"Write my query for me!" Is this cheating?

I have written queries "for" a few close crit buddies -- after I'd gone through the crit process and become familiar with the novel, I wrote a paragraph or so of what I thought was exciting and grabby about the book. They then took what I wrote and tweaked it as needed to suit their tone/style.

So if it's cheating, I'm guilty. For me, at least, it's FAR easier to describe what is compelling about someone else's work, than it is mine...

TsukiRyoko said:

I definitely agree. When I'm editting or reviewing for someone else, it's a breeze. Then I sit down with my work...and nothing happens....

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Exactly! And then you start to think, "Oh God! This whole book is a waste of time! There's nothing interesting AT ALL about it!!! Forget the queries, I'm just going to go burn the pages and then slit my wrists. How could I have written so much CRAP?!"

Okay, maybe YOU don't think that. I've gotten that way often enough...

There used to be this blog, run by a couple of anonymous editors. They had a "fake book review" contest, wherein we writer-type blog readers were supposed to pick a novel we'd read, preferably by one of the other writer-type blog readers (pimp our friends and whatnot), and describe what was so great about it in a couple of paragraphs. After I entered, one of the editor-bloggers commented that if anyone needed a query written, they should ask me to do it...

Yet with the dozens of queries I've written for my own work, only this most recent one has gotten results (finally...) Go figure.

Trouble is, no-one knows your book like you do. No-one knows the characters' motivations. So how can they possibly write a query as intimately involved with the book as you could?

No it isn't easy, but tough shit. If you want easy, why did you become a writer?

scarletpeaches, PMT. That's Permanent Maniacal Tension to you.

scarletpeaches said:

Trouble is, no-one knows your book like you do. No-one knows the characters' motivations. So how can they possibly write a query as intimately involved with the book as you could?

No it isn't easy, but tough shit. If you want easy, why did you become a writer?

scarletpeaches, PMT. That's Permanent Maniacal Tension to you.

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Yeah, but!!!

I'm not disagreeing with your general sentiment. You're absolutely right, no one knows your book better than you. You are close to your work. You know why you wrote it, what you intended by writing it, the exact story you wanted to tell. You know more about your characters than your readers will ever discover.

But, do you know why Susy Q from Texas or John X from Guatemala is going to like your book? Nope. Because you're not Susy Q or John X. Therefore, if someone else reads your book and tells you what they found compelling about it, you may just have a better idea of what another outside reader -- i.e., an agent or editor -- is going to find compelling. They might be able to articulate it better than you, who is very, very close to your work.

Case in point: Miss Snark's Happy Hooker Crapometer, in which it was proven that some of the best queries yielded some of the worst actual pages, and vice versa. You can end up with a crappy query letter, because you just don't know what is so great about your book, but you may still have a great book.

This is also why Miss Snark says she values the first five pages of a manuscript in her submissions -- because you can't always tell from the query what the book's going to be like. For those agents/editors who will ONLY read queries and won't look at samples of the work itself, you'd better make sure your query is freaking brilliant.

If that means finding what makes your book compelling to readers, I say getting the basis of your query from someone else is a smart idea, if you can do that.

What's next, are you going to get someone to write your book for you? Do the work yourself. Sooner or later--if you reach publication stage--you're going to have to be able to write this kind of stuff.


That's not to say you can't get a buttload of feedback and use it to write a killer-good query

I think that writing a query letter is a critical part of one's education.

I just started querying for my first novel a few months ago and finally have a good query letter (with much thanks to several people here who helped me out along the way). P is far more than just writing a book and then sending it off and saying, "There, done!" and moving on to the next book--you really have to put effort into selling the book: first to an agent, then to a publisher, then to people. I know that; you know that--we know this because books and people here at AW and random passers-by tell us this. But it wasn't until I started querying that it really hit me and sunk in to my head that this was only the beginning.

Whenever someone--my friends, family, coworkers, whatever--hears I'm writing a novel or asks about my novel, the inevitable question "Well, what's it about?" springs up. I had trouble summing it up succinctly, up until the point where I wrote my query letter. Then I realised that what I say in my query letter is also a good way to pitch my novel verbally.

And that's what it comes down to: voice. According to the advice I've been given from various people, agents and writers alike, one of the most important aspects of your writing that agents will use in their judgement is your voice. How can someone else precisely capture your voice in a query?

swvaughn said:

I have written queries "for" a few close crit buddies -- after I'd gone through the crit process and become familiar with the novel, I wrote a paragraph or so of what I thought was exciting and grabby about the book. They then took what I wrote and tweaked it as needed to suit their tone/style.

