Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
To sum up all my wonderful expert knowledge on string theory and query writing:
– It is a theory of everything
– It involves lots of extra/alternate dimensions
The query is supposed to be the end-all-be-all letter. It is how you get a literary agent to look at your novel in the hopes that he or she will represent and sell it to a publisher.
THE MISSION is to create an exceptional query letter – and do it in less than 300 words. I have accepted this mission, even with the more than 90% probability of failure.
There is an art to this, but everyone seems to have his or her own definition of what this ‘art’ should look like. And by everyone, I mean literary agents. Under no circumstances should you assume that anyone else knows what they’re talking about when it comes to query writing. So don’t take what I say here as the only way to write a query, because it’s not. I’m not a literary agent. I’m just another writer trying to get published.
You can visit these literary agent blogs and see what each has to say about how he or she wants the query to be written:
Nathan Bransford II Pub Rants II Bookends, LLC II Lyons Literary, LLC
You might notice several things:
1. There is overlap in what each agent wants in a query letter (title, word count, genre, pitch or hook)
2. Each agent prefers the information tweaked a certain way
3. Most agents will admit that they have signed a client or requested a partial from a letter that did not follow their query rules.
What genre is my book? Women’s Fiction? Action Adventure?
The simple answer: make sure the genre you use in your query letter is one the literary agent actually represents.
There are plenty of books that fit into only one genre (think category romance, etc.). There are also plenty of books that crossover.
If I really like a literary agent who only represents women’s fiction, then maybe my novel is women’s fiction. If the agent represents multi-cultural fiction, then suddenly my novel is multi-cultural fiction — because it is, and because it’s also women’s fiction and it’s also action adventure and maybe even the classic hero’s journey. The reason I’m trying to get a literary agent to represent me is because I want professional expertise on how to sell the book.
Check out the BookEnds, LLC post about figuring out the genre of your novel. The post and comments discuss how various publishers and bookstores will categorize the same novel. Now think about how that might apply when you query a literary agent.
The publishing industry is a not so friendly place for new writers. Do things that will open doors of opportunity, not close them.
If you are in the midst of querying, or will be soon, I wish you lots of good luck!
For the next few Wednesdays, expect links, books and other resources related to
– writing a query letter for your novel
– and some tips and tricks that might help
– prevent a query writing breakdown.
Posted in Novel Controversy | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 21st, 2008
Sometimes, a day just turns out bad.
Sometimes, there’s nothing a person can do to stop breakfast from burning, being late for work, dealing with horrible clients, fighting with a friend, getting in a fender bender, finding your dog ate a new pair of $50 shoes.
Invariably this will all happen on a Monday.
Mondays are awful, awful days.
I could whip out a top ten favorites list for almost any genre of fiction, but my most effective remedy to combat the end of the weekend is to search for an apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic gem where the world ends, or is ending, and the-fate-of-human-existence hangs-in-the-balance… It puts my life in perspective.
I decide my day wasn’t too bad after all: I do not have thousands of flesh-eating zombies surrounding my house, I am not the last woman on earth, I do not have a brain cloud.
This all serves to remind me that I have a pretty good life. A damn good life.
So here is my current list of all-time favorite apocalyptic novels (all titles subject to change as soon as I read something better):
Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
Blindness by Jose Saramago
1984 by George Orwell
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
The Stand by Stephen King
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Have you read any of these?
These novels are exceptional on three levels: strength of ideas, strength of story, and strength of language. The only possible exception on this list is Stephen King’s The Stand: the Expanded Edition, because it did read a little loose to me, but the scope of the story more than made up for a few sloppy paragraphs.
Do you disagree with any of my choices? Do you have any favorites you’re surprised didn’t make my list?
Kindred Apocalypticists
Many apocalyptic novels follow the survival of a small group of people who would never have spent time together in normal life.
These characters often form a new eclectic family to better survive – and make the reader nervous about who the author might kill off by the end.
I believe a special relationship exists among people who both read and love the same books. I could get all Jungian and discuss subconscious archetypes and the like, but basically, I figure if you love one or more of these books as much I do, we probably have other things in common.
While there are lots of good people I know who have not read the same books as me, I hold a special place in my heart for those people who know exactly what I’m talking about when I say the world Jose Saramago creates in Blindness just plain scared the shit out of me.
So if one or more of these books has been on your ‘to buy’ list for awhile, don’t hesitate any longer.
Feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think.
If I can help you better survive the end of the world, err … weekend … I’ve done my job.
One caveat regarding Blindness – it was a hard book to sink into. Jose Saramago writes with only periods and commas. No quotes surround dialogue. I almost always hate books where the author experiments with language to the detriment of everything else. Not the case with Blindness.
Posted in Novel Escapes | 5 Comments »
