query letter

Phrasing a First Impression

March 1, 2010

When you’re submitting a query to an agent or a publisher, you already know that making a good first impression is key. Remember that agents represent and publishers publish. It’s in your best interest to request a result appropriate to the venue you’re querying. It sounds obvious, but as a submissions editor I receive a [...]

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Because the answer can be no

February 1, 2010

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you found out that you were a wizard? What about if you learned that the evil overlord was actually your father? Have you ever thought about leaving everything you know behind and going out into space to search for alien races and cultures? Have you ever wondered [...]

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Query Critiques

January 14, 2010

An excellent manuscript will outshine a not-so-great query letter, but your query is still your first chance to make a good impression so it should be as polished and compelling as it can be. I’ve offered a lot of advice on querying on this blog, and will continue to do so. Demonstration is a helpful [...]

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Patience, grasshoppers…

January 11, 2010

Several times on this blog and in interviews elsewhere, I’ve mentioned that publishing looks like a very slow-moving industry from the outside. Your editors and publishers look calm, unruffled and unmoving on the surface, even when they’re paddling furiously underneath. Today I finished up ARCs for Cold Magics by Erik Buchanan. I have two signed [...]

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Call For Submissions

November 12, 2009

It’s time for an experiment. Dragon Moon Press will be opening its virtual doors for submissions for the month of December, 2009. WHAT WE WANT: Completed 80,000-100,000 word novels in the following genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Gentle Horror, in any flavor or variety. WHAT WE DON’T WANT: Children’s, middle grade, YA, nonfiction, biography, short stories, [...]

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Query Letters: What Not to Do

October 12, 2009

Last week I wrote about query letters, a topic near and dear to every writer’s heart… and often a source of much anxiety. Monday’s post was about the preparation, Thursday’s was on the actual components of a query, and today I’ll follow up with the little details. Because queries are such a source of anxiety, [...]

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Components of a Query Letter

October 8, 2009

This week, I’m talking about query letters. Not a coincidence, since Michell Plested posted our great discussion on query letters and submissions on Monday. Please go and take a listen if you have a chance. First, before I get into the actual parts of the query letter, a note on formatting guidelines. Formatting guidelines exist [...]

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Querying and Submissions

October 5, 2009

This week, Michell Plested and I met up for another interview over on Get Published, talking this time about query letters and the submissions process. It’s a great interview, even though I’m a little sniffly in places. We aimed to cover a lot of the questions that writers have when they start to send out [...]

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