Nathan Bransford's Contest - De Goggles Do Nossing.

Nathan always has good, fun stuff on his blog.

And some of the queries are quite amusing. Although I could do no better.
Maybe I can understand what agents have to endure on a daily basis a little better. I guess it could be quite frustrating at times.

Anyway, that was an interesting "pick-me-up".
Yes, great stuff indeed.

Thanks for the link TT. I read through the 35 queries that have been posted and I must admit, I'm shocked. What shocks me is the comparison of the queries to the industry statistics I've read - the over 55 crowd is the largest group of readers buying about 45% of the books bought - the age 13 crowd is down around 20%; men buy 45% of the fiction bought. But where are the queries for books that would be of interest to the over 55 group and to men? There may be two or three out of the 35. That's scary. Puma

I'm finding this contest a lot of fun. So far I've requested three books. Two more to go!

I was playing along this morning until RL hit hard. I'll have to get back in the game.

I have to say, this experience has been rather insightful. It's interesting to see the situation from the perspective of an agent. And much as I hate to admit it, both my request and my rejections were forms. Ha. I'm such a damn hypocrite.

I loved reading the comments in today's post. A lot of people said it was harder than they thought it would be.

Looked back through the queries he put up... and mine's there

It wasn't for a real novel, but given the responses, I think now I should go and write it.

No. 7 is particularly scary.

There's no story being sold.

Like, at all.

I got through the first 18 queries, then I got bored. That has got to be one of the worst jobs, I have a whole new respect for agents. I plan to finish the rest later this week, i've got a lot going on that I should be doing, but wanted to visit AW.

Cyia said:

Looked back through the queries he put up... and mine's there

It wasn't for a real novel, but given the responses, I think now I should go and write it.

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Which one? I wonder if I picked it

I definitely don't think I'd make a good agent, either. Although the reading queries part isn't what I'd be bad at. It's all the other stuff, you know, making deals and...calling people on the phone *shudder.*

Renee Collins said:

Which one?

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Seconded!

selkn.asrai said:

Seconded!

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I don't think we're supposed to out our queries publicly until Nathan does his big reveal... but check your rep points

I read through all the queries, although I didn't play along because I'm lazy and also easily distracted by shiny things. This contest of Nathan's makes the point that has to be experienced to be fully grokked: no matter how empathetic and helpful you may desire to be toward writers, after weeks and months and years of reading queries you (and by "you" I mean "I", after 25 queries) just want to shout, "Be original! Be brief! Make sense! Entertain me before my eyes melt right out of my skull from boredom!"

YMMV, of course.

BTW, I see one of our own made it through as one of the ones that have been sold in RL. It's fun and surprising to read the comments, which vary from "that's the fugliest query ever" to "ILU marry me".

MelodyO said:

I read through all the queries, although I didn't play along because I'm lazy and also easily distracted by shiny things. This contest of Nathan's makes the point that has to be experienced to be fully grokked: no matter how empathetic and helpful you may desire to be toward writers, after weeks and months and years of reading queries you (and by "you" I mean "I", after 25 queries) just want to shout, "Be original! Be brief! Make sense! Entertain me before my eyes melt right out of my skull from boredom!"

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Well put Melody!

I'm guilty of using a 'form' rejection, but I understood before the contest that using form letters are the only way to keep agents from going mad while wading through slush.

That said, if I was actually an agent, I would spend time on creating a rejection letter that is kind and encouraging (similar to Kristin Nelson's rejection letter, which she blogged about awhile back and I thought it was well put and quite nice)

I thought it was fun going through the queries, though I've still got about 20 more to go. I'm curious to see the unveiling.

Anyway, I think this contest was such a great idea and hopefully it will help bridge the gap of animosity that's sort of cropped up between writers and agents in the wake of the fail exercises.

I liked the form that one of the participants came up with - it was obviously a cut and paste, but it had "reasons for rejection" that she put a mark next to so the person would know if it was the concept, the query, or a full-up client roster.

I repped you, Cyia. I'd love to know which one you were!

kikilynn said:

I got through the first 18 queries, then I got bored. That has got to be one of the worst jobs, I have a whole new respect for agents. I plan to finish the rest later this week, i've got a lot going on that I should be doing, but wanted to visit AW.

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Ditto, except I made it through about five. For all of its ups and downs, I'd still much rather be on this side of the table.

Nicole

dreamsofnever said:

I understood before the contest that using form letters are the only way to keep agents from going mad while wading through slush.

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me too.

dreamsofnever said:

That said, if I was actually an agent, I would spend time on creating a rejection letter that is kind and encouraging (similar to Kristin Nelson's rejection letter, which she blogged about awhile back and I thought it was well put and quite nice)

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I totally agree. I'm just beginning the process of querying and I've been really impressed with the number of agents who ARE kind and encouraging. But I think not all writers understand the sheer volume of BAD stuff that has to be filtered out. Then there's the problem of responding to semi-good stuff without starting down the road of pointlessness. I mean, when you think how eagerly you can seize on even the language of a form rejection, imagine if you got a personal note with suggestions...you'd take it as almost inviting you to be best friends with the agent! I'm kidding of course, but the balance of power makes for some weird dynamics and I truly believe the vast majority of agents are doing the best they can and are pretty passionate about what they do.

dreamsofnever said:

Anyway, I think this contest was such a great idea and hopefully it will help bridge the gap of animosity that's sort of cropped up between writers and agents in the wake of the fail exercises.

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I think it has, and I think Nathan's brilliant for thinking up this contest. Walking in an agent's shoes for a day probably opened a lot of eyes.

I'd make a horrible agent -- I got through 15 queries before I wanted to climb the walls. And Nathan said that these 50 queries were better than his average slush pile.

I have to admit that after awhile I simply read the first two sentences, glanced at how many paragraphs were in the query and went on to the next query if it was more than one paragraph. It's a good reminder to be succinct and to the point.

I participated in this today - gah, it took me longer than I expected to get through them all! I'm looking forward to finding out which ones are the published ones (and would love to know which one is yours too, Cyia!).

Cyia said:

I liked the form that one of the participants came up with - it was obviously a cut and paste, but it had "reasons for rejection" that she put a mark next to so the person would know if it was the concept, the query, or a full-up client roster.

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I liked that too. I made all of mine originals. I only did about 25-30, I lost count. I don't know if I will do the rest. They all sort of blended together after a while. I'd love to know which is yours too! I recognized a couple from here and didn't comment on those. I didn't want to appear biased.

ishtar'sgate said:

I have to admit that after awhile I simply read the first two sentences, glanced at how many paragraphs were in the query and went on to the next query if it was more than one paragraph. It's a good reminder to be succinct and to the point.

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I did this too. I really could not even be bothered to read the whole query, it was just a little boring at times. Not an easy job if you ask me.

However, I learned a lot. Someone actually had the same title as me and it was a mystery... time to change the title and some of the story again.

It was fun at first, and I really liked seeing the comments. Definitely eye opening.

Bubastes said:

I think Nathan's brilliant for thinking up this contest. Walking in an agent's shoes for a day probably opened a lot of eyes.

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I've read through all 50 queries and, if I'd had time to participate, would only have requested full manuscripts from two of the authors. Choosing a third would have taken ages!

Once Nathan's done the 'reveal' on Monday, it'll be interesting to see if the two I really liked are already published books (I'm 100% certain that ONE of 'em is or will be soon!).