Successful Queries

popgun62

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I hear a lot of JK Rowling stories, and I think some of them are a little bit hyperbolic. For example, she pretty much got her agent straight away (he was like the second she queried?)

Harry Potter went on sub, and got picked up by a publisher. All those other passes were fielded by her agent, and honestly, it sounds like she got picked up on her first round.

I think we cling to the "JKR was rejected lots" myth because it's wish fulfillment in a way - perhaps one day we will say "I told you so" to everyone that rejected us!

I have read interviews with Rowling, and she says she had several novels before HP that went absolutely nowhere. In fact, she was literally living hand to mouth as a single mother trying to support her children. So her her lack of "overnight success" is definitely not hyperbole.
 

gingerwoman

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Most of the information here is a year old.I have been sending queries out for my part 1 sci-fi/fantasy romantic novel and i hear that over 90% are not read and sent a rejection. Knowing that Harry Potter was rejected by over 22 agencies i bet they are all kicking themselves in the pants for not looking further.
Ralph
I've never heard of her being turned down by 22 agencies. Any story I've read mentions only that her agent sent the book to 12 rejecting publishers before it went to auction between a couple of keen publishers.

I read an article about why an editor rejected it and it was because at the time she though YA didn't really sell so she wasn't interested from the start. Who knows which stories are true though really.
 

Treehouseman

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I have read interviews with Rowling, and she says she had several novels before HP that went absolutely nowhere. In fact, she was literally living hand to mouth as a single mother trying to support her children. So her her lack of "overnight success" is definitely not hyperbole.

Nobody mentions the other novels she might have written beforehand, it's always "Harry Potter Got Rejected X Times" when people are trying to shop around a single manuscript. Harry was by definition an overnight success though.

Scarily, even if she did sell all her novels at Gailbraith-before-outing levels, she would still be living hand-to-mouth. The midlist isn't that lucrative.
 

paddismac

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is this a forum where I can post my query and get some advice on it?


No, the place you're looking for is "Query Letter Hell", on down the main forum page in Share Your Work (password: vista)

But be warned! Gird your loins and pull on your big girl pants before you get there. The crits can sting like a swarm of hornets, but they're so very helpful in identifying problem areas.

Good luck!
 

blacbird

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But be warned! Gird your loins and pull on your big girl pants before you get there. The crits can sting like a swarm of hornets, but they're so very helpful in identifying problem areas.

Correct. My single foray into that forum produced the helpful result that every word of my query was identified as a problem area. Leaving me with the impression that even attempting to query was a problem area. So i haven't queried since.

caw
 

PastyAlien

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Correct. My single foray into that forum produced the helpful result that every word of my query was identified as a problem area. Leaving me with the impression that even attempting to query was a problem area. So i haven't queried since.

caw
Perhaps your loins were inadequately girded. :evil
 

paddismac

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Correct. My single foray into that forum produced the helpful result that every word of my query was identified as a problem area. Leaving me with the impression that even attempting to query was a problem area. So i haven't queried since.

caw


I do not doubt this is true!

Back when I was in there (so long ago that I'm ashamed to say when... 'cause I'm still not ready to query), my query was fairly well-received. But well-received or not, I'm pretty sure every single sentence in that 250-word query was flagged as a "problem area" for at least one person. It's the nature of the subjective beast. The best we can do is find points of consensus, take a hard look, address the "problem" (or not) and leave the rest alone.

Get back on the horse, bird! A little flagellation is good for the soul (I've heard). :whip:
 

mayqueen

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QLH is my most-visited subforum of AW. I love it. I've been through it four or five times myself. Like anything else in life, writing a query is a skill that you can only pick up by practicing it. When you're familiar with QLH and queries, it makes it a lot easier to figure out what's subjective and what's actually something you should address.
 

Twick

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Correct. My single foray into that forum produced the helpful result that every word of my query was identified as a problem area. Leaving me with the impression that even attempting to query was a problem area. So i haven't queried since.

caw

But remember the immortal words of the Great Gretzky - "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
 

Aggy B.

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Correct. My single foray into that forum produced the helpful result that every word of my query was identified as a problem area. Leaving me with the impression that even attempting to query was a problem area. So i haven't queried since.

caw

The squirrels were horrified that I was considering using a logline (three sentences, but still a logline) in my query. My attempts at an expanded query didn't please them either.

So, I took the logline and reworked each sentence into a paragraph, then added pub credits and queried. I also queried with the version that only used the logline and pub credits. I got requests off both, but the super-short version was what intrigued my agent enough to ask for the full in under four minutes.

Failing in QLH doesn't have to mean failing at querying. While the hive-mind works well for some folks, some of us are better doing it own our own.

Aggy, learned to pitch on film school
 

Filigree

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I enjoy QLH, though I don't critique there as much as a responsible netizen should. I lurk, read, and learn...often, what not to do. I've seen some queries refined to high gloss, and others utterly ruined. It's a useful tool, but I wouldn't rely solely upon it. The most effective queries I've seen on QLH arrived in that state, and not much could be done to perfect them.
 

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Hi! I am new. I can't make threads yet, but I have a question that I was hoping to get answered before putting in 50 posts. I am fully done with my book and am working on the query. My query total length is 323 words, of which exactly 200 are the "hook," with the rest of the wording being stuff like the title, word count, agent's name and address, etc. Is this okay, or should the whole query be 200- words total? I hope it's not a dumb question, but the numerous guides I've spotted online that address query length don't answer this question.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.
 
