Category: Query Letters

Posted in Agents, Query Letters, The Pitch Paragraph

Go Pitch Your Pitch

Posted on by beckylevine

I’ll be a little less present from the blog in the next couple of weeks, for obvious festive, celebratory, fudge-laden reasons. I’ll try to check in once a week at least, but even if you don’t hear from me for a while, know I’m out here and wishing everybody a wonderful break and a happy holiday.

As a special treat, I wanted to link you over to a very special Christmas gift to which you can treat yourself.

I got incredibly lucky this year. Not only did I get a chance to write The Critiquer’s Survival Guide for Writer’s Digest, but Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary agency agreed to represent the book for me. Jessica is also the agent for my friend (and great mystery writer) Terri Thayer, so I knew Jessica was trustworthy, direct, and very sharp–all the things I want in an agent.

She’s also incredibly hard-working. As evidence, see her offer to do pitch critiques over the holidays.  I’ve watched her do this before, and I can tell you that when Jessica says she’ll do “anywhere from three to three hundred” pitches, well…it won’t be three.

This is a great opportunity. Jessica doesn’t pull punches, thank goodness, and if she critiques your pitch you will know both what DOES and what DOESN’T work in it. You’ll be able to take her feedback and do some serious revision work, in preparation for submitting that paragraph to your list of agents, whether Jessica’s on that list or not.

This is the hardest part of the query to write. You have to SELL your book, in a way that totally hooks the agent and convinces them they MUST read pages from it. You  have to tell the story of a 200+-page project, in a few short, concise, evocative paragraphs.

Go. Write. Copy the paragraph into the Comments section at Jessica’s blog. Then, as Radar on M*A*S*H always said, “Wait for it.”

Posted in Critique Groups, Query Letters, Revising, The Writing Path

When to Query

Posted on by beckylevine

This week, I’m sending out some queries. I’m as sure as I can be that these are queries I need to send, and that my project is where it needs to be to show to an agent. I know, though, that this is a big question I hear lots of writers asking–when is the right time to send that letter?

The answer is, I believe, not until your book is done. Or, if you’re writing an nonfiction book proposal, not until the proposal is done.

There are two things about this answer–first, it might seem obvious. Actually, though, I hear a lot of writers talking about sending queries out before they’ve finished revising their projects. I think they figure that there will be time, while their letter is making its way to the top of the slush pile,  for them to finish that revision. Alert: I sent one email query out at 3:00 in the afternoon and got my reply back at 6:00 that evening. No, it wasn’t a request for more pages, but I’d have been ready if it was.

Why set an agent up to want your book, if you aren’t ready to show them the whole thing? Why risk frustrating them, because you queried too soon? Wait until the book is done.

Which takes us to the second thing about my answer–another question. How do you know when your book is done. Completely done. Beautifully done. Seamlessly done.

You’re never 100% sure. At least I’m not. But you can go through a basic checklist and test your gut reaction to the questions on it. Here we go:

  • Have you written the book from beginning to end?
  • Have you rewritten that book several times?
  • Have your revision passes made substantial changes to plot, character, voice…all the biggies?
  • Have you shown your book to other people, preferably a well-read, deep-reading, serious critique group? More than once?
  • Have you incorporated the feedback of those people into you book? Yes, again, more than once?
  • When you read your project, does it feel cohesive, a complete, seamless entity? Does it feel like…a book?
  • Are you not avoiding thinking about a passage, a scene, or a chapter that jumps out at you as not fitting? Denial about not needing that next piece of chocolate is okay. Denial about fixing your project is not.

Yes, this is a lot of work. And it takes a lot of time. There is no way, though, that this time and energy is a waste.  Nothing that makes your book more ready to hook an agent could be.