Thanks to everyone who weighed in yesterday on the question of ghost queries and queries by committee. Strong feelings all around!
Having now read the relevant blog posts, I’m actually not sure that the query that kicked things off is actually the best test case for the debate that followed. I can’t speak for Agent Kristin, but my guess is that since Courtney’s query was preceded by a client’s enthusiastic recommendation and a successful in-person pitch appointment, Agent Kristin probably would have requested the manuscript short of Courtney confessing to a crime and/or stating that she hates kittens and puppies in the query (and she doesn’t — she’s very nice). That’s more of an example of how well networking and referrals work than anything else.
But back to the subject at hand: My own personal preference is absolutely that the person who wrote the book should write the query. I want to hear from the person I’m potentially working with, in their own voice, with their own writing. Incorporating feedback is fine, but I want to hear from the author.
And yet despite those opinions I have always felt decidedly ambivalent about this question, mainly because I know my own personal preferences are basically irrelevant. People are going to do what they’re going to do.
The more important question, to me, is this: does it work?
Call me skeptical.
A query letter is not a competency test. Well, it partly is. Researching how to write a good one is valuable and increases your odds of having your manuscript requested. And getting good feedback from those in the know can definitely help, and I don’t have a problem with that in the least.
At the same time, I think there’s a huge tendency out there to overthink the form of the query, namely because it’s the one part writers can easily control (and what, ahem, blogging agents can blog about). Aspiring authors begin to view the query letter as a lock that can only be picked by those who hold the secret key.
But more important than nailing the form is conveying the author’s voice. It has to come through in the query. And how can a ghost query or query by committee convey the author’s voice?
In a recent interview, agent Dan Lazar talked about how in an otherwise rambling letter there are times when certain lines stand out and make him want to read a manuscript. If the author’s voice wasn’t there, that wouldn’t have happened.
I’m sure a ghost query or query by committee worked before — it’s a big publishing world. But if I were an aspiring author I’d be very careful, paranoid even, about ceding my voice to others. Even if you were to get to the partial request stage, it’s still your work that’s going to rise or fall.
I still stand by my basic feeling: if you can write a publishable book you can write a good query. It may be painful, annoying, time consuming, need feedback, result in hair loss, need some more feedback, take years off your life, and take multiple tries, but you can do it. You are a writer, after all.
(Bonus: Jennifer Jackson addressed this topic as well.)
“Good” is not a measurable compopnent, it’s purely subjective, like beauty.
“Success” is measurable. A query that may seem good to the point of perfection will not meet with success unless the agent wants to sell the work and thinks (s)he can.
The first issue then is to address the right agent. Information is available on agents’ interests, but Nathan can tell us how very often that information may not be appropriate.
Writing a query has been reduced to formula, and having mastered the formula the query may not represent a mastery of writing in general.
I note that now we are well into the era of e-mail enquiries, many agents suggest including a few pages or a chapter of the actual work. That way the author can feel his/her writing has been seen, and the problem does not merely lie in a failure to pass the magic query portal.
Furthermore, the agent doesn’t have to read past the first line of the query if the author states the work is 250,000 words, non-fiction, life of Queen Victoria and the agent handles only steamy romance.
Let me ask you a question, Nathan. If you recieved a query that wasn’t up to par, however, the theme of the book caught your interest, would you request to see the first three chapters?
I get the impression that those who hate query letters most of all are fiction writers, while nonfiction writers seem to have less of a problem with them. That would be understandable to my way of thinking, but I’m not sure if it’s true as a generalization.
I’ve gone through many, many drafts of a single query letter–as many times, or more, as I’ve reworked my book proposal. I can’t see a friend or hired professional lending that kind of stamina and persistence to my query, or allowing me to learn from the rewriting.
I didn’t read Jennifer Faust’s piece until after I’d posted. It’s well worth reading
By the time a writer gets to the query portion of the “on the way to publication” experience, they are toeing the freak out point. After all the time, creativity, effort and sacrifice they have put into writing the book, now they have to face the final test of the query.
I think the terror of the query is twofold – you must condense your story that may have taken you years to write, into one or two paragraphs and then there’s the possibility of a hundred or more rejections along with the realization that your story may never be published.
At the point of having someone pen your query, I think the writer probably went through many, many drafts but because they are too close to their work, they are now paralyzed with fear of screwing things up. I don’t have an opinion on whether or not it is the right way, but I can understand the desperateness writers feel when they believe in and love their stories and want to see it in print and share it with the world.
I hate to disagree with our glamorous Mr Bransford. But I do.
Experience speaks. I’ve paid for query ghost-editing. And for bonus points, query-by-committee.
Here’s the story. My writer’s group critted my YA contemporary query, but I had a memoir so volcanic I opted for anonymity and paid not one but two professional agencies to vet the query. (Disclaimer: I’ve researched the guts out of queries, written slews of ’em and once hooked an agent for an epistolary novel. Dumped her gracefully after she moved to Hungary without apprising me first.)
The results?
1) My writer’s group critted the YA query for clarity. They reordered a bit, and altered tiny fragments. That’s all.
