Reader Question: When to Say When

This actually came up as a comment on a blog post I wrote about Cutting the Apron Strings.

In the comments the reader asked, "Is there a point where you should give up on querying a book?" 

I think the logical answer to this question is yes, but then I think back to the story I shared about client Shelley Coriell and some of our own submission stories about books we wouldn't give up on. Do you know that I once had a proposal sit on an editor's desk for two years before I got an offer?

There are two answers to this question for me. The first is that you stop querying when you know it's time. People often say, "you'll know" about a lot of different things in life. Usually unpleasant things. Although it's cliche, I do think it's true. We usually know when enough is enough with something. The real struggle is admitting it.

The second answer is when you start querying your next book. The minute you start querying you've put that book away and have started work on the next book. If you haven't, you better. This means you're busy doing two things at once. Sending out queries, and maybe reworking that query letter a few times, and writing the next book. You are NOT rewriting the book you are querying. Once you start querying it's too late for that. If you haven't received an offer by the time the second book is ready to go out it's time to put the first book to rest.

Presumably you've learned a lot from the query process and your own writing so it would be a shame to continue to query the weaker of what are now your two books.

--jhf

**If you have a question for the BookEnds Blog feel free to email us at blog@bookends-inc.com and we'll answer as soon as we can.

Senseless Queries

Recently I had a rash of queries that I couldn't make any sense of. It was so bad that I started to wonder if maybe I hadn't had enough caffeine and it was me and not the authors.

When writing anything--your book, your query, this blog--we sometimes know exactly what we're thinking and what we're going to say and forget that we need to step outside of our own heads to make sure that what we're saying is going to make sense to the reader. In this case, the queries were difficult to follow and I didn't get a good sense of the story.

Let me see if I can give you an example:

Frani Franks and her best friend Frankie have no idea that opening the ice cream shoppe, Ice n' Delicious will lead to a murder that's most definitely not vanilla and that seems related to the cocoa beans they love in their chocolate.

The victim loves to eat pistachio ice cream every day and once came in a stole an entire gallon from the shoppe. But vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and the shoppe's brand new table and chairs are all linked to the mayor of the town and Frani had no idea that her new shoppe could be her last hurrah.

The killer's enthusiasm to eat ice cream leads Frani to the mayor's house where they find that it's more than ice cream that they're after, that the entire town might be in danger because of a giant land development project....

And yes, I do get queries that are this confusing.

If you're struggling to write the query read some back cover copy to see how books do it and then review some of the queries I have on this blog and some of the critiques Janet Reid has done on her blog. Because, honestly, any agent who receives a query like this is going to reject the book simply because we assume the book is just as confusing.

--jhf

Dissecting the Query

I feel like I've written so much on queries over the years that there isn't anything more I could possibly say. In some ways I feel like the subject is old news. I hope you're here to tell me I'm wrong.

For those who don't already know this, agents write queries too. At times we will verbally pitch manuscripts to editors, but even if we call every editor to pitch a new project we still need some sort of cover letter to include when sending the material. Hence, the query.

Just before sitting down to write this post I sent along some thoughts on a query one of my BookEnds team members is working on. We don't always share our queries with each other, but every once in a while we come across a book that's particularly challenging to describe and need the help of everyone else.

While reading the query I had some thoughts or tips on what we all can and need to look at when writing our own queries.

• Keep it short. Not just the query letter, but your descriptions. Try not to get overly descriptive in your query. If you can cut a word or two you absolutely should. Remember, a query is meant to grab the reader's attention and too many words often loses someone. An example of this would be in a recent query about an apocalypse. The letter writer had said, "a near-future version of our world." My feeling is that an apocalypse in a SF book is likely always a near-future version of our world so that line could be dumped. Short, tight and to the point
• When in doubt start fresh. Sometimes the biggest struggle we have when writing anything is that we're trying too hard to rewrite. Don't. Instead sit back, think about the story and just start writing. Maybe you'll end up using some of the same material you've already been working on or maybe you've just written the perfect query.
• Use others, especially those who haven't read your book. In this case I was the perfect sounding board for the query because I really had no idea what the book was about therefore I could look at the query and think about what would entice me to want to read more.

Now, keep your fingers crossed that the query we just finalized grabs editors.

--jhf

Submitting to Agents: What Not to Do

This is probably a post title I'll use a lot. If we're lucky.

Frequently I get submissions, queries or even just questions that I'll refer to another agent at BookEnds. I feel very lucky to work with such smart women with different tastes and as such, referring something usually means I think it has merit, but I think someone else at the agency would be a better advocate for it.

