Well, my brain is pretty much completely consumed by BEA preparations at this time (plus some amaaaazing new client work), so I don’t have much mental space left for an amazing new blog post. I *am* getting a bit behind on queries, though, so how about we kill two birds with one stone here and do a little 10 queries? If you’re unfamiliar, this is an insight into the query process, what makes an agent request or reject a manuscript. You can often find it from a variety of agents on Twitter with the hashtag #tenqueries.
1. Women’s fiction – Really great, personalized query with just the right amount of voice (enough to be interesting, not so much as to sound crazy). The writing is good, but not my favorite style and the synopsis makes me think the story isn’t really my thing. Reject.
2. Paranormal romance? This story seems to be a unique twist on a very tired trope, but the query isn’t entirely clear on the genre and it just doesn’t seem like it really fits with my list. Reject.
3. Mystery. Mysteries have to be just right for me to take them on, preferably with an element of women’s fiction or historical fiction (or something quirky with a great voice). This is a pretty old school mystery of the sort I don’t usually really enjoy reading, plus it is about 10,000 words too short. Reject.
4. ???. This was cc’ed to every agent in our agency, plus about 50 other people and has two attachments with zero information in the body of the email. Do Not Do This. Reject.
5. Historical fiction. This is a bit on the long side and was already self-published two years ago and has a few reviews, but not many. Please don’t look for an agent and publisher just because you want professional marketing, lots of books get very minimal marketing budget, and without some pretty stellar sales numbers I’m not going to be able to get a publisher interested in something that is already out there in the first place. Reject.
6. Literary women’s fiction. Good, but just not good enough, particularly because there is no full 1-2 page synopsis, so I can’t get a really good picture of just how the whole thing fits together. Reject.
7. Historical fiction. This is a war story, which I’m not particularly into, and it involves one of the periods which I’m really, really over (I will request almost no Civil War or WWII stories). Reject.
8. Commercial fiction. This query has a great hook, but the plot just seems too close to a big book/tv series that was popular very recently. The author addresses the similarity, but not in a way that makes me feel that this is different enough. Reject.
9. Literary fiction. Diverse plot line and good writing. Would have liked a longer synopsis and more information about the author, but this is enough to pique my interest. Request.
10. Mystery. Based on the synopsis this isn’t for me, but it is a nice, professional query and the beginning of the writing sample looks good. Reject, but refer to Michelle.
