[Publisher] Angry Robot Books

I just used my standard query letter. I believe a synopsis has all the info on characters--or should. I attached that and the first 5 chapters. Next, I attached the one sentence description as an .rtf file, so they wouldn't miss it.

Here's an example of a one sentence description--from Yahoo TV's description of House:

"Headed by a surly but brilliant infectious disease specialist, a team of highly specialized physicians at a New Jersey teaching hospital take on medical cases no other doctors can crack."

Short and to the point.

Kmarshall said:

I just used my standard query letter. I believe a synopsis has all the info on characters--or should. I attached that and the first 5 chapters. Next, I attached the one sentence description as an .rtf file, so they wouldn't miss it.

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I plan on using my standard query letter and long synopsis for the character descriptions also. My synopsis pretty much has all the character info.

Good luck to all!

I made a guess and figured that was better than a powerpoint type character document.

I got my confirmation, so I'm in (at least my submission was received). I expanded my synopsis slightly to include all major characters and didn't include a separate character summary section.

Good luck to us all.

kap

Hey guys, follow their guidelines to a T. According to their website, they're deleting, unread, any submission that doesn't.

Agreed. But they are a little fuzzy on the character part. Sounds like they mean to have it in the synopsis.

Kmarshall said:

Agreed. But they are a little fuzzy on the character part. Sounds like they mean to have it in the synopsis.

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I agree with that too

Kmarshall said:

Agreed. But they are a little fuzzy on the character part. Sounds like they mean to have it in the synopsis.

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That's what I decided too. It's actually spelled out that way on the guideline webpage. "A full synopsis of the novel, including brief descriptions of the major characters."

The other page they link to at the top of the guidelines page makes it sound like character summary is a different section, but I followed the guidelines page.

kap

This is the sentence I'd use for mine, if I decide to submit (this was a logline I used for my query in QLH - it was loved or reviled).

"Special agent Alexandra MacPherson can't decide which is worse -- a witness who dies or a suspect who won't stay dead."

I sent my submission in this morning and got an autoresponse to say they got it. I basically just sent a shortened version of my usual synopsis plus a paragraph about the main character, and of course the first five chapters. I wasn't sure what precisely they wanted to know about the main character, so I didn't write much. Most of it's in the synopsis anyway.

I bet they've already received a couple of thousand queries.

When they ask for word count, should it be the rounded word count or the number the computer gives you?

ie: "about 72,000 words" or "72,674 words"...I know it seems tiny, but I don't want to get deleted unread over it, lol!

Just round.

MeretSeger said:

When they ask for word count, should it be the rounded word count or the number the computer gives you?

ie: "about 72,000 words" or "72,674 words"...I know it seems tiny, but I don't want to get deleted unread over it, lol!

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Just say "73,000 words" (I always round up if past the xx,500 mark)

Kmarshall said:

I just used my standard query letter. I believe a synopsis has all the info on characters--or should. I attached that and the first 5 chapters. Next, I attached the one sentence description as an .rtf file, so they wouldn't miss it.

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They say you should only send a single file. I would follow guidelines exactly.

Rats! It also says not to resend. Weeeellllll. We'll see what happens.

Are we only supposed to put "SF", "fantasy", or "horror". Or should you include your title. Like: SF - THE SPACE PIRATE AND THE PEA

It looks to me like you just put the genre as your subject, so they can easily be sorted into folders for forwarding to their slushpile readers, who probably have preferred genres.

If you're really worried, ask here:

http://www.formspring.me/AngryRobotBooks

They don't bite, honest! They're just trying to keep the tsunami of submissions under control

I didn't get the LOTR reference either but did get the other two. I am hoping to finish editing my latest to send to them before the end of the month. Fingers crossed.

Monomaniac said:

Are we only supposed to put "SF", "fantasy", or "horror". Or should you include your title. Like: SF - THE SPACE PIRATE AND THE PEA

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I just put FANTASY alone.

A fair few of the questions asked here are answered in the subs guidelines on their website.

Best to read those guidelines, good people. Otherwise you might just end up wasting your (and AR's) time.

I just put 'Fantasy' in the subject line. I also just sent it with the attachment but nothing in the body. From reading their guidelines, it sounds like their filters dump the subs into the right folders, and AR goes in and uses the attachment.

I wonder how long it'll be before they start asking for fulls?

Interesting question. I imagine they're swamped. I had to ask about how to submit on their blog, and they said to redo and resubmit. They answered very quickly. You could pose that question to them, but I think they said to expect a bit of a wait. Can't remember, but I'm pretty sure it's on their site.

Gravity said:

I wonder how long it'll be before they start asking for fulls?

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Someone has already been asked for a full. They submitted 9 hours after they opened and recieved a request for a full less than 24 hours later. Go to this thread:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199690&page=7