Recently I received one of the best responses to a referral yet. The author had simply sent a question asking who at the agency would be best for YA or Fantasy. Naturally I referred her to Beth. I love that we finally have an agent representing SFF. Since my assistant years were spent working for Ginjer Buchanan at Ace it's a something I've missed for a long time.

Sorry, lost in my own train of thought.

So, I referred the author to Beth. The author responded to me by attaching the submission and explaining that she was out and about running errands and didn't have time to look up Beth's email so she just sent the material my way to pass along.

When querying agents its important to remember that you are taking the first step to seek a business partner, someone you want to invest in your product. If you don't have the time to make that initial contact yourself to find your business partner I'm pretty sure that's a partner who doesn't want to take the time to read your proposal.


--jhf

Don't Judge a Book, or an Agent, by her Cover

While traveling the globe (this might be a slight exaggeration) speaking at writers conferences and talking with authors I learn a lot about myself. 

One day I'll hear from a writer how I don't read Fantasy and the next day I'll hear from a writer how I'm selling a ton of Urban Fantasy. The next week I'm passionate about YA and the next I'm only looking for dark, erotic paranormal mysteries. 

Here's the thing. We agents can be fickle. One day we're only looking for historical romances and the next day we've fallen in love with Chelsea Cain and want nothing but suspense. If you've heard a rumor about what an agent is looking for, or especially what an agent is not looking for, make sure you take the time to find out for yourself. Check the agent's website, Tweet the agent or simply send the agent a query. What's the worse that can happen? A rejection. At least you tried.

There's nothing worse to an agent than the feeling we're missing out on something amazing because five years ago, at a conference in The Middle of Nowhere, USA, we mentioned that we're not a fan of Historical Urban Fantasy Children's Books and like a game of telephone we now don't like urban fantasy, historicals, or YA.

--jhf

Queries: How Long is too Long to Wait?

This is a question I've answered in my past life as a BookEnds blogger, but since this is a new life on the blog and a new world I thought I'd tackle it again.

During a recent #askagent session on Twitter I was asked how long is too long to wait on a query. I hope my answer wasn't too confusing to the Tweeter, but ultimately two minutes is too long to wait. I can see agents everywhere freaking out right now.

What I mean by that is you should never sit and wait. Once a query leaves your inbox you need to consider it gone and move on. Never sit around and wait for an agent to answer and by that I mean "sit and wait" instead move on to the next query and your next writing project. When you get an answer you can check the agent off your checklist, but until then consider your query alive, the agent well and yourself busy with something new.

These days there are too many agents who follow the "no response means no" tactic for authors to wait around. In some respects I tell authors to send off a query and consider it rejected until they hear otherwise, or until they receive an offer (then absolutely bug the agent). If the agent is one who guarantees a response than you should follow up when, and only when, the time frame as per their guidelines has passed.

--jhf

Time to Cut the Apron Strings

One of the mantras in writing is to never give up. The persistent are the ones who achieve the most success if for any other reason because they are the ones still standing. That being said, sometimes I think there is a time to give up. Never on the writing, on the book.

All too often I hear writers talk about a book of the heart. The one no is ready to let go of, the one the author can't stop writing. One year goes by, two years go by, three years. The book is still the only book on the computer. Let it go!

We call our books our babies and whether we like it or not, babies grow up and leave the nest. Your book must also leave the nest. But how do you know? How do you know that your book is ready to go off into the great wide world with only what you've taught her? You know. Trust me, you know. Or if you don't you just have to make the decision that its time.

The minute you start submitting and querying your baby you've let go. Now you have to trust that you've put everything you have into her and it's her turn to shine. For you, it's time to go back to the drawing board and start working on getting that next baby ready for the world. 

When you find yourself running in circles, constantly tweaking and editing the same chapter, the same book, it's time to walk away. Maybe your first baby will never leave the nest forever, but we all learn from our mistakes and the best way to put what we have learned into use is to start on something new.

--jhf

250 Words on Self-Promotion

I am a subscriber to Simon & Schuster's 250 Words daily posts. For those who don't know they are posts in which authors discuss what they've learned from a favorite business book (typically not their own) in 250 Words or less. As a business owner I love business tips and advice and I love it even more when I can get a great deal of new information in just 250 words.

A few weeks ago there was a post that directly referenced authors. The post, How Can We Show Off What We Know Without Being Labeled a Show-Off discusses how people respond to an author (or any person) when the author is talking about her credentials and successes. A study was done in which an author presented her own impressive list of successes and then an agent presented that same author's successes (read the post). Not surprisingly, people responded more positively to hearing about the author's successes from the agent. If you read the article I suspect you'll have that same reaction.

Well that's great for the agented author, but what about the unagented author in search of an agent. How is she supposed to talk up her great platform without looking like a braggart or like someone who is likely to become difficult?

