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Just A Few Words...

Welcome to my blog, which is designed to give information and inside gossip about The Furry Tale Chronicles, my rom-com series. The first book, If The Shoe Fits, releases with Crimson Romance in April 2013.

Monday 11 April 2011

Query Hell





So I'm around a month into my editing schedule (more or less), and I'm not quite on target, but further along than I thought I'd be. Editing is a Nightmare. *nods* Anyway, in between adding a few hundred words here and there (and cutting some of the dead weight), I have also been worrying about the big 'Q'.


Yes, The Dreaded Query. *cue theme from Jaws*

Whether you are submitting to a literary agent or a publishing house, the first obstacle you have to overcome is the querying hurdle. One little page is all you need to prepare, but this one page is more important than any of the 300+ pages of your manuscript.

A hook. A short synopsis. A brief bio. That's it. Three little paragraphs. And they terrify me.

I've been doing a lot of online research lately, both on publishers and independent agents. I believe my best course of action would be to submit direct to a publisher, and I have a small but steadily growing list of prospectives. Of course, that's the easy part.

The Dreaded Query itself is the next monster I have to face, and he's pretty scary. Not only do I have to make it brief - itself a daunting prospect for a committed rambler - but it has to 'pop'. It has to have something that will immediately grab the attention of whoever is reading it. With legitimate publishing houses probably receiving 100+ queries on any given day, if you don't stand out right away, you are sunk. The ratio of unpublished authors to publishers seeking new clients is probably so high that it's far too depressing to even contemplate.

So... hook; synopsis; bio. Gah... maybe editing isn't such a nightmare after all.

Image borrowed from picasawebdotgoogledotcom. 

Don't forget to pop along to my other blog, Princess of Procrastination, where I am currently plodding through the fabulous A-Z- Challenge, and having a marvelous time!

3 comments:

  1. My main word of advice is WRITE IT, then get a fair bit of feedback from people who've actually queried before. Some people have a magic touch (I'm not one of them) but you definitely want Heroine, what she wants and what stands in her way... those are FORMULA query points. Because you've got just a handful of local publishers to focus on, you want to be perfect on the query from the first time out. LOTS OF FEEDBACK.

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  2. Oh, I plan on getting plenty of feedback, trust me. *snort* Seriously, it's because my publisher list is fairly restricted that I'm so scared. Like you say, it has to be a *perfect* query, there's no room for error. Looking to query sometime in July, so I have three months to get it 'just so'.

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  3. I'm sure you'll get it done and it'll be brillant. Not sure why your list is restricted. But then I have no clue how to get something published.

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