Friday, July 2, 2010

Query Letter Quandary









So on the tail end of those last two rejections I was once again questioning my query letter.

I posted a couple of my most recent letter variations on the querytracker.net forum website (Which is a part of querytracker I had not even utilized before).

The Forum is pretty awesome, you can ask for query help, post your first 5 pages for feedback and get the latest dish on agents.

I posted my letter in hopes of revamping it and getting unbiased opinions from other authors dealing with the same issues I am.

I got some strong input, started to rethink things and then rewrote my query. I used my "New" letter and queried three new agents. All three were rejected within that next week.

Huh? I was scratching my head, feeling confused and sorry for myself...

And then I got a request for pages from a query letter I had sent out two months before. AND it was that same query letter that my colleagues had previous torn apart on the Forum.

I then realized that I've had four requests from this very same query letter. More than any other version I've tried.

I think I'll stick with the original-- it seems to be working.

Bottom line? Don't ask me. But take that criticism with a grain of salt.

2 comments:

  1. I had the same problem with querytracker, it's great to get advice but in the end you have to trust your own instincts :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Trying to follow you Dani, but the download picture part left me behind, So sad. Anyways, I guess this is another example of "multiple choice test syndrome"--first choice is usually the correct one.

    ReplyDelete