Here are the rest of your questions from my querying/getting an agent Q&A:
Susan Fields said...
My question: I've heard that queries should be extremely short and to the point, yet often when I read a magazine article on queries that worked, they're pretty lengthy. What's a good word count for a query?
Different agents will tell you different things on word count. Some agents I queried had exact word count requirements of 200 words or something like that (yikes!). I think the best way to make sure your query isn't too long is to keep your "pitch" to two paragraphs, and if the whole letter can all fit on one printed page (formatted correctly -- no 8 point font and 1/4 inch borders), then you are good to go.
Can I ask another question? If not, just disregard. :) Say you get that call from an agent offering representation. Do you then email the other agents who are considering partials and fulls and tell them you have an offer and give them a deadline?
YES! You do exactly that. And usually you give them one week.
Kristine said... Great contest Sara--I'm getting in under the wire here. Here's my questions--I've done some work-for-hire and had a few things published. Is that impressing an agent? Or should I downplay it in my query?Thanks again for the opportunity.
Hmmm... I think it depends on what it was and how widely circulated your work was. I think it's good to show them you have some experience, but I wouldn't make it sound like a big deal (unless it was!). If it was a small local magazine or something, I'd mention it in your bio section, but just briefly. If it was a national magazine or publication, and particularly if it relates to the subject/genre you are querying, then you should make a bigger deal out of it. Does that make sense? I'm not the expert on this, so definitely do some more research on it before taking my word for it.
Rachel Searles said... Thanks for offering this contest! My question: how many people did you have critique your query before you sent it out?
The first time? Um... none? Yeah, I was a total greenie. I had no clue what I was doing other than having read Stephenie Meyer's website about how she bought Guide to Literary Agents, picked her top 15 or something like that, and sent off her queries. Bam! Instant millionaire. So I figured, I could do the same thing. As I've detailed in my "path to getting an agent" series last year, though I did get interest that first round, it didn't work out. Then I got smart and started getting help. I had about 5-6 people critique my queries after that every time. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Definitely don't make the mistakes I did!
I hope this series has been helpful and interesting! Thank you again for your questions. Happy Monday everyone!
Showing posts with label query hints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label query hints. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
We're almost there...
I have just one set of questions left (after today's). Thank you so much everyone who participated, and I hope you've found this series of Q&A helpful.
Danyelle said... Thanks for your generosity. :)Question: If you have more than one offer of representation, how do you handle telling the other agents that you didn't pick?
After you have carefully made an informed decision on which agent is best for you, the best way to let the other agents know is to send them a professional and kind email letting them know of your decision. Unless you feel like you had a closer relationship throughout the process that would necessitate a phone call. But usually, an email is sufficient.
Theresa Milstein said... Since we often send queries with pages, how do we know when it's the query or the pages or other?
I'm assuming you're asking when should you send pages and when should you just send the query? This is where your research becomes very important. Find the most up to date information on the agent you are querying (through agentquery.com, their websites, etc.). They will tell you what they want. However, if an agent says "query only," I'd usually send the first page with it (pasted in the email) so they could see a small sample of my writing and include a sentence that said, "I am also including a one-page excerpt from ____." (Or something like that.) I had a couple of author friends recommend I do that, and I found it was generally a good thing.
Brooke said... Great contest and thank you for your generosity!My question is what happens if you have more than one project ready to query?
In my opinion and from what I know, I say you pick the one that you think is the best, and you only query that one. (As long as they are the same genre or "age group"--aka, both YA, or both non-ficton, etc. so the same agent could represent both of them.) Once you have an agent interested, then you can tell them about your other project. However, I've had someone else tell me recently that she disagrees and thinks you should let them know in the query that you have another one ready. Everything I ever read or have heard is NOT to do that, but she is a knowledgeable person and says she's had success with it. So you may want to research that one a little bit more.
We're half way through the week, and so far mine has been awesome. I can only hope the trend continues! How about you? Is January 2011 treating you well?