So if it's cheating, I'm guilty. For me, at least, it's FAR easier to describe what is compelling about someone else's work, than it is mine...

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*hands over SAG*
Here ya go!!

Cheater

BTW, I do think that is cheating, but I can see why someone would do it.

Why would you do that when you can get Evil Editor to help with the query?

http://www.evileditor.blogspot.com/

scarletpeaches said:

Trouble is, no-one knows your book like you do. No-one knows the characters' motivations. So how can they possibly write a query as intimately involved with the book as you could?

No it isn't easy, but tough shit. If you want easy, why did you become a writer?

scarletpeaches, PMT. That's Permanent Maniacal Tension to you.

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I disagree. Just because someone can write a novel, it doesn't mean that the person knows how to sell themselves in a business letter. Some writers have great difficulty promoting themselves.

I can write all sorts of fiction and articles, but I can't for the life of me, write a resume. I had to have a professional write my resume for me. I sat down with her for 2 hours, and she pulled all of my work experience out of my head, and wrote it up into a clear and consise document.

FredCharles said:

I disagree. Just because someone can write a novel, it doesn't mean that the person knows how to sell themselves in a business letter. Some writers have great difficulty promoting themselves.

I can write all sorts of fiction and articles, but I can't for the life of me, write a resume. I had to have a professional write my resume for me. I sat down with her for 2 hours, and she pulled all of my work experience out of my head, and wrote it up into a clear and consise document.

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Very interesting point!

You're not selling the agent/publisher your queries. You're selling your novel, which you did write. As for query/business letters/bios/resumes/synopses -- personally I don't see a problem with asking/paying for someone to write it for you. Many creative people I know can't write a business correspondence if their lives depend on it... but they need to do that for the process, and there's nothing wrong with getting a little help with it.

Query

From a writer's standpoint, I don't have a problem with getting someone to write a query for you. From an agent/editor's standpoint, I have a big problem with it. Your query letter tells me a lot about you, and I can get an indication of who you are as a writer, whether you know anything about grammar and punctuation, whether you can write a coherent sentence, whether you tend to ramble, whether you can adequately describe your novel, etc., all from your query letter.


The trouble with having someone else writer queries for writers who aren't any good at it is that agents and editors are going to ask for a lot more fulls than they would otherwise. This may be a good thing from your perspective, but it sure isn't from an agent or editor's point of view.

My advice would be to do one of two things. 1. If you have solid fiction credits, list them in the first paragraph of the query letter. 2. Include the first five pages of your manuscript with the query.

The first five pages are either the best, or the worst, query you can send an agent. Even a bad query letter doesn't matter much if the first five pages are great. And if they aren't great, the agent isn't going to represent you, regardless of how great your query might be.

Tsuki, writer your dang query before deciding that you suck at it. Ship it off to Evil Editor (and to your Momma) and let us savage it for you. Post it here and let the wonderful query mavens bleed red ink all over it. Do these things before trying to get someone else to do it for you.

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Jamesaritchie said:

From a writer's standpoint, I don't have a problem with getting someone to write a query for you. From an agent/editor's standpoint, I have a big problem with it. Your query letter tells me a lot about you, and I can get an indication of who you are as a writer, whether you know anything about grammar and punctuation, whether you can write a coherent sentence, whether you tend to ramble, whether you can adequately describe your novel, etc., all from your query letter.


The trouble with having someone else writer queries for writers who aren't any good at it is that agents and editors are going to ask for a lot more fulls than they would otherwise. This may be a good thing from your perspective, but it sure isn't from an agent or editor's point of view.

My advice would be to do one of two things. 1. If you have solid fiction credits, list them in the first paragraph of the query letter. 2. Include the first five pages of your manuscript with the query.

The first five pages are either the best, or the worst, query you can send an agent. Even a bad query letter doesn't matter much if the first five pages are great. And if they aren't great, the agent isn't going to represent you, regardless of how great your query might be.

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Right-o, you are. Pages matter more. That's why I get all grrr and stuff when agents won't take pages initially... just a query. No matter how good you are at writing queries, they'll have no idea what your writing style or voice is from just a lousy paragraph.

In fact, my agent specifically said when she requested the full that my pages impressed her, and that's why she asked for more. I know my query itself was... shall we say, a bit lacking.