask for. But many do not get so specific.
The “sample pages” advice was really meant to be for agent-queries (because, well, think you’re wasting your time sending query letters to agent-only houses at all) but… Blacklisted? Really? One of the editors that told me about this “stick in sample pages” thing was an editor from an agents-only submission house. Like I said, I’ve never done it, but I keep hearing about it with greater and greater frequency as being the way to do it, from all manner of trustworthy sources.
Perhaps we should run a poll? Nobody hsould listen to me “because of the big contract” — they should listen to me because I’m right,a nd if I’m wrong, they should totally call me out and say “show me sample pages that worked.” I know Liz maverick did it, and advocates the method, and a lot of agents say they want to see the writing sample, a few pages, witha query letter. But I think it might be poll time.
November 30th, 2005 at 9:37 am
do you honestly think these publishers and agents actually have the time and energy to spend keeping a “blacklist” list of people who haven’t played by “the rules?” that’s just ridiculous. they want good stories that will sell and make money. how you get it to them doesn’t matter.
kathy w.
November 30th, 2005 at 9:39 am
>>I know Liz maverick did it, and advocates the method, and a lot of agents say they want to see the writing sample, a few pages, witha query letter.< <
Liz has a whole seminar about breaking the rules and selling yourself and sending in sample pages with a query or what not. It worked for her, putting herself out there, being aggressive meeting agents and editors and sending in samples of her writing.
I agree with Kathy W. in that if it’s a good story, they’ll want to read it.
Just my two cents.
Marley = )
November 30th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Yeah, but, Diana, they should listen to ME ’cause I’m right, too, and they don’t.
They still call it a query when it’s not a query, it’s a cover letter on a partial. You have more clout, whether you should or not.
Do I think editors sit around cackling as they add a name in Sharpie to a permanent list? No. Do I think editors and agents recognize names of people who did something they didn’t like, and do I think that may cause them to look unfavorably on that person in the future? Yes, I think it’s possible. It depends on the editor (or agent).
Breaking the rules is all fine and good. I don’t follow them all myself. But I think everyone should know what they’re doing when they do it. For example, I can think of several agents who have posted on their blogs that if they didn’t say to send it, don’t send it. I’d hate to follow general advice that got me rebounded because I didn’t know the agent was a stickler. You know?
My opinion is also predicated on the fact that I am extremely, extremely picky about who I want as an agent. If I were sending 100 queries a month to agents, it wouldn’t matter if 75 of them deleted/rejected me because I sent five pages they didn’t want. But I’m not. I’ve never submitted to more than 6 or 8 specific agents, and right now there’s only one I want. So that makes a big difference in how the advice is viewed.
I also disagree quite heartily with the idea that “how you get it to them doesn’t matter.” It would be lovely if “a good story” was all that was necessary to get an agent, and to get published, but there are a lot of other factors involved. The infamous (now clichéd) manuscript-under-the-stall-door is going to work against you, for example, and if you piss them off right away, they’re never going to SEE the story to know how good it is.
November 30th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
I definitely see both sides of the issue, and while I wouldn’t say aspiring authors should never, ever send pages that aren’t specifically requested, I’ve generally preferred to err on the side of caution. I don’t believe there’s a “blacklist,” per se, I do believe editors and agents make mental lists of authors who do things that suggest they might be difficult to work with.
At the time I sold to Bombshell last spring, there were a couple other aspiring authors targeting the same line whose experiences were fairly parallel to mine. Similar number of requested manuscripts, a round or two of revisions, a painful rejection or two, and some long, LONG wait times. I know a lot of people would argue with me on this, but I really truly believe that the biggest reason I sold isn’t because I have any more talent than those other writers or that my story was particularly fantastic. I honestly believe I just did a better job of kissing ass, behaving myself, and making sure the editor(s) I was working with never had a reason to think of me as impatient or difficult to work with.
Now I’m not suggesting that I never would have sold a book if I’d slipped unrequested pages in with a submission. But why chance the possibility that an editor or agent will remember you as “that writer who’s trying to get away with something”?
November 30th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
Oh, and just for the record, I wasn’t suggesting Natalie (or Diana, for that matter) did anything at all to sabotage your changes with Bombshell. I know you both targeted that line at one time or another, and as far as I know, you’ve been nothing but professional and courteous and lovely to the editors you’ve dealt with. I’m also not suggesting that “good behavior” (yeah, ass-kissing) translates into instant publication. I’m just saying it helps. And aren’t we always in search of any bit of help we can get?
December 1st, 2005 at 12:30 pm
Tawna, thanks for the clarification. It’s funny, but I never thought you might be talking about me.
I guess I took Diana’s “it’s not all about you” post to heart.