It’s been almost two months since I declared my novel finished, and I still haven’t sent out one query letter. That is not to say I haven’t been working up to it, but it’s been a long process.
I’ve been googling small presses – ones that specialize in feminist books, and so far I found only one that might work. I’ve also been studying how to write a query letter.
To that end I found a short book called, Literary Agent Secrets Revealed: Create the Perfect, Unrejectable Query Letter, and it has been quite helpful. It’s main advice is that the letter should have two main sections – a two-paragraph novel synopsis and an author biography. And no matter what, the letter should be no longer than one page. Sounds simple, right? Not so simple I found out.
Here’s a few other hints:
- In the synopsis, introduce your main characters, lay out the main plot points , and make your writing exciting and engaging
- Create a one-paragraph author biography that only contains relevant information to sell yourself to a press or agent. For example, I took out stuff about my published poetry in this paragraph since I’m trying to sell a novel, not poetry.
But the main problem with this book is that it doesn’t give any examples. Although it did say to look at the back covers of best-selling novels to see examples . I did that and then googled again and found a treasure trove of query letter examples – all from the Writer’s Digest blog, Guide to Literary Agents.
And voila! I now have what I consider a pretty-good query letter.
The next step is to send it out. That also caused a bottleneck. The small press I’m targeting has put together great guidelines, which I tend to follow exactly. Its guidelines say they will not consider a novel over 100,000 words. Guess what? My novel is a bit over at 100,136 words. And in my mind that won’t do. From working on proposals for government contracts in the aerospace business for over thirty years, I found trying to fudge a bit on the guidelines will not produce a winning proposal.
So this morning I sat down with the final draft of my novel and started to whittle away – line by line and word by word. I’m in the middle of chapter two and have lowered the word count a whopping 168 words. I’ve managed to overachieve a bit. and now I wonder should I do some more. I hate to say that, but maybe the whole novel needs one more final edit – yet again.
What do you think, dear readers? Should I stop here or keep editing? After all I only have a little over 99,000 words to go.
Marilyn,
The thing I always liked about proposals was that there were both submission requirements and a deadline. Unfortunately, you are missing a deadline in this process. The text can always be improved. But sometimes you just have to let it go. I say this having never published a book. But I have worked on proposals with you, and I can hear you giving me advice, ok direction, like this. Whatever happens, good luck.
Bob Z –
P.S.I am sure you will find punctuation mistakes in this.
Be wary of word count tips. An interested agent told me that I had to get my 100,000+ word book down to 80,000 words; then he said, “Not for me, not now.” I ended up with three versions with three different word counts and sold the middle version to a hybrid publisher without an agent.
Thanks for this, Mo. However, if the guidelines say it, i’m inclined to follow them.
You are so right Bob. Thanks for giving me permission to let it go and get it out. Madeline
PS: the only typo I see is that you gave me a new name! Ha ha!
Thanks so much for your post, since I am at almost the same place as you are, but I now need to write a query letter and research publishers.
Since you asked for my advice… Since you’ve now conscientiously complied with the publisher’s guidelines, I would send out the manuscript.
Good luck!
Kas
Thanks Kas! I appreciate your advice. Good luck with your book.
Madeline