Aspiring book-deal-seekers are aggressively refining their query letters, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Here are two recent email queries that I received that demonstrate the energy with which people seek agents and want book deals. Notice: I didn’t say they were authors. What is becoming evident, is how focused and minimalist queries have become.
The first sender opened with this line: “Fiction books in general have always been and will continue to be a favorite in the world of books and reading.” That’s an exact quote. I replied that “fiction books are called novels,” and declined to pursue the query. I quickly got a snarky reply: “Didn’t ask for your critique on it – FICTION books in general are not necessarily NOVELS!”
This illustrates two key aspects of publishing today. First, people yearning for book-deals, presume that the act of submission is a demand for acceptance, not an invitation to critique. I guess I didn’t get the memo. Second, while not all fiction is of novel length, authors are generally picky about words, and always say what they mean. Book-deal-seekers really don’t know what books are or take the time to use the appropriate word for the idea they think they have.
My second example of the new minimalist query, is actually a composite one, inspired by this morning’s query for a collection of short biographies. The query sender was actually quite literate and sensible and proposed a not bad idea. But the query was formed of three parts:
1.) A pretty catchy title, 2.) a brief author bio and 3.) the request to “imagine a bestselling book here.” No hint of an approach to the topic or content was included.
This got me recalling an increasing number of novel queries I’ve seen in the past few months. These unhappy queries exhibit this pattern:
1.) A brief selection of familiar scenarios from the genre, or “important” themes, like isolation, grief or love, if the novel is literary.
2.) Micro character bios of the major characters and sometimes a list of the cities in which the action takes place.
3.) The exhortation to “imagine a great story here,” but no actual hint of a story or plot.
I decline this sort of query, because I don’t have time to look for unexpressed virtue in prose. Nor do I enquire at a Sushi Resturant if they serve fish. I expect the author and chef to know what they are about.
Sad to say, I’m also seeing this trend appear in published novels. Usually hot-genre, trendy novels, bought for marketing purposes by Publishers so they can have a certain kind of book on their lists. In the novel form, the appeal to the reader becomes: “imagine some great dialog here.”
I’m tempted to respond with: “Imagine wild-eyed appreciation for your work, which alas, we cannot take on for reasons totally unrelated to the words you wrote.”
I blame it all on two things: free blogs and fan fiction!
Thanks to the free blogs (which I love and use daily!), anyone with a computer gets to post (or, as they see it, “publish”) the most random of minutiae and find an audience for it, which leaves them feeling entitled to the attention of the publishing industry.
And thanks to fan fiction, anyone who is unhappy with the ending of a novel or a T.V. episode get to jump online and read the myriad “alternate endings” to said novels or shows. Enamored with the instant gratification of these audience-driven plot resolutions, they fail to notice the horrible grammar or weak plot constructions in these fan fiction postings.
And now they’re taking what they believe about publishing–from blogs and fan fiction forums–and throwing it at your feet, demanding publishing deals, to boot. Bless your heart!
The query letter can be a beast but it doesn’t have to be a tragedy. Thanks for the advice, I’ll be sure to delete all those things now… No more “This is the best novel in the whole world and no one will be able to resist the urge to read it”. Darn, I guess I better start over
It will never cease to amaze me how a person can spend a year or more writing a novel only to dash off a query letter in twenty minutes.
I think Jenny hit the problem on the head; it’s about the instant gratification of someone finishing a novel and expecting immediate approval. There is a sense of entitlement in that anything less than complete admiration for an individual’s effort is considered as a personal affront.
I cringe every time I read a post like this on a reputable agency’s blog.
Teresa
I was under the impression that you weren’t open to fiction queries in the first place (whether novels or “fiction books”), as it states on your PM page. Am I wrong, or was your fiction-book querier just clueless about this, too? (And shouldn’t that be “book of fiction” anyway?)
Hi Ms. Grayson:
I understand you must receive a great deal of query letters that are poorly written, but if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to share an irony I thought about when I read your Feb 8th post.
For fiction, you only accept submissions from book-length published authors, which means the people sending you these query letters did something right in the past. I can, in all honesty and full objectivity, tell you my query letter doesn’t brag or embellish on the quality of the story, provides information about the plot, and only offers a very general protagonist bio, but you’ll never read it because I’ve only published short stories, magazine articles and newspaper columns.
Certainly I understand why that’s the case, and I’m not complaining. Your first and foremost responsibilities are to your clients, and while I might say “that’s not fair now,” if/when I get an agent I’ll expect the same thing if reading query letters significantly hinders his or her ability to help me get my novel published.
Perhaps being previously published enflames egos and that shows in the query letters, and perhaps – to your earlier point – these specific queries aren’t from authors. But certainly some of your query letters are from novelists, and while I see your point, I wonder if by selecting such a narrow audience, you invite a certain arrogance in these letters.
Just some thoughts. I’ve enjoyed following your authors and wish you the best.
-Justin
I think query letters are getting shorter because for about ten years I was being told, “Editors and agents are busy. Keep your query letter to one page. Sales people in publishing houses have short attention spans. Write a one page synopsis.” Of course, that doesn’t explain a bad query letter, but it would explain a short one.
Dear Ms. Grayson,
Those of us who are new in the writing arena are encouraged to keep queries short, to the point. “Above all, don’t waste the agents time…”
I read books, attend conferences, and seek advice from anyone who has successfully made it past the query stage. Have you posted one of your favorite query letters as an example? I would love to read it. Thank you!