The purpose of the query is to sell your MS. But what should you do if the voice in the query doesn’t match the pages? Source: Matching voice in your query and sample
Query & Synopsis
FAILURE IS NOT FATAL
Just the other day, I posted this quote from Winston Churchill: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Normally, I'd just leave it out there and it would hopefully inspire some other folks the way it inspired me. But I've found that over the past few … Continue reading FAILURE IS NOT FATAL
Those Lowdown, Lonesome Query Blues
How does it happen? How is it that this perfectly written, perfectly polished, perfectly appealing manuscript of mine gets so little positive attention? Of course I’m kidding. First of all, I know that nothing’s perfect. Secondly, I know that nothing will appeal to everyone. How many book are there that I haven’t taken out of … Continue reading Those Lowdown, Lonesome Query Blues
That dreaded query letter …
Oh, the dreaded query letter! It is, in my opinion, the hardest thing in the world to write. Writing an effective query letter takes the ability to ignore your creative urges and write in a way that‘s totally foreign to your instincts. Remember how you used to write book reports in grade school? You’d take … Continue reading That dreaded query letter …
Query Letter Reaction #2
I got another personalized rejection in response to a query letter recently. If you remember, the first agent liked the characters and plot of WHISPERS IN THE CANYON, but she felt my writing was too brusque. I've taken steps to correct that. The new agent likes my writing and the plot, but rejected it because … Continue reading Query Letter Reaction #2
A BADGE OF HONOR
A couple of weeks ago, I started sending query letters out. Yesterday, I got my first form rejection. I fully expected to be upset when this happened, and it took me a little while to understand why I wasn't. When this novel was first completed and I was looking for a literary agent, the internet … Continue reading A BADGE OF HONOR
The Query Letter Revisited
The manuscript was completed, polished and pared down to the optimal length for a first-time author. And it was time for me to write a query letter and see if I could get an agent interested in my book. There are a ton of resources online with instructions on how to write a query, and … Continue reading The Query Letter Revisited
Gifford MacShane, Author 