Danyelle said... Thanks for your generosity. :)Question: If you have more than one offer of representation, how do you handle telling the other agents that you didn't pick?
After you have carefully made an informed decision on which agent is best for you, the best way to let the other agents know is to send them a professional and kind email letting them know of your decision. Unless you feel like you had a closer relationship throughout the process that would necessitate a phone call. But usually, an email is sufficient.
Theresa Milstein said... Since we often send queries with pages, how do we know when it's the query or the pages or other?
I'm assuming you're asking when should you send pages and when should you just send the query? This is where your research becomes very important. Find the most up to date information on the agent you are querying (through agentquery.com, their websites, etc.). They will tell you what they want. However, if an agent says "query only," I'd usually send the first page with it (pasted in the email) so they could see a small sample of my writing and include a sentence that said, "I am also including a one-page excerpt from ____." (Or something like that.) I had a couple of author friends recommend I do that, and I found it was generally a good thing.
Brooke said... Great contest and thank you for your generosity!My question is what happens if you have more than one project ready to query?
In my opinion and from what I know, I say you pick the one that you think is the best, and you only query that one. (As long as they are the same genre or "age group"--aka, both YA, or both non-ficton, etc. so the same agent could represent both of them.) Once you have an agent interested, then you can tell them about your other project. However, I've had someone else tell me recently that she disagrees and thinks you should let them know in the query that you have another one ready. Everything I ever read or have heard is NOT to do that, but she is a knowledgeable person and says she's had success with it. So you may want to research that one a little bit more.
We're half way through the week, and so far mine has been awesome. I can only hope the trend continues! How about you? Is January 2011 treating you well?
Monday, January 10, 2011
More answers, and a darling new niece!
Time for more answers to your questions!
Kathryn said...
Wondering how your husband reacted when you signed with an agent! What was your family's reaction? :) My husband was SO excited. He knew how badly I wanted this and how hard I had worked to get to that point. He'd seen me at the breaking point, when I was so beaten down with rejection that I didn't know if I could handle even one more. He also saw me when I was so excited about the most recent requests or feedback or revision. When it finally happened, I was almost in shock with disbelief that I'd finally achieved my goal. He on the other hand was jumping up and down, yelling in excitement, lifting me off of my feet and swinging me in circles. My family was also very excited, but not so much that they lifted me off of my feet. ;)
Emy Shin said...
These are great advice! A question, hmm... Did you have a process for querying? Did you query all agents at once, or send five queries, wait a week, then send five more, etc.?
Definitely don't query all the agents on your list at once. But I do believe in doing it in chunks. I'd say five - ten at a time. I usually sent out a chunk every monday morning, and see what kind of responses I got. One thing I did do though, was whenever I got a particularly heartbreaking rejection, I'd send out a new query right away (or maybe a couple) to give myself new hope. It was one way I coped with disappointment--focus on the possibility of the future instead of the failings of the past.
Nicole Zoltack said...
Queries always need to be tweaked so I would love to win!My question: How do you know when your query is ready? Oh boy, this is a tricky one. Especially since I was often tweaking my query between every round of queries I sent out! But what I would usually do is have a few new people read it whenever I thought it was ready (on top of my CPs), and based on how they reacted I would decide. Another thing I did sometimes (when I was feeling really brave), was to call up a friend and read them my query as if it was the back of a book at a store to ask them if they thought it sounded good. I'm sorry I'm not much help on this one. Basically, get it to where you think it accomplishes your goal (concisely and intriguingly surmises your book), and then have the courage to send it out.
Wondering how your husband reacted when you signed with an agent! What was your family's reaction? :) My husband was SO excited. He knew how badly I wanted this and how hard I had worked to get to that point. He'd seen me at the breaking point, when I was so beaten down with rejection that I didn't know if I could handle even one more. He also saw me when I was so excited about the most recent requests or feedback or revision. When it finally happened, I was almost in shock with disbelief that I'd finally achieved my goal. He on the other hand was jumping up and down, yelling in excitement, lifting me off of my feet and swinging me in circles. My family was also very excited, but not so much that they lifted me off of my feet. ;)
Emy Shin said...