The one thing for authors to remember is you need to talk about your platform. Especially if you're writing nonfiction. But how do you do that without making yourself sound like the kind of author no one is going to want to work with? The key is in presentation. For me the way that works the best is putting the book first. In your query you might want to mention one or two things that make you a stand out, but then you need to focus on the book. Like this:

Dear Rockstar Agent:

I have been a literary agent for 15 years during which time I ran a successful blog in which I gave readers loads of delicious advice on everything from writing query letters to making cocktails. The blog received, on average, 30 billion hits a day.

**see how I gave them some significant information, but wait, now you'll see how I've linked it all to the book so that information becomes about the book and not so much about me. 

Based on my blog I've written a book entitled Secret Agent. Secret Agent gives readers, all writers, the advice and guidance they'll need to make their book a surefire success in the market. Using the analytics from my blog I'll be able to write a book that contains only the most valuable and attractive information to readers. 

My blog has been running successfully for over 10 years. As I mentioned earlier, I receive 30 billion hits a day and will use the blog to cross-promote the book. In addition, I'm the youngest inductee into the Literary Agent Hall of Fame, I've appeared on Oprah to give my vast insights into why memoirist shouldn't lie and I've represented pretty much all of the top names in the literary world. 

I look forward to hearing whether you're interested in reading more of my book.

Sincerely,

Jessica Faust 

The key is to give enough information that you grab the reader's attention, but not so much you turn them off. How did I do?

Fiction writers probably don't have a platform necessary to sell a book. In other words, unless you're a doctor writing a book about doctors or something comparable there is not a lot fiction writers need to write about themselves. That's perfectly acceptable.

Oh, one last thing, whatever you do say about yourself must be true. You all know there's no Literary Agent Hall of Fame right?

--jhf

Stress Cures

I have one of those little squeeze balls on my desk, the kind that are supposed to help you relieve stress. This one says Squeeze a Cowboy and was a bit of swag I probably got at RWA. It was from author Rebecca Zanetti and I don't have a clue how old it is.

When I'm stressed I'll grab my ball and squeeze it. Honestly though, it doesn't seem to do me any good. It only reminds me how tense my hands feel. Or how weak they are.

Often working out will help, but its rare that I can leave the office in the middle of the day for a workout. I'd like to think wine would work, but if I'm really anxious wine actually makes things worse.

In the end I do think the best thing for stress, for me anyway, is just to walk away. Leave my desk, my house, the airport gate or whatever it is that's stressing me out. Take a break completely and come back later with, hopefully, a new perspective.

But that's just me. I'd love to hear any ideas for better handling stressful moments/days/weeks.

--jhf

Halloween Reads & Taking the Horror out of Pitch Appointments

I have a confession to make. I don't think of myself as a scary book reader and, to the best of my knowledge, I've never (gulp) read Stephen King. I know, I know...

I have read Dean Koontz and loved Thomas Harris so its not like I've never ready a scary book. I just haven't read the King.

Recently I've been on a Chelsea Cain kick, as anyone who follows me on Twitter knows. And while she's not a horror writer those books are absolutely scary. In fact, I love dark books and I really love dark serial killer books. Years ago I had the absolute privilege of reading an edge-of-your seat manuscript that kept me turning pages well past closing time. The book was The Broken by Shelley Coriell.

I first met Shelley at an RWA National pitch appointment. It was one of the most memorable appointments I ever had. Shelley sat down across from me and announced that she already knew I was the agent she wanted, she just wanted to introduce herself so that I knew who she was. It was awesome. She finished up the appointment by handing me a recipe for her Blackberry Cobbler because she knew I loved to cook. Smart woman.

The minute I finished reading The Broken I knew I had to have it. I offered, Shelley said yes and together we determinedly set forth to find a publisher and bring that amazing book to readers. Sadly, we couldn't find an editor who agreed with us. Romantic suspense wasn't selling and while editors loved the book they just weren't convinced it was the right time. So Shelley decided to take a break from that and move on to writing something different. We parted ways. For a while.

A few years later I got a call from Shelley. She refused (thankfully) to let go of The Broken and since I was the agent who first handled it wanted to know if I wanted back on this wild ride. Of course I did! Within weeks (days really) we sold The Broken at auction to Grand Central.

The Broken published this past April and Shelley's second suspense, The Buried, published this week, just in time for Halloween. And these books are scary as sh**. I mean, they are amazing. So if you're looking for a great scary Halloween read, whether you think of yourself as a romantic suspense reader or not, these are the books you need to pick up.

And Shelley, feel free to correct me on any of this story. It's possible I embellished to make myself look good.

--jhf