Successful Queries

Crazy Ivan

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I'm getting a wealth of great information here!

It is almost paying $1.00 per gallon of gas.


Too bad my machine runs on diesel.

My book is non-fiction. It lies somewhere between a memoir, a travelouge of introspection, and a chronicle of my trying to understand a particular topic.*


This is great:
http://writeanovelfast.com/query-letter-dos-and-donts/

and so is Query Shark....


But, I'm not in the fiction world. (I could be. I could throw out all 119,061 words and somehow form a plot...)

So...uh...any help on non-fiction query letters would be....uh....helpful.

(Im tempted to just copy and paste my first and second attempts here, but, that isn't nice and it is kinda selfish.)



Many thanks,
C.I.



*Faith and religion. Why it clicks for some people and not for me.
 

Belld

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I noticed that all the successful queries post on people blogs etc. are now no where to be found, rendering this thread ineffective. Why not do both, post a link to your blog and post here, or post a link to your blogs specif post?
 

EMaree

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I noticed that all the successful queries post on people blogs etc. are now no where to be found, rendering this thread ineffective. Why not do both, post a link to your blog and post here, or post a link to your blogs specif post?

Usually if a blog post has been removed, the author will have a reason to want to hide their query for now (like MKrys who was told by her editor not to post hers). AbsoluteWrite is publicly viewable and searched by Google, so if they're wanting to hide it a writer will remove it from here too.

EDIT: Query Letter Hell has a private thread for successful queries that you might find useful.
 

celiaboop

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I think it's an excellent idea to post one's query on their websites. That is queries that generated a positive result. I have changed my query numerous times (like I'm sure we all have) and sent it to the query shark blog however no success yet, just hundreds of form rejections.
 

juliesondra

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Last edited:

Berlu

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Juliesondra, thanks for sharing your queries. Your non-fiction qualifications are very impressive! I am very intrigued by the fact that you have two agents. I have often thought that this is something that could end up happening to me since I've written three novels in three different genres. My current agent is reading one of my other novels, but I don't know if he'll want to rep it. Could you share how this came to happen? Are you happy with your current arrangement?
 

Old Hack

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Good literary agents represent writers, not single books, and they help their author-clients plan and develop their careers. It's difficult for them to do that if they don't rep all of their clients' books, so it's far more common, and more desirable, to have just one agent at a time.

That's not to suggest it doesn't work well for JulieSondra: just that it's not usual, and perhaps not the way to expect to work.
 

juliesondra

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I am very intrigued by the fact that you have two agents. I have often thought that this is something that could end up happening to me since I've written three novels in three different genres. My current agent is reading one of my other novels, but I don't know if he'll want to rep it. Could you share how this came to happen? Are you happy with your current arrangement?

If your current agent represents books in all the genres you write, I'd say you should always give him first crack at representing everything you write, since that makes the most sense career-wise and agent-relationship-wise. It sounds like you're already doing that.

If your agent turns your next book down and you still want to pursue publication through channels unavailable to the un-agented, though, I guess you wouldn't have much choice but to query others eventually. But I wouldn't rush into it. If the agent hasn't sold the first book but turns down your second, I'd probably wait to see what'll happen with the first book. If at all possible, having one person handling all your books is the best way to go. And if it does turn into a no, make sure you find out why and if it's something you can change so he will take it on. If you're just writing in several different genres of commercial fiction, they're probably still in your agent's wheelhouse.

That said, I've met writers who had more than one agent at the same time (even in fiction; one author had an agent for his thrillers and a different agent for his cozy mysteries, and they were both series that sold). I don't know why he made that choice, but everyone involved in the arrangement was happy with it.

For me, I was signed for fiction before I was signed for nonfiction, and hadn't even decided for sure that I was going to pursue agency representation for the nonfiction when I signed for fiction. My fiction agent represents a very small amount of nonfiction and it is always narrative-style nonfiction--memoir and travel writing, to be exact. She does not represent the genre of nonfiction I write in, and furthermore, nonfiction is sold very differently from fiction. My fiction agent has no experience with book proposals for nonfiction and no significant relationships with nonfiction imprints.

When I discussed it with her initially, she considered asking someone else at the same agency to represent my nonfiction, but ultimately we all decided nobody there had the experience or connections to sell this genre, since it's pretty niche (though the prez of the agency did have experience with book proposals for other kinds of nonfiction, but she didn't want to take on the project).

The agent I found was reassuringly established in the nonfiction world, to the point that she even sometimes runs workshops on nonfiction proposals when she attends conferences. When she first requested my proposal, I made it clear in writing that I had a fiction agent and she said that wasn't a problem whatsoever. When she called me on the phone to offer representation and I double-checked that she was okay with my fiction being represented by someone else, she told me I'm not her only client who has another agent; she said "I've had this situation with other authors too, and I think other agents are pretty good about it. It's not that unusual in the industry." After being offered representation with the nonfiction agent, I informed my fiction agent for the final "blessing" (even though she knew I was going to look for someone else for nonfiction), and we're all on the same page.

I don't think it'd be wise to chase multiple agents in most cases--though in mine it was necessary if I wanted the nonfiction to be agented--and if you do need to I of course recommend full disclosure at all levels of the process with everyone involved.
 