These are great advice! A question, hmm... Did you have a process for querying? Did you query all agents at once, or send five queries, wait a week, then send five more, etc.?
Definitely don't query all the agents on your list at once. But I do believe in doing it in chunks. I'd say five - ten at a time. I usually sent out a chunk every monday morning, and see what kind of responses I got. One thing I did do though, was whenever I got a particularly heartbreaking rejection, I'd send out a new query right away (or maybe a couple) to give myself new hope. It was one way I coped with disappointment--focus on the possibility of the future instead of the failings of the past.
Nicole Zoltack said...
Queries always need to be tweaked so I would love to win!My question: How do you know when your query is ready? Oh boy, this is a tricky one. Especially since I was often tweaking my query between every round of queries I sent out! But what I would usually do is have a few new people read it whenever I thought it was ready (on top of my CPs), and based on how they reacted I would decide. Another thing I did sometimes (when I was feeling really brave), was to call up a friend and read them my query as if it was the back of a book at a store to ask them if they thought it sounded good. I'm sorry I'm not much help on this one. Basically, get it to where you think it accomplishes your goal (concisely and intriguingly surmises your book), and then have the courage to send it out.
And now for your viewing pleasure, I'd like to introduce my beautiful new niece Zoey!!
Isn't she darling? I'm so in love.
And thank you for all of your wishes on SonB's birthday party. It went awesome! He loved all of it (including his cake), so hurray for success!
Did you all have a good weekend?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Return... of the answers to your questions!
Okay, well let's get back to it, shall we? Since I took a two week break, I didn't finish answering all of your great questions regarding querying and finding an agent. Here are a couple more:
Jennie Bailey asked:
How do you whittle your book down to one small paragraph without leaving anything important out? Do you give away your ending? Or keep it secret? I'll be querying by Spring, but I have so much trouble with narrowing it down and getting to the good stuff (yes, I've tried a few times just for practice)!
Technically, you can whittle it down to two paragraphs, maybe even three if they're on the short side. But I understand what you mean. It is really hard to take a huge, 70,000 word novel (give or take ten or twenty thousand words) into a query. That is one reason I say start your query before you write the book if possible. That is when you have your core idea but not all of the details swimming around in your head yet. You will most likely edit and change it once you write the book, but at least you will have a good starting place. If you've already written the book you have to ask yourself two questions: who is my main character (the query should only focus on their story, no supporting cast allowed if at all possible), and what is my hook? The hook is what is going to grab an agent's attention. This is not the place to try and show them how intricate your plot is, or the number of twists you've thrown in. You don't want to confuse them by naming too many characters in those two short paragraphs. It is also not the place to reveal your ending. Save that for a synopsis. Take some of your favorite books and read the jacket copy or back of the book blurb. Which ones sound the best to you? That's basically what you are trying to accomplish with your query. Keep it simple, intriguing--stick to your basic plot and hook, and you've got a query.
Alexia asked:
Question: When you get THE CALL, if your brain goes completely blank from mega freaking out excitement, what is the one question you should not forget to ask? Sorry, that's probably totally unfair. No pressure :)
Ha ha, well, I'm going to cheat on this answer so I don't feel any pressure at all. This is why you PRINT OFF YOUR LIST. Your brain will freak out, and you will go blank, and you will have that lovely sheet of paper right there, with all of your questions printed on it, and a pen or pencil in your other hand to write down their answers (or at least jot down notes). Problem solved. But if for some truly horrible, awful, (really, really bad) reason you can't find your paper, I'd say the most important question is to ask them what their thoughts and goals are for your book. That's kind of squishing the "tell me what edits you envision for my book, or is it ready to submit right now?" question together with the, "do you already have an idea of who you are going to submit my book to, and how soon do you hope we'll be ready to go on submission?" questions into one. Honestly, just make sure and be prepared and have your paper ready. They will set up an appointment with you, so it won't take you by surprise or anything.
