RIP Partial Requests

Are partial requests a thing of the past?

I read several articles over the past few days that say yes. More and more agents are skipping over the partial request and going directly from query to full request when considering a manuscript for representation. The reason that the articles caught my eye in the first place was that I'd started to notice that very thing myself, and was wondering if it was simply a fluke or a real trend. I still spend a lot of time on QueryTracker.net reading comments, and more and more writers are reporting getting full requests from queries--which used to be practically unheard of. The initial reaction is, "Wow, they must have really loved my query!", but the truth may be simply that there is a new protocol emerging.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Back in the day, when we had to print and mail out all of our submissions through the post, of course we wouldn't want to pay to print and send an entire manuscript, only to have it rejected before the reader got past the first chapter. But now in the digital age, there is no difference between emailing a partial and a full.

It really could be a time saver for both the agent and the writer. If an agent likes a query, why not ask for the entire manuscript in advance? They will still start reading with the first three or so chapters(the partial), and if they don't like those, then  they can stop reading and send a rejection. However, if they do like it and want to see more, they no longer need to ask the writer and then wait for it to arrive, possibly finding tons of other things to do and new projects to work on in the meantime. It really would make the entire process faster.

It will also force writers to be on their game, and weed out those few who think it's okay to query when you haven't finished the book. How many times have you seen a querying writer say, "Agent X loves my partial and requested a full! I'm going to spend the next few weeks cleaning it up so I can send it!" No, folks. It should be clean. It should be spic-and-span and ready to go out before you send your first query. Asking for a full instead of a partial will help the agent separate the men from the boys, so to speak.

The one problem I do see writers having with this, is the fact that there will now be a substantial rise of form rejections on full manuscripts. Usually, a form can be expected on a partial, but for a full, writers expect some sort of critique from the agent. However, this expectation is based on the assumption that the manuscript was read from beginning to end, which now, many more will not be.

Honestly, problems aside, I think this 'query to full' procedure makes a lot of sense.

You? Any thoughts?

Great Page for Writers

o
Hello all, hope everyone had a stupendous week. I just wanted to share a little gem I ran into this morning.

Jennifer Crusie is not only a fabulous author of romantic women's fiction, but on her website, she has one of the best 'For Writers' sections I have ever seen on a personal webpage. It is full of great info, no matter what stage of the writing process you are in--writing, finding an agent, finding and editor, selling, publishing, getting blurbs, reviews, press releases, and so much more!

Check it out at:

http://www.jennycrusie.com/for-writers/essays/

And be sure to check out Bet Me, her newest book!

Talk to ya'll soon!

2 Common Query Mistakes And A Little Inspiration

Philosophers believe that there is no such thing as the perfect crime, because the term 'crime' in and of itself is an imperfect thing. Not sure that I buy into that, as perfection-like beauty-is in the eye of the beholder, but I can tell you that I am convinced that there is no such thing as the perfect query.

Just like there is more than one way to skin a cat, (side bar: where did that saying come from? I mean really, was there a point in our history where we were skinning cats left and right and were looking for new and better ways to get the job done? Do they mean jungle cats, like for fur? I don't get it. Maybe I'll hit Wikipedia after this...) there are endless ways to write an effective query. There are general rules about what to do, which we all know. What surprises me however, is that there are general rules regarding what not to do, that countless agents have commented on, agreed upon, blogged about, spoken about etc., that are constantly ignored by a huge number of writers. Sure, we all know not to address queries with 'Dear Agent', and not to go on and on for pages, that's amateur hour stuff. What I'm talking about are the things that writers consider to be expected in a query, that agents actually hate. For example, number one:

The phrase 'I am seeking representation...' should appear nowhere in you query. Really folks - nowhere.I mean think about it, why would you put that in there? OF COURSE you are seeking representation, why else would you have sent a literary agent an email with the subject line 'Query'? You have just officially wasted five seconds of this agents time by stating the obvious. Top notch agent Uwe Stender has stated on may occasions that if the words 'I' or 'My' appear anywhere in your query outside of the bio section, he passes on you instantly. 'I am seeking...', 'I have written...', 'My manuscript...' 'I have contacted you...', and the like.
The Fix: Be creative! Show them right off the bat that you are worth your salt! Open with your hook, and work your title, genre and word count into your pitch.

