Query Letters & the Indie Author
Today's blog post will center on the subject of Query Letters so if you're committed to being an independent writer you might want to skip down to the writing section where I discuss the concept of 'filtering'. However, if you agree an excellent way to sell ebooks is to have a literary agent do it, read on.
Long after I sent 100's of Query Letters to prospective agents (why none to date have accepted will be fodder for coming posts), I came across Janet Reid, a New York City literary agent specializing in crime fiction. She hosts a blog called Queryshark in which authors send in Query Letters which she proceeds to brutally, and often hilariously, critique. Here is her Query Letter framework that my research confirmed many agents, with slight variations, adhere to.
1. What does the protagonist want?
2. What's stopping her obtaining it?
3. What decision must she make?
4. What dire consequence ensues if she chooses A?
5. What dire consequence ensues if she doesn't?
The genius of this outline is that it also shapes a plot's narrative arc. Drama is at the heart of a good story and conflict makes drama possible. Points 1 & 2 define plot (external) conflict, points 4 & 5 character (internal) conflict. Although my stories contain both, I love placing my protagonist in the delicious quandary of having to choose between very bad, if not impossible, options. Drama flows from how the character goes about deciding.
I've placed two links below in which literary agents discuss the do's and don'ts of Query Letters. The first, titled Pub Rants, is by Kristen Nelson, owner of Nelson Literary Agency in Denver, Colorado. Note to Romance authors: she likes them. I urge those interested to also explore the links she places to related or archived material. They make for fascinating and useful reading.
Nelson Literary Agency
The next link details examples of successful Query Letters collected by Chuck Sambuchino at Writer's Digest. I chose this one because it lists over 60 (something for everyone) that are accompanied by the insightful comments of the literary agents who selected them. Any who match your genre you can then Google their names to obtain contact and submission requirements.
Successful Queries
Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
As I close on writing 'The End' to my current project Seraphim, I have been making progress on the mind-numbingly tedious task of edit and re-write. One of my favorite bloggers is Emma Darwin who posts to 'This Itch of Writing'. I believe she's British but only because she spells 'favorite' with a 'u'. She recently posted a discussion on' filtering' that now has me contemplating literary hari-kari because I have to start the editing all over.
Filtering is the process of removing the author/narrator's interdictions placed between the story and the reader. Such as? He looked, she saw, they noticed, I remembered that, she wondered if, they decided that, we considered whether, he thought about, he thought back to when, to her it seemed as if.
Emma quotes Janet Burroway, author of Writing Fiction, "...cutting away filters is an easy means to more vivid writing."
I paraphrase Emma's lengthy and at times obtuse posting. Don't tell us he looked, give us the sight. Don't tell us she wondered, give us the thought. Doing so makes the prose crisper, quicker to read. And since the reader is now more mentally engaged, the writing has impact. Emma continues with this unfiltered example.
"Tony walked over to the sofa by the wall and sat crossly on it. He looked through the door and there, in the hall, he saw Jane's roller skates, lying yet again at the foot of the stairs. It seemed to him, though, that something was wrong with them. He noticed that one was standing straight but the other was at an odd angle, and then he saw that it was missing both its back wheels."
Emma's filter produces this.
"Tony walked over to the sofa by the wall and sat crossly on it. Through the door, in the hall, Jane's roller skates were lying yet again at the foot of the stairs. But something was wrong with them. One was standing straight but the other was at an odd angle, missing both its back wheels."
Now filtered, I would add another edit.
"Furious, Tony plunked down on the sofa. Through the door, Jane's roller skates again lay in the hallway at the foot of the stairs. Something was wrong. One stood straight the other at an odd angle, both rear wheels missing."
A final point. Emma's filtering provides a more sophisticated approach when dealing with flashbacks. Again, she uses a Burroway example.
"Cherry thought back to the days when she and Tony went skating together, though that was on ice."
I took the liberty of rewriting her edit for clarity.
"She and Tony often skated together, though in those days, on ice."
Here's the link to the full discussion.