2) For the memoir, the first query doctor did an overhaul. She vastly improved the query. Chopped, honed, rearranged, highlighted. She couldn’t and didn’t fix the broken bit: the hook. But the result was a leaner, cleaner query. It almost snapped with starch. Worth every centavo just to see her axe swing. (The second paid editor changed almost nothing of her work.)
And now… Trumpet! Guess which book hooked an agent? The query I wrote myself. Agent is sweet and a pro, busy marketing the YA and two days ago she almost had a Penguin imprint. Still. The doctored query dead-nearly snagged Dr. Phil’s agent (Lor’ bless her she charged with javelins, but the agency won) and hooked praise from other serious agents.
So why the blazes do I disagree with Nathan? Because writing a query is marketing. Writers, especially of the literary ilk, are sensitive, receptive introverts. A bad query doesn’t mean a bad book. And for some of us, the learning curve is steep. Yes, a ghost query from scratch would worry me too. But if we can afford paid help, we learn from it.
Marjory-
So….. your doctored query didn’t work, the one you wrote yourself did, and you’re disagreeing with me how?
“gwen said…
I’m fine writing a novel-length manuscript, but the thought of writing a one-page query just makes me want to go cry in a corner. I dread the day when I finally have to do it… “
“Deborah said…
By the time a writer gets to the query portion of the “on the way to publication” experience, they are toeing the freak out point. After all the time, creativity, effort and sacrifice they have put into writing the book, now they have to face the final test of the query. “
****
Deborah, I think you nailed it very nicely with your comment about the “freak out point.” And I included a quote from Gwen, because it dovetails with what you said.
And I’m saying this gently, Can we please take some of the terror out of this process? It doesn’t really need to be so bad.
I hear the advice over and over, “Finish your manuscript before you write your query letter.” No. Finish your manuscript before you send your query letter. There’s no rhyme or reason not to be experimenting with your query letter while the manuscript is still in progress. In fact, especially if you’re concerned about writing a query letter, you have all the more reason to do so.
Make time your friend, not your enemy. So your manuscript may not be ready for another six months, a year. Alright, just take an hour here and there to play with pitch paragraphs and queries. Those efforts will add up.
Please take Anne Lamott’s advice about [unprintable] first drafts. I literally worked at my pitch paragraph off and on for months, and doing so helped me significantly in finding the focus and relationship structures of the book, when before, I only knew the story. But let me tell you, those first attempts were as atrocious as they were frustrating (partly because I was attempting to query using elements of the plot and not really touching the central conflict). I’ve saved them all in a file, just to remind myself that you can’t write anything good unless you write.
So, please, give yourselves a break, y’all. There is nobody who deserves a flogging here. As Nathan says, there are no guarantees of success in this business; but there’s a lot to be said for enjoying what you’re doing, and taking your sweet time to get there.
All the best,
Lucy
Nathan:
Well said.
Phoenix & Nathan:
I'm a little confused why we are differentiating between a "professional" and a "hobbyist" as if one is a professional author and the other is not? The difference should be career vs. hobby. Both are professional authors. Am I wrong?
Phoenix:
Why would hobbyists’ expectations be less than those who choose it as a sole career? I am working towards establishing a career outside of writing, to give me the stable income my family requires but does that mean my manuscripts are less important because I don’t thrust myself into it 12 hours a day? It may have taken me longer to write it, but there is still passion, blood, sweat, and tears. Well…passion.
I understand Nathan’s comment that someone giving up is most likely a hobbyist, because they have that luxury, whereas if it is your career, you are in for the long haul.
hardest bloody thing I’ve ever written, unlike the manuscript, still a work in progress..
I think I may go with my gut next time/next agent and try and find some balance between formula and passion for the novel.
I still don’t get it whats with ghost writers as they stay in demand as far as writing stints is concern.
buy essay
Nathan,
Sorry for the lack of clarity.
1. I learned a LOT from the doctored query and used that knowledge in the successful YA query.
2. The un-doctored memoir query garnered dozens of form rejections while the doctored one earned the highest ratio of positive comments to dead forms I’ve ever had.
3. I resisted the lessons and sent out the doctored query with an updated version of my own. But doctor-lady’s query won hands down. I will use that knowledge always.
My ultimate point is that excellent writers fail where garbage writers win. The difference: marketing skills. Not only for the query but for networking, optimism, punch and drive. For those on the fringe, the query’s our only, lonely inroad. Use it or lose the chance.
I vote for the learning curve and against anything that tells us: don’t learn. Where you may be right is the authorial voice. Let us tease that out. I doctored the doctor to tweak the voice back in, though she’d captured it the best she could.
You say: “A query letter is not a competency test.” But it is. (As you partly admit.)
You write: “I have always felt decidedly ambivalent about this question, mainly because I know my own personal preferences are basically irrelevant. People are going to do what they’re going to do.” I submit that your intuition grasps how the two skill sets don’t overlap. Often they do for writers of pulp and bestsellers. But literary fiction and works of substance? Tougher curve.
Thanks for your time and savvy. This blog’s a treasure.
