Debut Author Interviews

Describe the query letter that got you published.

• G. Neri on...Query Letters
• A.C.E. Bauer on...Query Letters
• Carrie Jones on...Query Letters
• Melissa Marr on...Query Letters
• Ruth McNally Barshaw on...Query Letters
• Greg R. Fishbone on...Query Letters
• Jeannine Garsee on...Query Letters

Describe the query letter that got you published.

Oddly enough, my successful query letter didn’t result in a sale for the book I was pushing, but it started the ball rolling and turned into a 2 book deal for 2 other books, neither of which existed at the time of the letter.

I had a multicultural juvenile biography that I sent to Lee and Low Books. What shocked me was 6 days after I sent the snail mail request, I had a snail mail answer: one page of revision notes and a request to see anything else I had. Well, of course I did the revisions which took me to the next stage: email communication and a long series of back-and-forths reworking the story.

Around the same time, I met a writer who had won the Lee and Low’s New Voice Award that year. I had had an idea about turning an old screenplay I had written into a picture book MS, and Lee and Low seemed like a good place to send it. I vaguely remember not wanting to overload the editor I was communicating with (because I was so close with the juvenile biography), so I sent PB to the New Voices contest. Well, in the four months waiting for a decision on both fronts, I had the even better idea of turning that PB into a YA graphic novel and went ahead and wrote the script for it.

Soon, I received a request from the editor. They loved my PB story but felt it was too serious for a PB and wondered if I’d be interested in turning it into a YA book. I said I would and here it is: the graphic novel script. Well, that became my first book sale YUMMY, and a few months after that, my editor asked me if I’d be interested in taking a stab at a subject matter she’d been wanting to do for years. Of course I said yes, I’d give it a shot. I knew if she liked it, it’d be a guaranteed sale and I wanted to do something for her for taking a chance on YUMMY. Well, that one became my 2nd book CHESS RUMBLE. Both will be coming out next year.

And the funny thing is, I never did sell that juvenile biography…

Describe the query letter that got you published.

It’s not the query letter that got me published. It was the novel.

I don’t believe in the magic of query letters. Mine are fairly standard: a one-line introduction, a paragraph that describes the plot in 25 words or so, a paragraph that describes my writing experience, and a thank you line. I get pretty consistent requests to see my writing. However, on about 100 tries, I only got 2 acceptances. It wasn’t that my work wasn’t being read, it was that the work I was submitting wasn’t what the editors wanted. When what I submitted matched the editor’s interest, then I had a sale.

Describe the query letter that got you published.

I did EVERYTHING wrong in my query. Seriously. It’s horribly ridiculous how stupid I was.

Here’s my livejournal post about it when I realized my MASSIVE mistake. The realization occurred when my future editor called.

Be warned. It is sad.

“Okay. Here’s the big question of the day: Why am I so stupid?

Although, he was kind and he did say, “It’s the manuscript I care about, not your inability to spell your own name.””

The actual letter itself? I put in blurbs from mentors who said good things about me. I wrote a quick summary of the book. I had a ridiculous title for the novel. Andrew later said, “I knew with a title like that, it had to be one of the worst submissions ever, or really good.”

Does that help?

Describe the query letter that got you published.

For the most part, mine’s pretty standard stuff.

Para #1— Why I’m querying you. This varies by agent, but here’s one example “As you are reputed to be building your list of speculative fiction authors, I am writing to inquire if you would be interested in seeing my urban fantasy novel for older YA readers,TITLE (65k).”

Para #2— Overview of novel (4 lines total, short synopsis)

***Para #3— Other details (“The novel, which is set in a smaller city with a high unemployment rate, utilizes the third person narratives of all three of the primary protagonists—Aislinn, Keenan, and Donia. I believe it would appeal to older teen readers of such novels as __________. While it does contain some darker elements ___________, they are not gratuitous.”)

Para #4— Intro of my creds (nothing much to say here, so I stated my undergrad & grad degrees & that I’ve been teaching university for a decade plus)

Para #5— Closing (“As per your guidelines, I am enclosing ________ of the novel, which has not been submitted to editors yet. If you’d like to consider TITLE, I’d happily forward it to you in print or digital format.)

In my opinion, Paragraph #3 is the only “odd thing” I did. Basically, I answered “what makes this text different?” & “where does it fit?” My response rate was very high. The agent I chose used a version of my letter in her pitch to the editors.

That said, I think A.C.E. had the magic answer here—query letters don’t sell books. Query letters can make an agent or editor pause to look at the text. The selling part is about the text itself. Even the world’s best query letter can only get you to the door, it’s the text that gets you into the house.

Describe the query letter that got you published.

I didn’t write a query for my novel.

I’d just returned from the big SCBWI conference in NYC, in Feb 2005 with dismal hopes for when I would ever be published, but also with an excellent sketchbook of all the action at the conference.

I put the 150 page sketchbook online and emailed the link to some writer groups.
Hundreds of emails poured in, many urging me to write a kids’ book in that style. So I said I would.
A few days later an agent emailed me, saying she was interested in seeing the book when it was ready.
Two weeks later I sent her the link to the first 54 pages of the book, all online and easy to access.

She loved it and we started working together.
Hope springs eternal.

Describe the query letter that got you published.

I’d done some web design work for Blooming Tree Press, so my first query was tacked onto the bottom of an email about migrating to a new ISP. Something like, “…and the new server infrastructure will allow double-throughput and increased bandwidth. By the way, I’ve got this funny middle grade novel—shall I send it to you?” I imagine they received that about as well as the movie star who gets a screenplay handed to her by a taxi driver on the way from the airport, so I wouldn’t recommend this approach to anyone else.

The note I attached to the manuscript probably said something like, “Here’s the manuscript I told you about, which you said I should consult the submissions guidelines about before sending in. I printed it out in a weird handwriting font intermixed with doodles because that’s how the main character would have written it.” I don’t recommend this approach to anyone else either because it just landed me in the slush pile.

One day, a couple months later, I was chatting with a friend who asked about my writing and whether I had anything submitted anywhere. I told her that I had something out to Blooming Tree Press. By coincidence, she’d just taken an editorial job there and was able to snag my manuscript out of the pile and show it to all the right people.

So I guess the message that really got the book sold was an IM something like “I have gr8 bk at BTP”. If anyone else is looking for a fresh and proven approach to publishers they should just “go4it!”

Describe the query letter that got you published.

Mine was an absolutely straightfoward query. I began with an introduction to my MC and her immediate circumstances—a “hook” I had worked on for weeks before I felt it was ready. I then moved on to a couple of lines about the mounting crises in her life, and ended that paragraph with what I felt was another strong hook. Because I am (literally!) bio-less, i.e. nothing I ‘ve done in my life even remotely pertains to my story, I had never been published before, and my college major was pretty irrevelant, I simply named several authors whose work I felt was similar to mine, added the word count of the novel, and thanked my agent for her time. And trust me—I ‘m STILL thanking her! :)