Earlier this month, I bid on an auction at Brenda Novak's annual Online Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research. Since 2005, I'd been hearing about this auction and how you can bid to win an agent or editor review of your book proposal. I've never had anything ready to participate in that aspect of the auction...until now.
So I took the plunge...last night I won the auction to have Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency (double-drool-worthy dream agent and agency) to evaluate my book proposal (synopsis & first 30 pages) AND sit down with her for 45 minutes at the RWA Conference in July. Ms. Diver is one of the top agents I wanted to target for THIRTEEN! So I get to bypass the usual query letter stage with her! I'm so excited! And petrified! Okay...breathe...
I do have a query letter prepared, so I'll probably shower her with it since it has a decent pitch paragraph and a good bio paragraph. My proposal for THIRTEEN'S ready to go whenever I get the signal to hit the send button!
Another good thing...the money paid for the auction benefits a great cause: Diabetes Research (which runs in my own family). So I feel great about contributing to that too!
Okay...you can go back to your regular programming.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Cerridwen Press Author Day!
Join Cerridwen Press authors at Coffee Time Romance on Friday, May 23, as they host author days in the Latte Lounge Forum. You can ask participating Cerridwen Press authors questions, enter contests, read excerpts, etc. Be sure to stop on by! Also, enter my May Contest for your chance to win an eBook copy of CHASING SHADOWS! Beat the deadline of May 31, 2008 PST!
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Query...we don't need no stinkin' query
That's what I want to hear from agents and editors. But alas, it will never happen!
In order to catch an agent or editor's attention, most want to see you pitch your work in a 1-2 paragraph query letter. The pitch usually reads like the back blurb on a book. If you have writing credits, awards, etc, you add them to your query, also. Which means your query better be damn good, perfect, awesome. Of course, there are some agents/editors who will also ask you to send a writing sample along with the query, so you get a second chance to draw their interest even if your query letter sucked.
It's the pitch part of the query letter that's tough to write. You have to condense your entire novel, in my case a novel of 108K words, into 5 or 6 sentences, and make your novel sound like the agent/editor hit the lottery with your book. Yikes! Can we say intimidating? You bet.
So I started my query for THIRTEEN in early March with 3 boring pitch paragraphs. After a million revisions, I've reduced it to 5 sentences showing who, what, where, when and why. I think I've nailed it. My 5 sentences are engaging, exhibit my voice for the novel and contain all the elements. At least I hope. Gaaaa!
There are tons of agents, editors and authors who give great advice on how to write a query. Some agents & experts will even rip them apart...um...I mean critique them on their blogs, DearAuthor and Query Shark come to mind. There are various ways of writing your query. Over the last couple weeks, I've looked at samples of selling queries that the authors graciously posted on the web. No two were alike in style. Which goes to show that if you have an awesome, fresh idea and can get that across in your query, then it doesn't matter how your query reads. Does it??? (Grammer, punctuation and professionalism aside).
There comes a time when you just have to give it wings. Test out the air currents and see what response you get with 5-10 agents. And that's what I'm gonna do.
Agents be forewarned...THIRTEEN is coming.
Up next: my adventures in Synopsis writing. Another necessary evil.
In order to catch an agent or editor's attention, most want to see you pitch your work in a 1-2 paragraph query letter. The pitch usually reads like the back blurb on a book. If you have writing credits, awards, etc, you add them to your query, also. Which means your query better be damn good, perfect, awesome. Of course, there are some agents/editors who will also ask you to send a writing sample along with the query, so you get a second chance to draw their interest even if your query letter sucked.
It's the pitch part of the query letter that's tough to write. You have to condense your entire novel, in my case a novel of 108K words, into 5 or 6 sentences, and make your novel sound like the agent/editor hit the lottery with your book. Yikes! Can we say intimidating? You bet.
So I started my query for THIRTEEN in early March with 3 boring pitch paragraphs. After a million revisions, I've reduced it to 5 sentences showing who, what, where, when and why. I think I've nailed it. My 5 sentences are engaging, exhibit my voice for the novel and contain all the elements. At least I hope. Gaaaa!
There are tons of agents, editors and authors who give great advice on how to write a query. Some agents & experts will even rip them apart...um...I mean critique them on their blogs, DearAuthor and Query Shark come to mind. There are various ways of writing your query. Over the last couple weeks, I've looked at samples of selling queries that the authors graciously posted on the web. No two were alike in style. Which goes to show that if you have an awesome, fresh idea and can get that across in your query, then it doesn't matter how your query reads. Does it??? (Grammer, punctuation and professionalism aside).
There comes a time when you just have to give it wings. Test out the air currents and see what response you get with 5-10 agents. And that's what I'm gonna do.
Agents be forewarned...THIRTEEN is coming.
Up next: my adventures in Synopsis writing. Another necessary evil.
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