I have a confession to make: Query letters makes me itch. Not in a bad rash kind of way but in a compulsive manner. I love dissecting my query letters and how to make them better. It is a necessary evil for a writer on her journey to publication. But sometimes we start on them too early and worse case, we may even start to query before our novel is done well. I find myself obsessing about my query letter when I'm entering a contest or applying to a writer's workshop. I put "How to … [Read more...]
2010 FL SCBWI: Query Letters
June 9, 2010 Read Comments
I'm continuing my highlights from the 2010 SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshop and Intensives. Today I'm going to share what I learned from the editors and authors about query letters and how to construct one that is compelling and can result in a request for full or partial manuscript. The following notes are from the Novel Intensive with senior editor Alvina Ling (Little, Brown), Editorial Director Stephanie Owens (Disney-Hyperion), and author Kathleen Duey and the YA Track Workshop with editor … [Read more...]
Query Letter Slayer
June 2, 2010 Read Comments
I'm not quite sure that I can slay query letters, but I did work on one this past weekend in preparation for the 2010 SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshop. I wrote a query letter for my first novel, a middle-grade ghost story. After some tweaking, I started to get requests for partials, fulls, and ultimately an agent offer. I'm sort of glad that I'm now working on a query letter for my YA paranormal because when I'm done I will need one for my new agent search. I hope to get some good feedback … [Read more...]
