New and intimidated.

Hi, I'm Layla.

I am co-writing several novels with my husband. One is dystopian/urban (What descriptors are we supposed to be using this week?) and part of a projected series. We have been working with Sarah Cypher of Three Penny Editor for the editing of first book of this series (she's been fabulous). We are now drafting query letters (I'd rather be shot), researching agents to target (most of this is already done), working on our synopsis, and we've drafted an NDA for our beta readers. My husband is the parent of this series and I am the step parent. That's the best way to describe our dynamic when we work. He is finishing up his first draft of book 2, as well. We also have another manuscript, a Women's Lit (ish), with another editor Kelley Eskridge of Sterling Editing. I am the mamma on that one, and my husband is the step parent there. I'll be getting that one back from her next week, and then working on revising it.

I found you guys researching the hell that is query letter writing. I have been part of a forum before (on jewelry) but this one completely intimidates me. Which is why I haven't posted before.

Though we both have started a dozen books each, these are the first we've finished. This is our first foray into 'real' writing. And we would really appreciate a community to guide us in this (overwhelming) journey. If you'd like to know more about us, I'd be happy to share. Just let me know what kinds of things are important to you.

Can you guys help learn this forum? I am happy to help people, I'm not just here to be helped. I know I need at least 50 posts to be able to post for feedback on certain boards. And I think that makes perfect5 sense.

Thank you.

Thank you Mccardey. What do you mean by "sing?" Should I PM a moderator? Sorry if that's a silly question.

Hello regdog, my husband is the moderator of a forum, so first, I appreciate what you do. Second I have read several of those helpful links and did pay for a subscription. I liked the benefits, they were fair and the price reasonable.

Thank you for the welcome Frank. Mccardey, the reason I asked is that I've looked at the file that explains abbreviations and what not, and I noticed it was missing somethings. So I wanted to make sure that 'sing' wasn't a forum specific term.

Consider me a nightingale. I have tried to follow links people have posted (especially in the share your work threads for newbies) and when I click on them, the new window says I am logged out. So I log in, but the link never shows up. So I go back to the original link, try again... fail. What's up with that?

I use Firefox. Should I use something different for this place?

Also, I've done many of the recommended query exercises. I am still inches away from braining myself with a 2x4.

Can you link e to a discussion of how much, or how little of the plot to share in a query.

For example this exercise:
1. What does your protagonist want? MC wants to rescue his kidnapped mother.
2. What does s/he have to do to get it? MC trades himself for his mom to Badguy (the architect of the apocalypse) because Badguy really wants him, not his mom.
3. What happens if s/he fails to get what she wants? (the stakes) His mother dies and Badguy gains the control and the power of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Do we just tell the agent in the query letter who the kidnapper is and what the stakes are? Those are mysteries in the book to be solved. I'm so lost. I don't know how to turn these exercises into a query letter.

MC, thank you for your warm welcome and all your help. I will get in touch with moderators about my technical issues.

SciSarahTops: Honestly, that is incredibly helpful. Just to know that someone else feels the same way helps!

Frank,
OMG. Thank you. The successful queries thread is the BEST help I've gotten so far. I spent the morning reading and I felt the clouds part dispersing the miserable storm I've been caught in. I'm going to read all the sticky threads in the Query area. The verb thread is great advice and something I was struggling with... but I couldn't put it into words.

I've read some of query shark. I don't find it as helpful. What not to do is important, but it's only muddled me to date, so I will re-visit it, but not at this stage.

Tenuki: Hello Fellow Newbie.

Hi Chase, It's been a long road to get here. In our 18 years together we've tried to write collaboratively before. We have complimenting strengths and weaknesses so we KNEW together we'd be stronger than the sum of our parts, but figuring out HOW to actually do it took until this year. I like detective mysteries, and enjoy ensemble efforts more than individual ones. I find them more realistic. Thank you for the welcome!