Oct 31 2009
November 1 Links
- Literary agent Janet Reid provides an awesome checklist for query letters.
- The Rejectionist recounts some wildly bad query letters. Keep your chin up– no matter how bad your story is, it’s not about an air traffic controller doing battle with a spaceship using his skills as an ex-quarterback. (And, if it is, please go into some other line of work).
- Managing Editor Kelli Collins at Redlines and Deadlines takes on adjectives and how to use them well.
- Flogging the Quill lays out a very useful formula for structuring your story.
- The Rejectionist explains a common misunderstanding among the authors of children’s and young adult fiction. Namely, “Children and teenagers are YOUNG. Being YOUNG is not the same thing as being a MORON.”
- Anne Mini explains what should go into a novel submission package in excruciating detail. Helpful if you’re writing a novel but (unlike the above) absolutely irrelevant for comic book writers.
- Redlines and Deadlines tackles how to do a novel synopsis— this is aimed at romance authors but I think any novelist would benefit from it.
I thought the air traffic controller one sounded amusing… D:
Also, I found this line:
Namely, “Children and teenagers are YOUNG. Being YOUNG is not the same thing as being a MORON.”
…really, really hilarious.
A few people reviewing my queries have accused me of treating teens as morons. That is especially disconcerting because I’m barely old enough to legally drink alcohol and I feel comfortable making C-SPAN jokes on a website aimed at teens. If anything, my writing is far more stuffy (“disconcerted”) than patronizing (slang like “sup, dudes!”). Hopefully it’s obvious that I find my prospective readers intelligent and capable–if not, offering advice would be pointless.
I think the issue is that the reviewers feel my query didn’t offer a “what’s in it for me?” benefit for readers. Or at least not a benefit superior to the superhero writing advice currently on the market. In the future, I’ll explain it more clearly.
I found this list of things not to put in a query letter hilarious. Of particular note was ‘a comedic story about a pedophile’. Sounds like a bestseller to me….