A Query Letter by J. B. Stanley

By now you should all know that because of a number of requests, you are reading the short series I’m doing on query letters that helped my clients get my attention and eventually representation. Next in line is J. B. Stanley. Another letter from 2004. Clearly that was a good year for me. J.B. is another author who has been nothing but busy since signing with BookEnds. She has had two mystery series published and has two more in the works, with three different publishers in all. Her latest mysteries include Stiffs and Swines and the upcoming The Battered Body. So here’s the letter that launched J.B.’s career.

J. B. Stanley
Address
Email

February 6, 2004

Ms. Jessica Faust
BookEnds LLC
136 Long Hill Road
Gillette, NJ 07933

Dear Ms. Faust,

I found your agency’s name under the heading “Recommended Agents” on several web sites created for writers. Therefore, I am sending this query to see whether you would be interested in a cozy mystery entitled Death of a Collector.

Death of a Collector is a 48,000 word novel meant to be the first in a series of antiques-themed mysteries. Appealing to both mystery fans and to the millions of collectors fighting over items on Ebay, Death of a Collector examines the fanatical desire for ownership that dominates the world of collectibles. Desire often leads to murder.

Amateur sleuth Molly Appleby is a writer for Collector’s Weekly. Covering the auction beat, Molly also interviews key figures in the collecting world. On a muggy North Carolina morning, Molly attends her first kiln opening where she witnesses the death of a rude, diabetic collector named George-Bradley. The secondary mystery is that George-Bradley’s southern pottery collection is missing pieces created by a reclusive potter.

Death of a Collector contains an eccentric cast of supporting characters including a bossy mother, an overly affectionate auctioneer, a truculent boss, the catty, gay “Queen of Classifieds,” as well as the shy, handsome Marketing Director (who becomes Molly’s love interest). There is also an unusual voice interrupting the narrative. The “voice of clay” comes directly from a piece of art pottery and provides short, lyrical clues.

I have a B.A. in English from Franklin & Marshall College, a M.A. in English from University of West Chester, and a M.L.I.S. from North Carolina Central University. I taught English to middle school students for 8 years, but am now peddling folk art paintings on the Internet. I have worked in both auction houses and an antique shop. I occasionally contribute articles on auctions to AntiqueWeek and to Raleigh’s News and Observer. Other than that, my writing has been limited to unpublished children’s stories and some poetry published in small journals during grad school.

I would be willing to work with your agency in all aspects required in transforming a completed manuscript into a saleable book. Please recycle these pages if they are not for you. Thank you so much for your valuable time.

Sincerely,

J. B. Stanley (Jennifer)

What I like about all of these samples is how very different they are. In this one, J.B.’s opening line is very short and sweet, but it is enough to tell me what her book is, that she has a catchy title, and that she’s done her research when it comes to finding an agent.

This letter is over four years old and I’m not sure how I would react nowadays if I saw a word count of 48,000 words. Even for a cozy this is on the short side. However, I think what caused me to ask for more despite the word count is hook. You see, even if there are things that seem off in a query, there are other things like hook or voice that could push us over the edge. I think most agents feel that word count can be altered if the rest is strong enough, and in this case adding 10,000 to 15,000 words should be doable.

What’s interesting about J.B.’s letter is that it’s very detached. I don’t get much of a feel for her voice and I really think, well now I know, that she could do a lot better when writing the description. She’s writing as an outsider telling a story rather than a writer showing the story, which is much more effective. However, cozy mysteries sell so strongly on the hook that often if I see a great hook that I love I’ll request the material no matter what other problems the query might have. It never hurts to read a few sample pages.

J.B.’s bio paragraph is also perfect. Why? She includes information that connects her to the story. We know that she is coming at this not just as a writer, but as someone experienced in the subject, and while that doesn’t necessarily sell a book it does lend it authenticity.

Book Note: J.B. submitted this query at a time when we were accepting unsolicited proposals. After reading her material I requested the full manuscript, but did have some concerns. I ultimately rejected the work with a long explanation as to why. Within a week J.B. resubmitted, and in just a few short weeks after that we sold the three-book series to Berkley. This particular series has since gone out of print, but J.B. has a new series coming soon from St. Martin’s, her Midnight Ink series, and a new series upcoming from Berkley.

Jessica

J. B. Stanley on Mystery Writing

J. B. Stanley
Chili Con Corpses
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Pub date: January 2008
Agent: Jessica Faust



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Author Web/Blog links: www.jbstanley.com, www.cozychicks.com, www.cozychicksblog.com/

Mystery writers have so much fun! We do oddball research that can range from how a .22-caliber gun shoots at close range to the Latin names of cattle vaccines to recipes for authentic chicken enchiladas.

It must be strange to live with a mystery writer. We are always killing people in print, and when we’re not writing a chapter in which somebody dies, we’re planning to write one in the near future. We scheme on behalf of our villains and stab, shoot, poison, suffocate, and commit vehicular manslaughter on a regular basis.

I often call my father-in-law in Utah (he is an expert on a spectrum of potentially lethal drugs) to ask him for advice on deadly dosages, side effects, and the appearance of cadavers. My husband listens to these conversations with a smirk on his face. He knows how much I enjoy coming up with original murder scenarios and how much his father enjoys pontificating over the negative uses of opiates. If I wasn’t a mystery writer, I’m not sure that his father would even know what to talk to me about.

The other night, after the kids were in bed and the dishwasher was merrily gurgling away as it worked on the caked grease I had created on the stove top an hour earlier, I was surfing on the Internet when I suddenly blurted, “There just isn’t enough clip art showing poisons on the Web! I need some violent drawings for my library presentation.”

My husband replied, “Isn’t that a good thing? The lack of clip art showing poison?”

I scowled and continued to complain. “And all the clip art showing murderers and felons shooting guns are drawings of men! Women kill people too. Sexist clip art. Jeez.”

This comment was followed by my husband swiveling around on his desk chair to ask, “What’s for dessert?”

Poisons cannot compare with dessert, of course, so that was the end of the night’s research.

This is the life we lead. By we, I’m referring to the Cozy Chicks. We are seven rather average women. We cook, clean, care for children, and do a little harmless killing. If you saw one of us in the grocery store, you’d never know that we’re dreaming of the hit-and-run scene we’ll pen as soon as we pick up the dry cleaning. The dumbbells at the gym remind us of the blunt object our killer will use on his second victim, and as we feed the fish in our child’s room, we ponder the possibility of a drowning in the next book in the series.

Okay, so maybe we’re not your average chick, but our time seated in front of the computer screen is never dull.

What is your favorite part about being a writer?