Fundamentally a query is a sales pitch that convinces an agent to love the ms enough to sale it.Okay well then this shows me you don't seem to have a fundamental understanding of what a query letter is which is so totally okay because we all start out not knowing things until we do. Because at its core a query letter contains essentially a book blurb. They are not different writing techniques like a novel vs short story, or contract vs novel. They are basically the exact same kind of writing. So now I'm going to ask you the same question again but hopefully this time you answer specifically. Your analogous joke followed by an explanation about the philosophy behind writing two different things is not what I asked. I asked: what do you think the difference between the two are? And now I'll expand on that. What do you think you need to write in a query? And what do you think you need to write in a back cover blurb? And what do you think makes them different from each other? Let's root out the essence of your confusion, which might possibly help you understand better the essence of what a query letter should be
Also as an MG writer I still don't get what your point is about finding the voice. Do you not know the voice in which your book is written? Is it that? If so, let me ask you this: is it serious, silly, sarcastic, poetic? The story as you've described it could be any of those things. It's not about what it's about, but HOW you've told it. What other books would you say it is most like?
I feel like some of your answers are coming across as large sweeping "I can't do it! I don't know what I'm doing!" instead of literally answering us. So take a breath. Ask yourself the questions we've given you to ask yourself. See if you can come up with an answer. No one is expecting you to be perfect at this, we all had to learn and grow. We are just trying to help you by asking certain questions that could lead to some insight into your own work. Take our questions as writing exercises. And take your time with them. No need to rush back in frustration that you don't know the answer. If you don't, then let's keep working through it, but try first.
I've never studied what a blurb is, but it looks like the sales pitch to a reader to buy the book.
Might be where I'm stuck, but while studying to write a novel I learned "know your audience." Do agents want to be drawn in like a 9 year old? If so, then I'm willing to learn what a blurb is.
The whole concept of writing a novel and then getting it published terrified me, so I took it in pieces. First learn how to write a novel, and then do that. Then learn how to write a query and do that. Then learn what happens after the agent says Yes, (and decide if I'm willing to do that.) And somewhere between saying Yes and the ms turns into a book, find out what else I have to learn, (including how to handle editing, mock ups and all that jazz), and quite possibly learn how to write a blurb. I'm not even sure I need to learn to write a blurb, considering I reviewed a manuscript in a contest once, and what I wrote became the blurb.
I do know my voice, but what I define as my voice isn't the same thing as the type of book it is. What's it like? The closest I can come to is a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer minus vamps, demons and the Hellmouth, but written for grade school kids. Very serious with unintentional humor (on the MC's part) and glibness and other forms of intentional humor from other characters. For instance, for the first few pages the reader isn't sure if the one who saved the MC was saving him or a box of snack cakes. Meanwhile the MC doesn't even think in those terms, so it never dawned on him he might be saved to get a krimpet for the effort.
It's not so much that I can't write a blurb. It's more that in order to write one, first I have to learn what it is, what it isn't, and the best way to pull it off. The same thing I had to learn to write a novel, but a shorter writing. I have no idea if I can write a blurb. At this point in time, I still don't know if I can write a query that sells. I sure know I can write queries that don't sell though.
