5 November 2003

Query Letters, Critiquing & Emotional Trauma: A Novelist's Guide To Selling That First Book
by Wen Spencer
www.wenspencer.com

Wen Spencer is a 2003 finalist for the John Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The Compton Crook winning Alien Taste was Wen Spencer's first professional sale. It marked the start of the Ukiah Oregon Series, which also includes Tainted Trail (nominated for the 2002 Romantic Times Bookclub Reviewer's Choice Award for Best SF) and the newly released Bitter Waters. LOCUS called Bitter Waters an "engrossing, thrill-filled adventure, full of fascinating alien—and human—weirdness." A fourth book, Dog Warrior, will be released next May by Roc, followed by a stand alone novel, A Brother's Price. Baen will release the novel Tinker in hardback this November.

You finished a novel? YEAH YOU!

First things first. Stephen King recommends a 'cool down' period where you put away the manuscript and wait, so you can see the flaws better when you take it out. When you get to Stephen King's level of writing, the drawer is a good place to put it, but I recommend first readers and critque groups. If you don't have any, www.critters.org and www.hollylisle.com are two places where you can meet people that are willing to look at full novels, usually at the price at looking at theirs! Reading other people's stuff can help you see what you're doing wrong and right.

Take anything said to you with a grain of salt (including my instructions here.) Actually maybe a truck load of salt. I have levels of first readers, some I just nod and smile to. I'm listening for "I didn't understand" or "I got confused" or "this didn't make sense." Other first readers I'm willing to totally rewrite endings for, but the trust in them has been built up over the years.

Editors want a first novel to be as perfect as you can get it, because if you turn in a flawed novel, they don't know if you can revise, which is a totally different skill. Some writers when told to revise will throw out the old and merely write a new rough draft. That isn't the same as skillfully inserting a scattering of sentences here and there that redefines the novel. So this step is very important for a first novel. It's unlikely you'll get a 'this was good up to the end, fix the end and we'll talk' letter. It might happen, but its better to fix the end before you submit.

Take into account the emotional battering you're about to enter into. You'll live through months of hearing nothing and then receive a form letter of rejection. Many first-time novelists lose it here and never write again. Give your first novel every chance it can get to win—and then let it go. Move on to the next project.

Okay, you've got the novel polished. Yeah you!

Research on how to write query letters and sypnosis. Here's a great link: www.fictionwriters.com/tips-synopsis.html This is a secret writer skill that no one talks about. You MUST learn how to write a synopsis because every book you will sell for a long time will need to have one. You editor needs one to go to her boss and say "I love this novel, I want to buy it. Here's a synopsis for it." The synopsis might also go to the artist who does the cover art. I took a month to write the one for Alien Taste, but I got excessive.

I've talked to lots of editors and agents, and they have different answers on the best length for a synposis. I've been told anything from two pages to ten. Most people agree they want something that shows the full story arc with enough detail to show that you've actually had the ending figured out, the ending makes sense, and the action flows in a logical order to that end. Depending on how much material you want to submit, you can send a query letter out alone, with a synopsis, or—with the line "can I send you more" changed to "please find enclosed the entire manuscript" so that the query letter is transformed into a cover letter. Take time to write a nice one for your manuscript.

Query Letter Format
with synopsis

Dear (editor's, agent's name)

I have finished (genre) novel of XXX words.

One or two paragraphs describing the novel. Query letters should only be one page long. Editors will read the synopsis if they want more. Yes, it's hard to sum up 100,000 in two paragraphs, but if your novel sells, you'll have to repeat this short blurb for the rest of your life to your family, friends, kid's teachers, barber, butcher...you get the idea.

If you have any publishing credits, its a good idea to squeeze them in here. Alien Taste was the first thing I sold, so I just skipped this part. When you're completely new, its better to say nothing than admit it. If you have some kind of special skill, like marine biologist for a novel set underwater, or work for NASA, or a doctorate in medieval history, you can mention it here, too.

stand-alone letter

Can I send you a partial submission or the full manuscript?

with partial manuscript

Can I send you more?

cover letter with full manscript

I hope you like this. Sincerely....

The great thing about query letters and agents is that you can send out letters to 100 agents and let them decide if they might be interested in your project. I sent out 50 and got six positive responses of "please send more." The agent I wanted asked for the full manscript and exclusive rights, which meant that when another agent CALLED the next day, I had to ask them to wait until the first agent decided. As it was, the first agent accepted me.

Of course, I also had to deal with 30 some letters coming back rubber stamped with "this does not suit our needs at this time." If I hadn't had any positive responses, I would have rewritten my query letter—obviously something was wrong with it!

Unfortunately, you can't do the same with publishers. They're a one-at-a-time thing. But the most important thing you can do at this point is WRITE ANOTHER NOVEL!!!! Good luck. Have fun. Don't take any of the rejections personally. Just as every reader won't like every book, no matter how well written, so too editors and agents often turn down well-written books that they just don't like.