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Dennis E. Taylor

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I've always taken the tack that the word limit is for the actual story description. All the "Dear sir,", number of words, genre ID, and "thank you for your time" don't count. Just don't make them longer than the query so it gets lost in the mess. I'd imagine some agents (or assistants) skip all that on the first pass and just read the blurb. If it hooks them at all, then they do a full read of the query letter.

That's how I'd do it, anyway.
 

Derimed

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I've always taken the tack that the word limit is for the actual story description. All the "Dear sir,", number of words, genre ID, and "thank you for your time" don't count. Just don't make them longer than the query so it gets lost in the mess. I'd imagine some agents (or assistants) skip all that on the first pass and just read the blurb. If it hooks them at all, then they do a full read of the query letter.

That's how I'd do it, anyway.

One more question, if it's okay: if my "hook" is a couple words over the 200 limit, is THAT ok, or is 200 the absolute limit? I put in something that I see as essential and deleted some things to put it in place, but I ended at 204 words for the hook. Is that a deal-breaker for an agency, or will they be okay with 4 words over the maximum?
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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I've always used 250 as the magic number. It's a guideline. No one is going to count words. And honestly, if the first paragraph or sentence grabs them, they won't care. It's not a government application form. Agents want to find good stuff, because that's how they make money.

ETA: My successful query for Legion was 237 words.
 
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Derimed

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I've always used 250 as the magic number. It's a guideline. No one is going to count words. And honestly, if the first paragraph or sentence grabs them, they won't care. It's not a government application form. Agents want to find good stuff, because that's how they make money.

ETA: My successful query for Legion was 237 words.

Thank you very much!
 

Derimed

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I've always used 250 as the magic number. It's a guideline. No one is going to count words. And honestly, if the first paragraph or sentence grabs them, they won't care. It's not a government application form. Agents want to find good stuff, because that's how they make money.

ETA: My successful query for Legion was 237 words.

If I may ask another question... I rewrote the query according to the advice you gave me, and I think it's much better now. But I am having trouble with the synopsis. The guidelines I read say I need to cover the major plot lines of the book, plot twists, and character development, and I have two pages to do so. I actually managed to condense my whole book into two pages, taking up literally every space on each of the two pages except for a tab to open new paragraphs. When I pasted it into the email body, and back onto Word, the auto formatting made it 2.5 pages, not two. So I think I need to rewrite it, but how do I do all that they're asking me to do in two pages? I don't know what to cover and what to leave out. And I have six main characters and two that are minor but still important. Do you have any advice you might give me? Thanks in advance for your help.
 

Aggy B.

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If I may ask another question... I rewrote the query according to the advice you gave me, and I think it's much better now. But I am having trouble with the synopsis. The guidelines I read say I need to cover the major plot lines of the book, plot twists, and character development, and I have two pages to do so. I actually managed to condense my whole book into two pages, taking up literally every space on each of the two pages except for a tab to open new paragraphs. When I pasted it into the email body, and back onto Word, the auto formatting made it 2.5 pages, not two. So I think I need to rewrite it, but how do I do all that they're asking me to do in two pages? I don't know what to cover and what to leave out. And I have six main characters and two that are minor but still important. Do you have any advice you might give me? Thanks in advance for your help.

You want to cut out everything except for the main plot or any point where the subplots have a direct bearing on the main plot. If it's still pushing two pages then you want to look for spots where you can condense further. It's not easy, but the best thing to do is keep working at it, take breaks when you feel like you're stuck, and come back to it.

When I was querying I had synopses that were 7,5, and 1.5 pages respectively. (I wrote the seven page one first, then cut that down to five, then chopped that down to 1.5.) It's hard to leave out details when you're trying to summarize, but you have to use broad strokes as much as possible. But, especially if you are pasting something into an email, you really want to make sure it stays under two pages because without page breaks it's easy for it to feel like it's much longer.

Best of luck.
 

Toothpaste

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This isn't a synopsis. Compare it more to the blurb on the back cover of a book. I'd read a bunch of back covers especially for books with multiple characters and complicated plot lines. Look for inspiration there.
 

Derimed

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You want to cut out everything except for the main plot or any point where the subplots have a direct bearing on the main plot. If it's still pushing two pages then you want to look for spots where you can condense further. It's not easy, but the best thing to do is keep working at it, take breaks when you feel like you're stuck, and come back to it.

When I was querying I had synopses that were 7,5, and 1.5 pages respectively. (I wrote the seven page one first, then cut that down to five, then chopped that down to 1.5.) It's hard to leave out details when you're trying to summarize, but you have to use broad strokes as much as possible. But, especially if you are pasting something into an email, you really want to make sure it stays under two pages because without page breaks it's easy for it to feel like it's much longer.

Best of luck.

Thank you very much! What about character development? What do they want/not want with that? Just a couple sentences to explain progression, or is this of the "non-essential" sort? Thanks!
 

Toothpaste

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I also recommend you go to the Share Your Work section at this forum. There's a section for queries. You need 50 posts to be able to post there but you can read other queries and just get a feel for what everyone is doing. It'll also answer a lot of the questions you are asking here.