Okay, so I've been beating my heading against the query wall for a month now, trying to craft the perfect, elusive collection of words to distill the meaning of my novel. It's not a mystery or a thriller, but there are important plot turns that feel wrong to give away in the query. The challenge is if I don't, my query comes off feeling flat. My book is a lit-fic, largely character driven thing, so it's really hard to make it sound like a movie trailer... "In a world..."
Any words of wisdom on how best to approach a query for this type of novel where there are no car chases or dragons to slay?
First, not every query needs to be "In a world..." Hardly. Agents know some books, especially more literary books, will not have an "In a world..." query. But, what you do need to do is have a clear and concise pitch of an interesting story. An agent that would be a good fit for a character driven literary novel isn't looking for car chases or dragons. That agent knows a good pitch for a literary book when she sees one. So, you need to stop trying to pitch your novel like a high concept commercial novel, if that isn't what it is.
And whether to include the twists or not is really your decision to make (helpful, aren't I?).
Some people will tell you never give away the "twists" in a query. Others will tell you to always give away the "twists" in a query. Still others, like me, will say it depends on the book, and the query.
I gave my "twist" away, because otherwise I felt the query would look like a pitch for something that has been done before. And I felt that twist was important to include. The twist is what I thought set it apart. So I included the twist. I had decent results.
But others have had good success with leaving out the twists.
My suggestion is, if the story looks flat or boring or same-old, same-old without the twist, then by all means, mention the twist. But if you can pitch an interesting plot without the twist, then it's up to you.
~suki