I enjoy the posts on this blog – hope you don’t mind me “tagging” you?
https://pipscuriosity.blogspot.com/
The underlying subtext of alot of this discussion is that entitlement thing. We feel that we should write our books and the rest will happen somehow magically. It’s a process. Writing a book is not a goal. Writing is a life with various components attached to that.
For years before my first book was published, folks would say, ‘Man, you should be a writer.’ I would always respond that I was already a writer. Publishing is one aspect of that. Querying is another. How we can best learn that aspect will impact the other.
I get the impression that those who hate query letters most of all are fiction writers, while nonfiction writers seem to have less of a problem with them. That would be understandable to my way of thinking, but I’m not sure if it’s true as a generalization.
I’ve wondered about that as well. I don’t view query letters as easy but they don’t intimidate me (though I suppose they might once I start querying).
Perhaps my lack of worry has to do with the fact that I do a lot of business writing. Though it has never been part of my official job description, I’ve ended up writing press releases and brochure copy for the last two companies I’ve worked for.
I’ll admit the whole query letter thing has me a bit nervous, but the only thing I can do is try.
I’m sure many writers hope to become a success, whether “professional” or a “hobbyist.” (In my naivete, I’m still trying to figure out what the dividing line between a hobbyist and a professional is…) It’s something we all have to work for and strive to attain, even if it takes numerous re-writes of the query and parts of the novel.
It’s a process; the query is just one of those markers along the way. Personally I’m more concerned now with all the editing I have to do to make my novel ready.
JES: You made my day! Don’t worry, that’s not an instinctive insight, that’s hard-won clarity from 10 years of drafting and sending out dozens upon dozens of queries and reading a lot of agent blogs. I screwed it up a whole lot before I finally got it right.
Disgruntled: Believe me, queries weren’t any easier to write before there was conflicting info on the web. When there was no info at all it was just as hard. I’d rather have conflicting info than none.
All the query needs to do is make the agent interested in reading the sample pages. It’s easy to get really caught up in whether you should say “this is my first novel”, or whether it disadvantages you to have published short stories, and whether you should have one paragraph of summary or two, but really, if you tell the agent just enough about your book to make them want to read more, your query is full of win, regardless.
Firebrand Literary is having a Query Holidy. You can send in the first chapter of a completed work without a query until Jan. 15.
The interesting thing about this is that agent Nadia Cornier is keeping track of number of submissions and number of requests for fulls. She has noted that the request rate is about double that of traditional query plus two pages submissions.
It’s funny. I’m one of those who don’t see a problem with someone getting major help on their query. But I am also one of those authors who stubbornly resists the idea for my own books and is determined to learn how to write a good one on my own – with critique help, of course.
Being on blogs where queries and first pages are critiqued, I have seen really bad queries paired with really good first pages. And probably vice versa, though those don’t stick out in my memory.
Form…Motion…Structure.
Form are the words, motion is the plot, structure is the overall arc of the piece. That’s all that matters. Period, end of story (no pun intended).
From YOUR perspective, of course, it’s not the whole story. Fortunately, my interest in your perspective is fairly limited (as it should be…greatness in a work’s overall structure is my first interest and concern).
Bottom line: It is possible to be a great novel/non-fiction writer without being a great query writer.
To wit: Imagine someone with Autism, someone who is a savant, but limited in their ability to manipulate words…someone who requires DECADES to manifest artistic greatness. A query that matches the voice of the original world would be (and nearly is) impossible for the above reasons.
But still, your thoughts are welcome, and, for the vast majority of writers, well reasoned.
Thanks!
Well, I agree and disagree. Should the writer’s voice come through in the query? Technically, yes. The agent wants to get some semblance of the author’s voice in that one measly paragraph meant to entice you to read pages. Often, the query can be horrid, but the voice comes through, so pages are request on the hunch that the writing will be good. On the otherhand, I’ve read many a story about pages being request just off of concept alone, horrid query aside. Agents request for all variety of reasons I believe, often times just off of gut reaction to some tidbit in the query. While I agree with you Nathan about what is wanted and needed ideally about the query, I’m of the opinion, that if it gets you to read pages, so what if it was ghost written? How many times has a great query resulted in pages you could hardly stand to read?
JDuncan
jduncan-
If a writer’s goal is to get their pages requested, then yeah, I suppose the ends would justify the means. Whatever it takes. If their goal is to actually be represented, I don’t think it’s a good strategy to have their pages requested by an agent who was expecting something different.
Nathan, I agree with you. In my opinion, it’s part of the job requirement. Writing a good query letter is a learned skill. So sit down and learn it already. There’s nothing wrong with getting feedback on it, but I think it’s important for the writer to learn how to do everything required in the job, just like one needs to learn skills in any job.
I also see writers often try to query before the manuscript is ready for submission, and I think that’s part of the problem. I’m a big believer that you don’t send it out until you’ve got the logline, the one paragraph summary, the outline, the synopsis, and the query letter in the best possible shape.
Too much of the author’s voice is necessary in the query letter, in my opinion, to job it out. I want an agent or publisher to be interested in ME, not someone mimicking my voice.