Query letter hell

Repeat after me:

Agents are my friends. Agents are on my side. Agents are my friends. Agents are on my side. Agents are my friends. Agents are . . .

caw

Jo, I feel your pain! It is so difficult to distill a huge book into a one page pitch. It's a different creative process from writing a book. I've only written five queries, but I've *rewritten* them probably over a hundred times!!!! I think I was close to tears at one point myself. It's hard not to feel like a moron about the whole thing (well ok, maybe that's just me!).

Writing a good query letter takes time. I know you want to get it out to agents as soon as possible, but it might help to put it away for about a month--or more--and just think about it. Think about it when you're away from the computer. The one I'm working on now has taken me about 8 months of on and off work (well, I started it while i was writing the book). Like you, I also sought feedback. I think it's my strongest query yet because of the extra time I took (but it could be that the story is easier to distill???).

It's hard to hear sometimes, but good advice can improve a letter dramatically. For me, it helped to step away and clear my head. FWIW--your mileage may vary.

Jo--I'll absolutely look at your query letter if you like.

Jo I feel your pain. Every time I enter the hell zone I feel like I'm stupid and can't even get close to being right. Don't feel bad, I'm about to enter the zone again for the third time with the same stupid query. I just hope this time I feel better about the query than the other times. Good luck.

JoNightshade said:

Dude, I'm not even to the sending point. Note sig. I am still in the process of WRITING MY STUPID QUERY.

Click to expand...

I know. I was just trying to give you inspiration.

caw

I'd offer you luck, but you don't want any of my luck at the moment. So, um, have some chocolate instead. I'll try to stop by your query and give it a read, not that I know what I'm doing....

I give up every day, usually around 11:00 a.m. I figure I'm a complete idiot.

I start up again in the morning, and it goes 'round and 'round. I think it's safe to say we all feel your pain. I can write fiction till my fingers fall off, but try to write one paragraph describing that fiction in a way that will temp some stranger to pick it up - especially when you're talking about strangers who have hundreds of these every week to pick from - is nothing short of daunting.