- Joined
- Jun 9, 2020
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Hi everyone, thanks for welcoming me to this part of the forum! I'm getting ready to query a 70k coming-of-age story and I've been researching, reading, and critiquing query letters for the past several weeks. I've had a hard time, however, finding many examples of query letters for literary fiction, on this forum or elsewhere.
I feel that some basics of querying are hard to achieve for many literary novels. For example, most successful query letters seem to have an exciting, concise hook; characters should show agency and drive the plot forward; the letter should get to the plot quickly, etc. While many literary novels do have exciting plots and can fulfill these querying conventions, however, I hope I'm not alone in feeling that my literary novel just doesn't fit the expectations for a query.
Things do happen in my novel and my character does make decisions/grow, but nothing is terribly exciting and it takes quite a while for my character to begin doing anything that would fit the conventional idea of showing agency, driving forward plot, making decisions, etc. I've drafted a query letter that I plan to post to query letter hell, but based on reading other critiques there, I have a hunch that people will find I take too long to get to the plot or my character is too passive--which I feel are actually reflective of the book, and I don't want to change those elements of the book.
A Google search for lit-fic queries turned up a successful example, but I feel the most compelling parts of that query were the author's already-impressive bio and connection to the agent. Thinking through some successful literary novels, I also have no idea how they would have been queried; some of my favorites seem pretty boring when I try to imagine their pitches. So I'm wondering, has anyone felt the same difficulties as I do, and do you have tips/resources/examples on querying literary fiction without an established reputation?
Thank you in advance!
I feel that some basics of querying are hard to achieve for many literary novels. For example, most successful query letters seem to have an exciting, concise hook; characters should show agency and drive the plot forward; the letter should get to the plot quickly, etc. While many literary novels do have exciting plots and can fulfill these querying conventions, however, I hope I'm not alone in feeling that my literary novel just doesn't fit the expectations for a query.
Things do happen in my novel and my character does make decisions/grow, but nothing is terribly exciting and it takes quite a while for my character to begin doing anything that would fit the conventional idea of showing agency, driving forward plot, making decisions, etc. I've drafted a query letter that I plan to post to query letter hell, but based on reading other critiques there, I have a hunch that people will find I take too long to get to the plot or my character is too passive--which I feel are actually reflective of the book, and I don't want to change those elements of the book.
A Google search for lit-fic queries turned up a successful example, but I feel the most compelling parts of that query were the author's already-impressive bio and connection to the agent. Thinking through some successful literary novels, I also have no idea how they would have been queried; some of my favorites seem pretty boring when I try to imagine their pitches. So I'm wondering, has anyone felt the same difficulties as I do, and do you have tips/resources/examples on querying literary fiction without an established reputation?
Thank you in advance!