Well, that's it for now. More to come soon!
Jennie Bailey asked:
How do you whittle your book down to one small paragraph without leaving anything important out? Do you give away your ending? Or keep it secret? I'll be querying by Spring, but I have so much trouble with narrowing it down and getting to the good stuff (yes, I've tried a few times just for practice)!
Technically, you can whittle it down to two paragraphs, maybe even three if they're on the short side. But I understand what you mean. It is really hard to take a huge, 70,000 word novel (give or take ten or twenty thousand words) into a query. That is one reason I say start your query before you write the book if possible. That is when you have your core idea but not all of the details swimming around in your head yet. You will most likely edit and change it once you write the book, but at least you will have a good starting place. If you've already written the book you have to ask yourself two questions: who is my main character (the query should only focus on their story, no supporting cast allowed if at all possible), and what is my hook? The hook is what is going to grab an agent's attention. This is not the place to try and show them how intricate your plot is, or the number of twists you've thrown in. You don't want to confuse them by naming too many characters in those two short paragraphs. It is also not the place to reveal your ending. Save that for a synopsis. Take some of your favorite books and read the jacket copy or back of the book blurb. Which ones sound the best to you? That's basically what you are trying to accomplish with your query. Keep it simple, intriguing--stick to your basic plot and hook, and you've got a query.
Alexia asked:
Question: When you get THE CALL, if your brain goes completely blank from mega freaking out excitement, what is the one question you should not forget to ask? Sorry, that's probably totally unfair. No pressure :)
Ha ha, well, I'm going to cheat on this answer so I don't feel any pressure at all. This is why you PRINT OFF YOUR LIST. Your brain will freak out, and you will go blank, and you will have that lovely sheet of paper right there, with all of your questions printed on it, and a pen or pencil in your other hand to write down their answers (or at least jot down notes). Problem solved. But if for some truly horrible, awful, (really, really bad) reason you can't find your paper, I'd say the most important question is to ask them what their thoughts and goals are for your book. That's kind of squishing the "tell me what edits you envision for my book, or is it ready to submit right now?" question together with the, "do you already have an idea of who you are going to submit my book to, and how soon do you hope we'll be ready to go on submission?" questions into one. Honestly, just make sure and be prepared and have your paper ready. They will set up an appointment with you, so it won't take you by surprise or anything.
Well, that's it for now. More to come soon!
Monday, December 20, 2010
One last question
Happy Monday everyone!
I hope you are all having a wonderful December, and Holiday season. I love this time of year so much. Sometimes it can end up being stressful if we spread ourselves too thin, and I'm trying to avoid that. I am going to answer one more question on querying (from my contest/post last Monday), and then I'm going to take a break for the rest of the Christmas/New Year holidays. I want to spend the next couple of weeks focusing on my family, and making this a really fun break for my son who is now out of school until January. I will miss you all, and may break down and pop in a few times. We'll see. ;)
So, here's Jennie Bailey's question:
How do you whittle your book down to one small paragraph without leaving anything important out? Do you give away your ending? Or keep it secret?
Often the best way to do this is to write your query BEFORE you write your book. If you try to write it then, the idea is still at its core elements (usually), and you won't have all the details that come later confusing and befuddling you. You'll end up revising it, I can almost guarantee it, but you'll have a great start. If you've already written your book, the best thing to do is to focus on only one character--your main character, none of the supporting cast should appear unless absolutely necessary. Then decide what is his/her main conflict--aka, what is your hook? That is what your write your query on, and that's IT. You don't reveal the ending in a query, that is for a synopsis. Your query should really be no longer than two paragraphs for the book and one paragraph for your bio (if you have one). The query isn't intended to show all your complex plotting, and twists and turns, etc. Go find some of your favorite books, and read the jacket copy. Notice how different they are, and try and figure out which ones grab your attention the most. Or, you could go to the bookstore and try this. Find a bunch of different books you haven't read yet and try reading their jacket copy. Which ones grab your attention the most and make you want to buy it? What is the difference? That's basically what you're trying to accomplish. A short, concise, intriguing two paragraph letter that will grab an agent's attention. Also, the query should show the M.C.'s voice, so sometimes it works to write it in first person when you're drafting it, then switch it to third when you revise it.
