Successful Queries

AshElizabeth

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this thread is so helpful! thanks guys. even though mine has gotten bites, I'm still rewording.
 

TxAuthor

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Generosity

Relatively new to AW and just now really slotting real time to dig in.
I really appreciate all the help that's available here -- especially the query section since I'm in the midst of that grueling task now!

Thanks everyone for your generous spirit!

Deb
 

YukonMike

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Here's my query. I must have done something right because I recevied multiple offers after only three weeks of looking for representation. In the end, I signed with Sanford J. Greenburger.


********************
Dear XXXXXXXXX,

Journalists hail Four-Word Film Reviews as “brilliant” (The Associated Press), “clever” (Los Angeles Times) and “insanely addictive” (Miami Herald). Now, 2,000 of the smartest and funniest mini-critiques from this popular website (www.fwfr.com) are in a new book called Four-Word Film Reviews: The Ultimate Movie Guide For People With Short Attention Spans. It is a refreshing spin on a genre of criticism that has taken itself far too seriously for far too long.

In a market flooded with straight-forward film review guides and long works of cinematic criticism, this book stands apart because – as you can guess by the title – all the reviews are funny and four words or less. How do you sum up a film so quickly? Like this: “Not super, not bad,” for Superbad; “Heath Ledger’s clowning glory,” for The Dark Knight; “Icy Dead People,” for Titanic; “Downey surprisingly well cast,” for Iron Man; “Gory, gory hallelujah!” for The Passion of the Christ; “Rock. Enroll,” for School of Rock; and “Four? Yes. Fantastic? No,” for The Fantastic Four.

The book is edited by Benj Clews, the Four-Word Film Reviews website creator who owns the copyright on all the reviews, and myself, Michael Onesi, a newspaper editor/columnist and a major contributor to www.fwfr.com.

Harper Perennial has a surprise New York Times bestseller with Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs From Writers Famous and Obscure by Larry Smith (a book also based on a website). If six-word memoirs can be a hit, four-word film reviews can too. (Here is a link to an August 2008 Time magazine article about Six-Word Memoirs and the Four-Word Film Reviews website: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1834674,00.html )

If you are interested, contact me at (e-mail) or [my phone number] and I can send you a book proposal and a manuscript. Thank you for your consideration and I’ll end this e-mail with four words – please be our agent.
 
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Donna Pudick

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Here are a couple of queries that got my attention. One is a who-done-it and the other is an historical novel. One short, one long. I asked for fulls on both of them. Did I rep them or not? What would you do?

Clyde Lovellet has been sheriff in his small Montana town forever. He has no
serious crimes to solve, and runs unopposed every election. Pretty cushy job,
until five mutilated bodies are discovered during the worst weather his county
has ever experienced. Since two of the dead are judges, Clyde must form an
uneasy alliance with the FBI, battle the town fathers, and find out which of his
neighbors did the killings. He unravels a tale of greed, unrequited love,
betrayal and madness, and solves the case with the help of his 113-year-old,
ex-Texas Ranger father.
-----------------------------------------------------------

A formerly unknown drawing by a renowned Flemish artist and the search for its source are the key themes in this literary novel. Abbess Katrina of Vineyard Abbey is found paralyzed and in shock in her study. After her death, an antique silver point drawing is discovered, hidden in her desk. Elizabeth van Doeren of the Museum of Bruges and the Bruges police are enlisted to investigate a possible connection between the drawing, and what looks like an attack on the Abbess.
While the police investigate the possibility of a crime, Dr. van Doeren investigates the drawing. She soon discovers that the sketch, hitherto unknown and of a very personal nature, is a preparatory sketch by Rogier van der Weyden, the famous Flemish painter, for his masterpiece, "St. Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna." Who then is the Madonna, the woman who appears in the sketch as a love interest for the artist? How did the sketch come to be hidden in Vineyard Abbey, formerly the Béguinage of Bruges? And how did the would-be robber know of it?
To find the answer, we must study the life and times of Rogier van der Weyden, of his passion for art and his unrequited love for the model in his masterpiece.
 

Bufty

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I don't follow the question. Presumably you read the manuscripts concerned before reaching your decision to rep or not.

I can't say either query sets me on fire, but...

Here are a couple of queries that got my attention. One is a who-done-it and the other is an historical novel. One short, one long. I asked for fulls on both of them. Did I rep them or not? What would you do?

