Ok, so Janet Reid wrote about the article in Publisher's Weekly first, but this is something that does bug me - and that is the brilliant cover letter that sings from the mountain tops and the subsequent dismal writing that invites comments of "don't give up your day job." I'm not as brilliant as Stephen Barbara (author of the article) because I never put two and two together. How, sez I staring at my secretary, the unreliable beagle, can such a terrific query letter accompany such dribble? These shoes don't match. It's like the author is wearing a Ferragamo on one foot and an Addias cross-trainer on the other.
For once, the unreliable beagle makes sense and informs me that authors understand the query letter can result agents and editors asking for pages. You're always yammering on about the query letter is the auhor's business card, she sez, the meet and greet, the Great Yoda, to a story, so what did you expect?
No, no, no, I argue, threatening to clip her toenails, don't authors realize that they're simply putting off the inevitible? The query letter may get their pinkie finger in the door, but it's the writing I'm after. If it bites, then it's a major buh-bye. Why on earth would anyone take a short cut and nab successful query letters off the internet? Don't they realize that it doesn't match the tone and style of their writing? Don't they realize mismatched shoes does nothing but prolong their inevitable rejection? Argh! How I detest short cuts and subversion.
The beagle continues attacking her designer chewie bone instead of filing contracts. You set the tone by talking about the all-important query letter, she mumbles.
Yeah, but that was with the idea the author would actually write their own!
She claims it's all my fault. Bitch.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
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You can nab query letters off the Internet? Dang, and I've been doing it the hard way. : )
I think my frustration with the new "trend" by some agents to skip the query letter for the submitted material request, is all the hard work I put into the query letter in the first place. Yes, my manuscript is polished to the moon and back, and the writing - at least to me - is excellent; but the query letter is also (again, at least to me) excellent, and it is not being read. Whew - sorry for the long sentence.
I don't know about other writers, but for me the query letter is the most difficult aspect of writing. I actually despise writing the necessary evil that is the query letter. I do "it" because "it" is required. Sigh. I hate that some agents are missing the brilliance that is my query letter. : )
There is still the possibility that one type of writing doesn't lead to another.
Writing queries is a more pronounced and concise writing technique that some people do not possess. Others, the query letter is the easiest to write and their writing reflects that. The problem comes when a good query writer sends in a great query but can not sustain that level of writing over a novel length work.
On our side of the desk, the heartbreak comes when we see an author whose novel is a delight to read, but whose query letter resembles the latest new techno-babble from the WalMart electronics department.
I think my frustration with the new "trend" by some agents to skip the query letter for the submitted material request, is all the hard work I put into the query letter in the first place.
Scott, don't fret; not every agent and editor does this. Besides, this query letter can be used in all sorts of promotional ways as well. The publishing industry may be a lot of things, but we scavenge everything.
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