Second mistake: It's okay if you don't have an impressive bio. The last paragraph in your query should be a short bio telling them about your writing experience. No, they don't want to know how many cats you have, no, they don't care that you won the county bake-off last year, and no, they don't want to know the names of all your grandkids. They want your name, where you live, and any relevant writing experience. If you don't have any writing experience, that's okay, just be upfront about it. Many people think that if you don't have a list of books, or a degree in writing, or something impressive, that you will get passed over, and it's just not true. Be honest, and for god's sake, be brief. If your bio section is more than four or five lines, you most likely have a problem.

Third mistake: Not Proofreading. Alright everyone, brace yourselves. I am about to give you one of the best boosts in your confidence that you have probably gotten in quite a while. Ever send out a query with an incorrect name on it? Ever say that you have attached the first chapter then forgot to attach it? Never fear, cuz I am about to top it. For those of you who don't know, my book 'Once Upon A Second Chance' (which was called 'Bibbity, Bobbity, Do-Over during querying) is basically a modern and somewhat whimsical retelling of the classic, Persuasion. The following is the third paragraph of the query letter that went out to 75 potential agents:


Jane Austin’s Persuasion, is one of my all time favorite novels, and it makes me sad that it has taken something of a backseat in the world of classic literature. Bibbity, Bobbity, Do-Over puts a modern yet whimsical spin on Austin’s classic love story, and serves as my personal tribute to that amazing, yet somewhat under-appreciated work.

Did you catch it? Yep, that's right... I misspelled Austen. Not once, but twice. My entire project is inspired by a Jane Austen work, and I can't even spell the woman's name. This letter went out to every... single... agent. Crawl in a hole and die, anyone? What's worse, is this letter was read by my mother, my mother-in-law, my husband, was posted on this very blog under the 'Projects' page for months, and is currently posted in my success story on QueryTracker, and no one has said a thing. So either no one has noticed, or everyone is laughing behind my back, either way, when I realized, I wanted to die. My tummy hurts when I think about how many potential agents may have actually wanted to read my stuff, but got tot hat line and said, "What the hell?..." Not that I am complaining as I have the best agent ever, but still, it's hard to find out that you have made a total ass of yourself.

So there you have it. At the very least I hope I made you feel a bit better about any querying slip-ups you may have made. Remember, there is no such thing as perfect, and any agent who expects it, you don't want to work with anyway.

Does anyone really want the 'truth'...

I got a tongue lashing this morning from a woman I don't really know, and I'm a bit confused. She asked me to read her query letter and give her any help I could. Now, I've done this several times when asked, and am happy to help anyone where I can. Now, I an by no mans a query expert, but mine did serve me well and I am happy to try and assist the folks who are in the same positions I was in not long ago.

Before I go on, let me tell you that this person - who's real name I do not know - does not read my blog. I met with her on a writing forum on which I don't post my blog info, so I think I am pretty safe. I would never post info like this about any of my friends/followers, so if you have asked me or would like to ask me to crit. your query, you don't have to worry - everything between us is totally confidential.


tdsephens_writes, is a frequent poster on the forum, and seems to be well respected and liked amongst the people who frequent the threads there. She sent me an e-mail saying she had read my success story, and asked if I would take a look at her query and let her know what I thought. I said I would be happy to do so. The next morning I found an e-mail in my inbox that contained her query, and all I can say is this...

It was BAD folks. Really bad.

Obviously, I am not going to post it as I do believe that - even if she's not here to know about it - that would be rude of me. I can tell you that by literally the second line in I was totally confused. At the end of the letter, I honestly could not tell you who the main character was (there were several characters named, but I have no idea which one was the lead), where the story takes place, or what the general plot is. I was baffled. So baffled in fact, that is was difficult to reply to her as I just didn't know what to say.

Here is what I wrote back to her word for word. I know it will not make much sense as you haven't read the query, but I just want to give you an idea of my wordage and tone...


tdsephens_writes,


Hello again! I have read over your query and I do have a few suggestions for you if you would like them.


One - I would think about working on your opening sentence. That is very important as it is the first thing that the agent sees and the first thing they have to make an assessment of you. If you choose not to go with a 'hook' and instead wish to go straight into description, your genre, main character, and general plot should be clear by the end of the first paragraph. You may also want to include the word count up there as well.


Two - I might change several of your pronouns for the name or place they represent. You use 'he' 'she' and 'they' a lot, and with so many characters, it gets very confusing. I know it's hard to tell, as you know the story and know who all the characters are, but for the agents, they will need a bit more direction.