I hope that helps! I could keep going and going, but I better get going on entertaining my kids! (Who are currently being entertained by the Disney Channel while I write this.) I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I will "see you" in 2011!
I hope you are all having a wonderful December, and Holiday season. I love this time of year so much. Sometimes it can end up being stressful if we spread ourselves too thin, and I'm trying to avoid that. I am going to answer one more question on querying (from my contest/post last Monday), and then I'm going to take a break for the rest of the Christmas/New Year holidays. I want to spend the next couple of weeks focusing on my family, and making this a really fun break for my son who is now out of school until January. I will miss you all, and may break down and pop in a few times. We'll see. ;)
So, here's Jennie Bailey's question:
How do you whittle your book down to one small paragraph without leaving anything important out? Do you give away your ending? Or keep it secret?
Often the best way to do this is to write your query BEFORE you write your book. If you try to write it then, the idea is still at its core elements (usually), and you won't have all the details that come later confusing and befuddling you. You'll end up revising it, I can almost guarantee it, but you'll have a great start. If you've already written your book, the best thing to do is to focus on only one character--your main character, none of the supporting cast should appear unless absolutely necessary. Then decide what is his/her main conflict--aka, what is your hook? That is what your write your query on, and that's IT. You don't reveal the ending in a query, that is for a synopsis. Your query should really be no longer than two paragraphs for the book and one paragraph for your bio (if you have one). The query isn't intended to show all your complex plotting, and twists and turns, etc. Go find some of your favorite books, and read the jacket copy. Notice how different they are, and try and figure out which ones grab your attention the most. Or, you could go to the bookstore and try this. Find a bunch of different books you haven't read yet and try reading their jacket copy. Which ones grab your attention the most and make you want to buy it? What is the difference? That's basically what you're trying to accomplish. A short, concise, intriguing two paragraph letter that will grab an agent's attention. Also, the query should show the M.C.'s voice, so sometimes it works to write it in first person when you're drafting it, then switch it to third when you revise it.
I hope that helps! I could keep going and going, but I better get going on entertaining my kids! (Who are currently being entertained by the Disney Channel while I write this.) I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I will "see you" in 2011!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Thinking postive for 2011
So, all you out there in the query trenches (or hoping to enter them soon), let's step back from all the fears and worries that accompany hitting send on those emails (or putting the stamp on the letters). Let's assume that 2011 is going to be YOUR year! The year you get an agent! The year all your dreams come true! How many more exclamation points can I use?!
Ahem. Anyway, so yes, let's think positive, shall we? Good. Now, what do you do when that call comes--the one where an agent tells you why they love your book enough to offer to represent you? Do you immediately scream, "Yes! Yes! Please, please send me the contract right now, I will Fed-Ex it back to you tonight!!" (See, don't ever doubt my ability to throw in more exclamation points.) By the way, the answer is NO. Big N. O. As tempting as it is to just accept the first offer you get, you need to take some time and truly make sure this agent is a good fit for you. You should have some questions prepared to ask them, and you should be prepared to give the other agents who are considering your partials or fulls a week to see if they also want to offer or not. To many of you this will be familiar territory, but to some, you might be hyperventilating right now, thinking I've lost it.