Clyde Lovellet has been sheriff in his small Montana town forever. He has no
serious crimes to solve, and runs unopposed every election. Pretty cushy job,
until five mutilated bodies are discovered during the worst weather his county
has ever experienced. Since two of the dead are judges, Clyde must form an
uneasy alliance with the FBI, battle the town fathers, and find out which of his
neighbors did the killings. He unravels a tale of greed, unrequited love,
betrayal and madness, and solves the case with the help of his 113-year-old,
ex-Texas Ranger father.
-----------------------------------------------------------

A formerly unknown drawing by a renowned Flemish artist and the search for its source are the key themes in this literary novel. Abbess Katrina of Vineyard Abbey is found paralyzed and in shock in her study. After her death, an antique silver point drawing is discovered, hidden in her desk. Elizabeth van Doeren of the Museum of Bruges and the Bruges police are enlisted to investigate a possible connection between the drawing, and what looks like an attack on the Abbess.
While the police investigate the possibility of a crime, Dr. van Doeren investigates the drawing. She soon discovers that the sketch, hitherto unknown and of a very personal nature, is a preparatory sketch by Rogier van der Weyden, the famous Flemish painter, for his masterpiece, "St. Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna." Who then is the Madonna, the woman who appears in the sketch as a love interest for the artist? How did the sketch come to be hidden in Vineyard Abbey, formerly the Béguinage of Bruges? And how did the would-be robber know of it?
To find the answer, we must study the life and times of Rogier van der Weyden, of his passion for art and his unrequited love for the model in his masterpiece.
 

Donna Pudick

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The objective of a query is to get your manuscript in front of either an agent or an acquiring editor. Both vary greatly in what they want to see. Some agents just want to see hot topics. Others really like biographies or humor.

The question is would you be interested in seeing these manuscripts just by reading the queries? They did get my attention, because I like historical fiction and mysteries. The mystery got rave reviews from my readers. The literary novel did not. The requests for fulls on the mystery have been steady.
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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I own;t be posting my on my blog for a few days as it;s part of an ongoing story, so I'll post it here now. This query got me several requests for partials and fulls.

Wow, Aruna, that sounds amazing. I TOTALLY want to read that.
 

narcolepticgi

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a concrete block...

:flag:I'm new at this author stuff, unfortunately I lost my cherry to Publish America June 2008.

That experience inspired me enough to try my hand at a fantasy-fiction I started in 1988; last draft was 65,500 words and I feel it is ready and the letter is now on my mind.

Please don't purchase A NARCOLEPTIC IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY ISBN 1-60563-294-5 because like many other PA trapped authors I'll never see one red cent in royalties.

Wish me luck on RISING FROM THE ASHES!:snoopy:
 

vishvakarman

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Orion, you probably don't check this thread anymore, but thanks for the link.
 

litdirt

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If you are to send along the first five pages (or 25) with your query, what kind of paper should you print it on? I did read that queries themselves should go on plain stationery paper. But is it okay to print manuscript pages on cheapo printer paper? Poundage anyone?
 

Kristoff

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Hey all,

I just signed with Matt Bialer over at SJGA. If you've any interest, I've posted my query letter here.

Have fun! :)
 

BrandiZ

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You people inspire me! Thank you so much for sharing your success. I'll be visiting this page often as I whip my query letter into shape over the next few weeks.
 

CH1

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Excellent thread, I'm glad I found it.
 

Darian

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So happy to have found this thread, it helps relieve my query worries lol. Thanks to all who posted their successful queries, hopefully mine will be as successful!
 

rebmacrath

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Thrilled to have found this thread...and wishing I could take a year off work to explore the wonders of AW in full.
 

Henksbird

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Congrats Kristoff. I'm in the query editing phase and your example was helpful!
 

Anne Lyle

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This was my email query to one of the rare UK agents that actually wants a query, not a partial plus cover letter:

Dear (agent)

I was originally recommended to contact you by (author), whom I met at FantasyCon in September, but as your list was closed at the time I felt it wise to respect that and wait for your next opening.

At the same convention I also met (editor) of (publishing house), who mentioned he was looking for new writers and asked me to send sample chapters of my book. He subsequently suggested some changes which he felt would make it a more commercial proposition; I sent him my ideas on how I might implement them, and he has now requested the full manuscript.

The Alchemist of Souls is an alternate history fantasy set in Elizabethan London. Out-of-work swordsman Maliverny Catlyn has been plucked from obscurity to guard the ambassador of Vinland, who will be judging a drama contest between London's leading theatre companies. The ambassador is no human, however, but a skrayling: one of a race of mystical creatures who have allied themselves with the English to defend the Native Americans from the Spanish conquistadors. What neither Mal nor his employers know is that the skraylings have a secret agenda in Europe, and a very personal interest in Mal and his twin brother that could cost one or both young men their lives - and their souls.

I got a request for partial within 90 minutes and a "contact me when you've finished the revisions" a week later :)
 

blacbird

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From comments on this thread (and others) and the undeniable fact that the largest percentage of fiction writers here at AW inhabit the Fantasy genre, I'm curious:

Do queries for Fantasy differ in any significant way from queries for other kinds of fiction? Should they? Or vice versa?

Or, perhaps asked another way, how badly screwed is somebody who doesn't write Fantasy fiction?