Three - For the bio section, I would stick to only the information about yourself that is relevant to your writing. They are just looking for a little background and any writing credentials you may have.


This is what I would have done:

(I then took all the info I could gather from what I had read and put into the formula of my own query just to give her an idea of what I was saying. I do this for all queries I crit.)

These are just my opinions, you may use what you like, toss what you don't - after all, it's all subjective.


Good luck to you!


Not two hours after hitting 'send', I got a reply which I have copied and pasted verbatim below:


Thanks for wasting my time! What so you some expert becasue you hve written so many queries? You OBVIOUSLY just don't get what I was doing and OBVIOULY my book is way over your head. I guess when you waste your time writing commercial romance crap you loose sight of what REAL literature is. I can come up with my own stories and not hve to steal from Jane Austin which everyone is doing now a days anyway. Guess no one has respect for originality anymore. Thanks for nothing.


Yeah... If she'd have know what color hair I have, that probably would have been bad too...


In all honesty though, was I out of line? I tried to be nice and supportive, but like I said, this query was a train wreck! I could have said A LOT more, but again, I was trying not to hurt her feelings. What was I supposed to do, tell her it was great? That might bolster her ego for a while, but does it really help her? Was I really that insensitive? I don't think so, but then maybe it's just hard for me to see...

OMG Query Openers - Take 2

Here we are again folks, more outrageously bad query openers provided by agents everywhere who are both amused and appalled...

Once again, as with my last OMG Query Openers post, all these are the opening lines to actual query letters an appear just after the 'Dear Agent' heading.

Hold on to your hats kids, here we go...

"This is my book, and I need an agent for it. It is mystery with love but no sex. It is called - title - and everyone who reads it thinks it's great."

"I am writing your firm to seek representation for my latest novel entitled - title. You currently represent a friend of mine who asked that I not use their name, and he said you would represent me. I have enclosed the complete manuscript as to save you the time of having to contact me."
(Yeah, either this person was lying about the 'friend', or that friend knew this person's writing was horrible and didn't want to be associated with them! Ha!)


"I have been forced to sen you an e-mail, as your receptionist is immature, rude, and practically useless in her line of work."


"My name is Janet Fisher, and I have been trapped it my house for 17 yeras. No one comes to see me, no one calls. Latly, I have become so lonely that man appears and keeps me company. He tells me strange thinhs about the world he is form. He wants to take me there. I cant go because he is imaginary. Or is he..."
(If you haven't realized yet, Janet Fisher is actually the name of this writers character, and this opening is the plot of the novel. Any yes, those were her spelling mistakes, not mine.)

"Are you laughing at me, or is that just my book your reading? Maybe not yet, but soon you will be. Title- is my comedy novel about..."
(Yes folks, I do believe that was supposed to be a pickup line...)


"Are you still representing books? Do you have any openings? I just finished one, so let me know if you want it and I'll send it."

"I have suffered these past months to bring new life to this earth. Life takes many forms and mine is one of ink and paper. I have bled, labored, and trudged through the afterbirth of the mind, and now weary and soiled, it seeks new light and cleaner home..."
(Ummm... so I'm stuck somewhere between WTF and eww...)


And last but not least...

"David Cunningham never thought much of life. His existence was mundane, and mundane he expected it to stay. Sometimes however, the biggest of life's changes can come of the simplest of dry-cleaning bills...
Title- is a 92,000 word, completed literary fiction manuscript, for which I am seeking representation."

'But Marian, what's wrong with that?' you ask? Just this - it was a snail-mail submission. No SASE, no return address, no phone number, no email. The agent who received this flat out said they would have requested a partial had they have had a way to contact the writer.

*facepalm*

This is why we all need literary agents...

Ready for some perspective? I saw these on the blog of a one of the editors of a major publishing house in New York. She never names her house or gives her actual name but she writes under LadyLittlemore on several writing forums, some of you may know her. She posted these photos a while back. It's the dreaded 'slush pile'- aka. un-agented manuscript submissions/queries. Each of these photos are of the office of a different editor at her house.

Yeah...

I'd comment... but there's really no need.

An Angry Rant About An Angry Rant About Query Letter Writing

I came across a blog post this morning that really pissed me off! The blog and blogger will remain nameless for their own protection, but the title of the post was 'An Angry Rant About Query Letter Writing', and it was all about this tweet the blogger had read. The tweet was made by a literary agent and basically said that if you can't write a good query, then you probably can't write a good novel. Well the blogger was completely outraged by this and went on and on about how wrong that is, and how hard it is to write a query, and how agents just don't understand, and how it is a total crap shoot, etc. Then, to make matters worse, she had like fifty odd comments from readers, most of whom agreed with her!

