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mbarker.livejournal.comWriting Excuses 10.51: Q&A On Sharing Your Work, with Daniel Jose Older
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2015/12/20/writing-excuses-10-51-qa-on-showing-your-work-with-daniel-jose-older/
Q&A Summary:
Q: What's the best way to meet editors and agents at conventions?
A: Hang out at the bar. Panels! Listen, then talk. Let them bring up business. Ask what they are working on. Do your homework first -- find out who is going to be there, what they've worked on. Don't try to do the whole pitch in person. Get their card and ask if you can send something.
Q: How do you write a query letter?
A: Clear, concises, and precise. What is your story, who are you? One page! Character, conflict, setting, hook. One cool concept that makes people want to know more. What are you most excited about? If it is urban fantasy, make sure it says, "Someone is killing all the were-pigeons."
Q: Should I mention my freelance articles? What do you mention as credentials in a query letter?
A: Legitimate credentials, a little bit about yourself, and mostly about the story. Present it correctly. Relevent credentials. Bio is over-thought and least important. Slim bio is okay.
Q: What about self-publishing?
A: Not covered here. Will try to get a podcast about it.
Q: Can you submit to more than one publisher or agent at the same time?
A: If they don't say No Simultaneous Submissions. Queries, even sample chapters, may be simultaneous. But full submissions, read the instructions.
Q: After you have made revisions, can you resubmit to an agent who rejected you?
A: Send them a query, but probably not. Unless they asked for the revisions.
[Note: There's a lot more stuff in there! Read the transcript for details!]
( Questions, answers, and more! )
[Mary] To do that, I have some homework for you. You need to write a query letter. What I want you to do is this. This is your basic format. You're going to have an introduction paragraph. Then you're going to have a summary of your novel paragraph. Then you're going to have a tiny paragraph that is relevant biographical information about yourself. Which can just be this is my name. It can be very, very short. But I want you to do this twice. The first time, I want you to write that summary for a book that you love that is not the book that you wrote. So that you are thinking about the things that Howard mentioned, character, conflict, setting, hook, with someone else's work. Then I want you to apply that, those lessons to your own work. Write the query, the summary, as if it is a book that you love that someone else has written. Because it will help you to get focused on it and not quite be so flaily and trying to describe all of it all at the same time.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2015/12/20/writing-excuses-10-51-qa-on-showing-your-work-with-daniel-jose-older/
Q&A Summary:
Q: What's the best way to meet editors and agents at conventions?
A: Hang out at the bar. Panels! Listen, then talk. Let them bring up business. Ask what they are working on. Do your homework first -- find out who is going to be there, what they've worked on. Don't try to do the whole pitch in person. Get their card and ask if you can send something.
Q: How do you write a query letter?
A: Clear, concises, and precise. What is your story, who are you? One page! Character, conflict, setting, hook. One cool concept that makes people want to know more. What are you most excited about? If it is urban fantasy, make sure it says, "Someone is killing all the were-pigeons."
Q: Should I mention my freelance articles? What do you mention as credentials in a query letter?
A: Legitimate credentials, a little bit about yourself, and mostly about the story. Present it correctly. Relevent credentials. Bio is over-thought and least important. Slim bio is okay.
Q: What about self-publishing?
A: Not covered here. Will try to get a podcast about it.
Q: Can you submit to more than one publisher or agent at the same time?
A: If they don't say No Simultaneous Submissions. Queries, even sample chapters, may be simultaneous. But full submissions, read the instructions.
Q: After you have made revisions, can you resubmit to an agent who rejected you?
A: Send them a query, but probably not. Unless they asked for the revisions.
[Note: There's a lot more stuff in there! Read the transcript for details!]
( Questions, answers, and more! )
[Mary] To do that, I have some homework for you. You need to write a query letter. What I want you to do is this. This is your basic format. You're going to have an introduction paragraph. Then you're going to have a summary of your novel paragraph. Then you're going to have a tiny paragraph that is relevant biographical information about yourself. Which can just be this is my name. It can be very, very short. But I want you to do this twice. The first time, I want you to write that summary for a book that you love that is not the book that you wrote. So that you are thinking about the things that Howard mentioned, character, conflict, setting, hook, with someone else's work. Then I want you to apply that, those lessons to your own work. Write the query, the summary, as if it is a book that you love that someone else has written. Because it will help you to get focused on it and not quite be so flaily and trying to describe all of it all at the same time.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.
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