I promise I haven't. So this week, I'm going to do two posts relating to this subject: one on Wednesday about what to look for in a prospective agent, and on Friday I am going to be announcing the winners to my contest and answering some of your questions. Wait--"what contest?" you might be asking. This one:
As my Christmas present to you, I am going to offer to critique two follower's query letters. Because let's face it, you're not going to get to that agent call, if your query doesn't generate some requests, right? I'm not claiming to be an expert, but after a couple of years in those trenches I got pretty good at queries. I'm making it really easy to enter this time. Just comment on this post with one question you'd like me to answer about queries or picking an agent or something else about the query process, and you are entered! The random number generator will pick two lucky (well, hopefully my critique will be good enough to make you think you're lucky) winners to email me their queries on Friday morning. You have until Thursday night at 10:00 pm MST to enter. I know it's not as cool as a gift card, or a Kindle or something, but hopefully it will be helpful.
Happy Monday and good luck!
Ahem. Anyway, so yes, let's think positive, shall we? Good. Now, what do you do when that call comes--the one where an agent tells you why they love your book enough to offer to represent you? Do you immediately scream, "Yes! Yes! Please, please send me the contract right now, I will Fed-Ex it back to you tonight!!" (See, don't ever doubt my ability to throw in more exclamation points.) By the way, the answer is NO. Big N. O. As tempting as it is to just accept the first offer you get, you need to take some time and truly make sure this agent is a good fit for you. You should have some questions prepared to ask them, and you should be prepared to give the other agents who are considering your partials or fulls a week to see if they also want to offer or not. To many of you this will be familiar territory, but to some, you might be hyperventilating right now, thinking I've lost it.
I promise I haven't. So this week, I'm going to do two posts relating to this subject: one on Wednesday about what to look for in a prospective agent, and on Friday I am going to be announcing the winners to my contest and answering some of your questions. Wait--"what contest?" you might be asking. This one:
As my Christmas present to you, I am going to offer to critique two follower's query letters. Because let's face it, you're not going to get to that agent call, if your query doesn't generate some requests, right? I'm not claiming to be an expert, but after a couple of years in those trenches I got pretty good at queries. I'm making it really easy to enter this time. Just comment on this post with one question you'd like me to answer about queries or picking an agent or something else about the query process, and you are entered! The random number generator will pick two lucky (well, hopefully my critique will be good enough to make you think you're lucky) winners to email me their queries on Friday morning. You have until Thursday night at 10:00 pm MST to enter. I know it's not as cool as a gift card, or a Kindle or something, but hopefully it will be helpful.
Happy Monday and good luck!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Query Hint #3
Ready for another one?
Query Hint #3: Write the first draft of your query before you write your book. Or, if you're already half-way through, write it NOW. Don't wait.
Why would I give you this advice? Because the further you get into your story, the more details there will be in your head, and the harder it's going to be to whittle all those subplots and character arcs and everything else into two paragraphs. When you first think of the idea for your book, trying writing it out as a query. This will not only help you decide what your hook is, what the voice is, what the conflict is, and how to summarize it quickly; it will make your job ten times easier when you come back to the query when you're done and ready to start sending it out. So write it out, and then set it aside.
If you're already writing your book, take an hour or two and write out the query now.
Then, once you are done with your book, go back to that query. You will definitely find yourself revising it. Especially if you ended up having your plot go a different direction than you thought, or if your MC's voice didn't come out quite how you expected. If you already have that early version of your query done though, you will have a great way to gage if you accomplished what you set out to do, and will have less work to do trying to squash your 70,000+ word mss into two paragraphs.
This will also help you to be able to see if you accomplished both hints #1 and #2: does your query pitch what you're claiming to be pitching? and does it show your MCs voice? (And did your manuscript end up doing those same things?)
So, no matter what stage you're at in your manuscript, don't put it off any longer. Go write the query now. And if you have a new idea bouncing around your head, go see how a query pitch for it turns out on paper. Even if you completely change your query in the end, doing that in the beginning can really help you figure out what you hope to accomplish with the next manuscript you are going to write.
Query Hint #3: Write the first draft of your query before you write your book. Or, if you're already half-way through, write it NOW. Don't wait.
