So, if you have been following this blog even for a couple days, you know I am knee deep in the query process. But not the process of sending, the process of revising.
I posted a blog below about what I have learned and gleaned from this process. Yet still, I struggle with the query.
Case and point: I had this really freaking short query. Like five sentences long telling the basic idea of the book. Similar to what you would see on the back of a published novel. Because this is what was suggested to do.
Sent it off twice, received two rejections, then decided to rethink the letter.
Revised it, sent it off to a couple of writers and received great advice. I mean fabulous advice!
Then the unthinkable happened. Someone who works for an agency said she would read my query! When he response came back, she said the same thing as the others… which was excellent! But mind boggling…
I let the query sit for a couple days and then jumped back into it with a new idea. Spent hours on it, poured in my heart and soul, thinking… this is it!
Bad idea… 
It’s never “IT”… which means when the first rejection (not an agent rejection) came back of this edited query it was not received well and I flipped out!
*insert crazy woman here – she is a fixture*
I emailed a friend and vented to her then felt better. I just needed to “cry it out” and act foolish for a moment. Only to realize the person was right. The query was worse in some ways and better in others then the first.
My friend emailed me back and said, CHILL OUT! Okay, not in so many words really… but she did say all the right things to make me feel better. And that I wasn’t completely on the wrong track. I should be feeling a bit stressed after twelve days of writing and rewriting the same flipping three paragraphs.
Ahem…
Then today, on twitter, @ColleenLindsay said something that got me thinking again:
Proving my point: Just now requested a YA suspense based on an awesome query that was totally gripping yet was only EIGHT SENTENCES LONG! And that eight sentences? Included intro, genre, word count, hook and author bio. DONE. As perfect a query as I’ve ever seen.#itcanbedone
Umm, didn’t I already have that? Well not perfect, but the 8 sentences thing… Gah! So, back to the thinking mode… Rodin’s Thinking Man statue, totally crossed my mind.
Yup, I rewrote my query again… I have like fourteen versions now… I am thinking about posting the evolution of a query… cuzz it would be quite commical. Short, long, longer, longest, three sentences. ROTFL.
Maybe my short query sucked so much because it didn’t have the right dynamic sentences. Maybe the longer query was so nice because it had the right ideas but geesh now I think about it, it’s way longer then my first (by like 500 words!).
If I can’t capture the agent in the first couple sentences, then why would they continue to read fifteen more? Hummm…
Though, who knows where it will end… when it will be that perfect query.
My bet is never… but eventually it might be good enough to catch an agent on a hook.
If not, there is always self publishing
— Uhh I said perfect QUERY not perfect FAIRY… Sheesh!
Dragons Forever
Inspirational Fiction