Filtering
Is filtering relevant to Query Letters? Yes. If your well-crafted Query succeeds, you'll be asked for sample chapters. Literary agents know about filtering. And the Iceberg Theory.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Long after I sent 100's of Query Letters to prospective agents (why none to date have accepted will be fodder for coming posts), I came across Janet Reid, a New York City literary agent specializing in crime fiction. She hosts a blog called Queryshark in which authors send in Query Letters which she proceeds to brutally, and often hilariously, critique. Here is her Query Letter framework that my research confirmed many agents, with slight variations, adhere to.
1. What does the protagonist want?
2. What's stopping her obtaining it?
3. What decision must she make?
4. What dire consequence ensues if she chooses A?
5. What dire consequence ensues if she doesn't?
The genius of this outline is that it also shapes a plot's narrative arc. Drama is at the heart of a good story and conflict makes drama possible. Points 1 & 2 define plot (external) conflict, points 4 & 5 character (internal) conflict. Although my stories contain both, I love placing my protagonist in the delicious quandary of having to choose between very bad, if not impossible, options. Drama flows from how the character goes about deciding.
I've placed two links below in which literary agents discuss the do's and don'ts of Query Letters. The first, titled Pub Rants, is by Kristen Nelson, owner of Nelson Literary Agency in Denver, Colorado. Note to Romance authors: she likes them. I urge those interested to also explore the links she places to related or archived material. They make for fascinating and useful reading.
Nelson Literary Agency
The next link details examples of successful Query Letters collected by Chuck Sambuchino at Writer's Digest. I chose this one because it lists over 60 (something for everyone) that are accompanied by the insightful comments of the literary agents who selected them. Any who match your genre you can then Google their names to obtain contact and submission requirements.
Successful Queries
Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
As I close on writing 'The End' to my current project Seraphim, I have been making progress on the mind-numbingly tedious task of edit and re-write. One of my favorite bloggers is Emma Darwin who posts to 'This Itch of Writing'. I believe she's British but only because she spells 'favorite' with a 'u'. She recently posted a discussion on' filtering' that now has me contemplating literary hari-kari because I have to start the editing all over.
Filtering is the process of removing the author/narrator's interdictions placed between the story and the reader. Such as? He looked, she saw, they noticed, I remembered that, she wondered if, they decided that, we considered whether, he thought about, he thought back to when, to her it seemed as if.
Emma quotes Janet Burroway, author of Writing Fiction, "...cutting away filters is an easy means to more vivid writing."
I paraphrase Emma's lengthy and at times obtuse posting. Don't tell us he looked, give us the sight. Don't tell us she wondered, give us the thought. Doing so makes the prose crisper, quicker to read. And since the reader is now more mentally engaged, the writing has impact. Emma continues with this unfiltered example.
"Tony walked over to the sofa by the wall and sat crossly on it. He looked through the door and there, in the hall, he saw Jane's roller skates, lying yet again at the foot of the stairs. It seemed to him, though, that something was wrong with them. He noticed that one was standing straight but the other was at an odd angle, and then he saw that it was missing both its back wheels."
Emma's filter produces this.
"Tony walked over to the sofa by the wall and sat crossly on it. Through the door, in the hall, Jane's roller skates were lying yet again at the foot of the stairs. But something was wrong with them. One was standing straight but the other was at an odd angle, missing both its back wheels."
Now filtered, I would add another edit.
"Furious, Tony plunked down on the sofa. Through the door, Jane's roller skates again lay in the hallway at the foot of the stairs. Something was wrong. One stood straight the other at an odd angle, both rear wheels missing."
A final point. Emma's filtering provides a more sophisticated approach when dealing with flashbacks. Again, she uses a Burroway example.
"Cherry thought back to the days when she and Tony went skating together, though that was on ice."
I took the liberty of rewriting her edit for clarity.
"She and Tony often skated together, though in those days, on ice."
Here's the link to the full discussion.
Filtering
Is filtering relevant to Query Letters? Yes. If your well-crafted Query succeeds, you'll be asked for sample chapters. Literary agents know about filtering. And the Iceberg Theory.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
No comments have been added yet.