Well I have news for the blogger and all her loyal followers...

THE TWEETER WAS RIGHT!

If you can write, you can write - if you can't, you can't. End of story.

Now, that's not to say query letters are easy to write, because they're not. They take time, and effort, and loads of rewrites and revisions, and that's what people don't seem to understand. They take months writing, revising, and editing their novel, but when it comes time to write the query they expect it to just fall out of their ass with little to no effort. Then when it doesn't, they whine and bitch about how hard it is. It's not hard, it's in your head! You can write your novel with no problem because you are writing what you want. It is coming from your heart and you are not stressing about it. Then when it comes to writing the query (and the synopsis for that matter) people freak out, because all anyone can say is how hard it is, and how everyone hates it - so it is horrible and you do hate it even if it's only for thinking you will! Self fulfilling prophecy people!

Prime example: When it was time for me to write my synopsis for my book, I wasn't really sure how to do it, or how long it should be, so I did some research online... BIG MISTAKE! Every singe site I pulled up had horrible doomsday like words right in the first sentence - sometimes in the page title! 'The Dreaded Synopsis', 'The Part You've Been Dreading', 'The Synopsis Curse'. Even the ones that said things like 'Don't be afraid', were still subconsciously telling me that I already should be. It was terrible! I wasn't worried at all until everyone else said I should be. You want to learn how to write a good synopsis? All you have to do is go the wikipedia.com and look up any book and read the Plot Summary on that page. Choose an older book, as sometimes the newer ones don't have summaries. Something by Jane Austin, or Shakespheare, or the like. There you will find a plot synopsis that takes an entire book down to a few paragraphs. The whole story, told with little to no emotion, and only the main plot points - exactly what a synopsis is supposed to be. If the 560,000 words of War and Peace can be told in a five and a half page (that's Times New Roman 12point single spaced with a space between each paragraph) synopsis, then I grantee your book can be summarized in less.

...but I digress...

The point of my rant is if you can write a good novel, you can write anything well, it just takes effort. The query is the first and possible only example of your writing an agent is going to see, so why should they assume that that isn't the best representation of your writing? Do you really expect them to say, "Well this letter sound like a five year old write it, but I'm sure the novel is better..." Yeah right!

If you give the tools to selling your novel (query, synopsis, etc.) the same care an attention you gave to the novel itself, then I promise you, you will reap the rewards. Take the time, and do it right! And for God sake, stop blaming the agents, and the editors and even the query letter itself!!!

Baah!


~ Mar

OMG Query Openers

Every so often I come across queries that make me feel better about my own. They always put a smile on my face, so I thought I'd share. Yes, hard as it is to believe, these are all real, and have all been submitted to at least one agent/editor. They are all the opening line(s), appearing just after the "Dear Agent.'

"I am about to tell you about the best book you will ever represent..."

"There once was a cat who's family had abandoned him. He went to live in a shelter for months, and was worried no one would ever love him. One day a lady came to the shelter and adopted him. She became his mommy. That cat is me, and my mommy wrote a story about me. She would like you to represent her...."

"At this point in my writing career, I have decided that I would like to use the services of a literary agent. I have six books published, but would like to hear what you believe you could do to further my career. I can be reached at ###-####, and look forward to hearing your proposal."
(BTW - all six of this author's books were self-published, and had no measurable sales.)

"I have written a novel, entitled - title - and seek your representation. This story is like nothing you have ever seen before and will be in extremely high demand. I suggest you contact me quickly as to not loose your chance to work on such a groundbreaking project..."

My novel called - title - needs new representation. While I know my work will be a best seller, I no longer believe my current representation, Joe Agent of the The ABC Agency, is doing it justice, and would like to sign with you instead..."
(Now this would be bad enough on it's own, but it turned out Joe Agent, who is a real agent and really worked for the named agency, had never even heard of this writer.)

"Books come and books go, but some books change your life. My book, title, is one of those books..."

And last but not least... (none of this is a typo on my part by the way, this is what it really said)
"I have writing to tell you about my book. It done. It is really good. I picked you to work for me. If you want see first it my phone is ###-####."


Makes your query look like a gem, does it not? :)


~ Mar