Good news, bad news.

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Expat-hack

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The good news: My beta reader gave my draft a thumbs up... naturally she had recommendations (trim this chapter, make that point clearer, typos, don't call final chapter "epilogue" just make it the last chapter). But generally she thought it was strong and holds together well. Good pacing. Interesting. Good ending. I can probably make her recommended changes in the course of a weekend.

The Bad news: No one wants to read it. I have 60 queries out and have received 18 form letters saying "does not sound like our type of story". Have received 1 request for a full (4 months ago and I never heard back) and 1 request for a partial (a month ago).

I know, I know: go to Query Letter Hell. I think my QL is good. However, clearly it's not working. So now I'm experimenting with different versions of it. My Beta suggested I don't lable the book a "thriller" but call it "suspense" and that I highlight that, although the narrative voice is a male character, the real protagonist is the woman he is working with/talking about. Also that flagging that the story involves a ghost in the query letter might be a turn-off.

Bottom line... (sigh) ...frustrated, but am shooting for getting 100 queries out there. Ugh. (Pounds head against wall.)
 
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Calla Lily

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Srsly, if you've sent out 60 queries without a bite (with chapters attached or by itself?) why burn through more agents? Better hear what might not be working in QLH, than staring at more form Rs, no?
 

EMaree

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You really need to put a pause on querying and go to Query Letter Hell, Expat. You're burning through agents by using them to test query versions when the local squirrels could do the work at no cost to your query stats.

Using experimental queries is going to skew your query stats towards more rejections, and that's just going to bring your mood down even more.
 

kenpochick

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STOP!!!! No more sending queries. Get thee to QLH and perfect the query. Save those last agents for the perfected version.
 

readmikenow

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I would suggest reviewing successful query letters for your work's genre. It might paint a picture of what agents want to see.
 

ohheyyrach77

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Why is it your goal to put 100 queries out there? I'd rather put 10 out and have it sell then 100 to get ignored or rejected. Sending out a large volume of queries isn't a great accomplishment, getting requests for partials, and fulls, and such is the accomplishment. Don't give yourself a quota of queries, queries don't get you anywhere if you don't get any requests on them.

Work on your query, seriously. Everyone goes into it thinking they have it figured out. Even if you think your query is great, it can always be better. You have nothing to lose by asking for some light critiques.
 

Expat-hack

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Thanks for taking the time to respond. It is appreciated. Actually, I don't have a quota, I'm just trying to keep myself from giving up too soon.

Query letters can always be better. Then again it is possible to over-obsess about them. I write business letters for a living. Not saying I can't tweak a comma here or use a stronger verb there... but after a certain level of quality is reached, it is purely about substance. Most likely my plot and characters are just not what the market is looking for right now. Applying "spin" can only go so far.

I have a writer friend who suggests that, with agents receiving 100+ queries per week, the system is basically broke. Agents are being swamped by a weekly tsunami of query letters and it is so easy to simply get lost in the churn. My friend's approach is to tenaciously self-publish while, at the same time, making herself known to agents via social networking, blogging, entering contests, doing book reviews, etc. She has now had 3 agents request to see her work without having fired off a query letter herself.

Her mantra to me is that times have changed and that I'm still fighting the last century's war. Maybe she's right.
 
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Calla Lily

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At the time I wrote my first query letter, I was a professional direct-mail copywriter for a marketing agency. I knew how to write those letters. A query's "just" a different kind of sales pitch, I said. I've got this.

After several form rejections, I went looking for help, and found AW.

After a lot of reading, I discovered my query pretty much nailed everything that made agents hit the auto-reject button. :tongue

JMO, but I disagree with the idea that "the system is broken." I revamped my queries, went from form Rs to requests, landed an agent, who landed a book deal. I'm glad your friend's approach seems to be working for her, and if you choose the same approach, I hope it works for you.
 
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