Why would I give you this advice? Because the further you get into your story, the more details there will be in your head, and the harder it's going to be to whittle all those subplots and character arcs and everything else into two paragraphs. When you first think of the idea for your book, trying writing it out as a query. This will not only help you decide what your hook is, what the voice is, what the conflict is, and how to summarize it quickly; it will make your job ten times easier when you come back to the query when you're done and ready to start sending it out. So write it out, and then set it aside.
If you're already writing your book, take an hour or two and write out the query now.
Then, once you are done with your book, go back to that query. You will definitely find yourself revising it. Especially if you ended up having your plot go a different direction than you thought, or if your MC's voice didn't come out quite how you expected. If you already have that early version of your query done though, you will have a great way to gage if you accomplished what you set out to do, and will have less work to do trying to squash your 70,000+ word mss into two paragraphs.
This will also help you to be able to see if you accomplished both hints #1 and #2: does your query pitch what you're claiming to be pitching? and does it show your MCs voice? (And did your manuscript end up doing those same things?)
So, no matter what stage you're at in your manuscript, don't put it off any longer. Go write the query now. And if you have a new idea bouncing around your head, go see how a query pitch for it turns out on paper. Even if you completely change your query in the end, doing that in the beginning can really help you figure out what you hope to accomplish with the next manuscript you are going to write.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Back to Query Hints (#2)
So, before I left for Florida, I gave you my first hint on successful queries.
Here's hint #2: make sure your query shows your MCs voice.
Queries are tricky little things, because you have to accomplish so much with so little. One of the most important things that you need to succeed at (and that will get your request rate to probably double), is to show the voice of your main character in the paragraph(s) that describe your book. A query with a great hook and no voice will probably still get some requests, but a query with a great hook and a fabulous show of voice will probably get at least twice as many requests to read more.
You might be thinking "that's great, but how do I show voice in a query?" (Especially if your mss is written in first person when the query has to be in third person?)
I heard a great little tidbit once that you might want to give a try. Write it in first person. Don't SEND it in first person, just write it that way until it shines. Most people find that it's easier to show voice in first person. Ask yourself how would Jane/John (or whatever your character's name is) explain their story? Is Jane snarky and outgoing or is Jane shy and reticent? Is John hilarious and quirky, or is he an angsty MC with an attitude? Every one of those options would tell their story differently, right?
Then, once you have a great paragraph or two, told in your character's voice, you go back through it and change the I's to she/he/the MC's name. You may have to tweak it a little bit once you change it to third person to make it read cleanly, but those changes shouldn't be too hard.
You might be surprised at how much voice that simple exercise will help give your query. Try it and let me know how it goes. Good luck to all of you out there in the query trenches!
Here's hint #2: make sure your query shows your MCs voice.
Queries are tricky little things, because you have to accomplish so much with so little. One of the most important things that you need to succeed at (and that will get your request rate to probably double), is to show the voice of your main character in the paragraph(s) that describe your book. A query with a great hook and no voice will probably still get some requests, but a query with a great hook and a fabulous show of voice will probably get at least twice as many requests to read more.
You might be thinking "that's great, but how do I show voice in a query?" (Especially if your mss is written in first person when the query has to be in third person?)
I heard a great little tidbit once that you might want to give a try. Write it in first person. Don't SEND it in first person, just write it that way until it shines. Most people find that it's easier to show voice in first person. Ask yourself how would Jane/John (or whatever your character's name is) explain their story? Is Jane snarky and outgoing or is Jane shy and reticent? Is John hilarious and quirky, or is he an angsty MC with an attitude? Every one of those options would tell their story differently, right?
Then, once you have a great paragraph or two, told in your character's voice, you go back through it and change the I's to she/he/the MC's name. You may have to tweak it a little bit once you change it to third person to make it read cleanly, but those changes shouldn't be too hard.
You might be surprised at how much voice that simple exercise will help give your query. Try it and let me know how it goes. Good luck to all of you out there in the query trenches!
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