Berlu

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Thanks, Julie, for sharing your experience with me. I had been thinking about asking my agent if one of his colleagues at the agency (who specializes in the other genre) would be interested in representing my next book. Now I see that this is doable (great!) Thanks again and good luck with your projects :D!
 

Mathion

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*Subscribed*

I swear, this forum just keeps getting better and better with every thread I enter; thanks you guys for all the info!! I look forward to celebrating my impending representation with you all one of these days! :D
 

They called me Bruce

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It's not what you believe, it's what you can prove!

I love this, not giving up no matter what. believing in yourself your project against all odds.

I agree, up to a point, but I am cursed with a more operational form of belief- I believe I can still screw up against all odds. So I believe in Murphy's law, that anything which can go wrong will, and apply consistent effort to deny the enevitable, which means I keep finding typos and gramatical glitches even in parts of a manuscript at the 10th re-write...

I had to use the Peguin dictionary of difficult words to be sure it was a glitch, mind you!
 

They called me Bruce

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Lots of fun, and a well known theme?

I'm new and someone told me I should go post here.

I'm a weirdo who has two agents. I have one agent for fiction and one for nonfiction. So here are the two query letters that worked for me:

Successful query letter for fantasy novel (retold fairy tale)
Full manuscript was requested five times, signed late last year.

Successful query letter for nonfiction project (lifestyle/culture/non-mainstream sexuality)
Proposal was requested three times, signed this week.

Fairies are not my thing, I'm a rocket scientist, Julie's work is a lot of fun though, so I'm pleased to see she's enjoying her weirdo experience.

I note from the link that editing down to 146,000 words was 'a nightmare.' I've edited a work of a similar size. Then something unexpected happened...

I went through the manuscript and wrote up a list of problems I hadn't dealt with in the original manuscript. This found continuity errors etc. and stuff that didn't fit in the flow.

When I started cutting, the problem list gave me somewhere to paste a lot of stuff and a bit of shuffling produced the chapter outlines for the sequel and part of a backstory book with very little angst. Perhaps I was just lucky.

This gave me, for free, a chapter outline with 65,000 words in it, half cut from the manuscript, half cut and pasted from relevent research findings. (Making sure to include the reference info!) Editing a humungous manuscript doesn't have to be a nightmare, if you're used to playing devil's advocate.

As to having two agents, I have several colleagues who work with several agents in different technical areas as well as fiction, just as a project manager might work with several different engineering consultants.

Now the problem is finding an agent so we can make some money together for a publisher by entertaining some readers!
 

D. S. Eerie

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Hello, everyone. I'm new here, though I've been checking this forum for tips and advice about agents for a few months now. It has been a great help. I have been looking for a literary agent for my story, Chaos of the Times, for nearly a year now. I've emailed many and am starting to send snail mail. But I am curious if I could post my query on here (which I have revamped many times during the course of my journey) for any advice on possibly revising it. I'd appreciate anybody's help. Thank you.
 

Old Hack

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You need to have fifty posts to start a new thread in our Share Your Work areas, D. S. Eerie, but you can help others with their queries in Query Letter Hell right now. It's a good way to learn more about queries before yours goes up, and it might well earn you a few reciprocal critiques too.
 

ralphmagno

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Most of the information here is a year old.I have been sending queries out for my part 1 sci-fi/fantasy romantic novel and i hear that over 90% are not read and sent a rejection. Knowing that Harry Potter was rejected by over 22 agencies i bet they are all kicking themselves in the pants for not looking further.
Ralph
 

Siri Kirpal

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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Once you have 50 posts, you can post your query in Query Letter Hell (password vista) a section of Share Your Work. Those critiques can help. You can go in now and read the threads and critique for others.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

Old Hack

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Most of the information here is a year old.I have been sending queries out for my part 1 sci-fi/fantasy romantic novel and i hear that over 90% are not read and sent a rejection. Knowing that Harry Potter was rejected by over 22 agencies i bet they are all kicking themselves in the pants for not looking further.
Ralph

Whoever told you that queries aren't read doesn't know what they're talking about.

All queries are read.

While I'm sure the agencies and publishers which rejected J K Rowling would like to have clients as lucrative as her, I doubt they're kicking themselves. They rejected her books because they didn't think they could sell them. I doubt the reasons for that have changed.
 

Treehouseman

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Most of the information here is a year old.I have been sending queries out for my part 1 sci-fi/fantasy romantic novel and i hear that over 90% are not read and sent a rejection. Knowing that Harry Potter was rejected by over 22 agencies i bet they are all kicking themselves in the pants for not looking further.
Ralph

I hear a lot of JK Rowling stories, and I think some of them are a little bit hyperbolic. For example, she pretty much got her agent straight away (he was like the second she queried?)

Harry Potter went on sub, and got picked up by a publisher. All those other passes were fielded by her agent, and honestly, it sounds like she got picked up on her first round.

I think we cling to the "JKR was rejected lots" myth because it's wish fulfillment in a way - perhaps one day we will say "I told you so" to everyone that rejected us!