OK, I'm a slacker.
Since the week of prizes, I've spent all my time mailing out prizes.
I'm so sorry.
To make it up to you all, I have a surprise (bribe) so you forgive my Slackitude.
At midnight Sunday night (EST), I will draw a name and offer a free query critique.
As some of you know, a query critique is a marketing tool. How you market your book to agents or editors. So it's right up my alley.
A query needs to be gripping, summarize the story, and show voice. It must be one page.
Now, here are my favorite posts for the week:
Promoting others - Some work hard to promote the books of other authors because it's the right thing to do.
Book Promotion Tips from the Pros - Allison Winn Scotch has had two novels on the New York Times Bestseller's List
Kody Keplinger's ARC cover design for The Duff (yay Kody!)
Literary Twitter Census - GalleyCat has compiled a year-end census of the literaryTwittersphere.
The Blahgs of Blogging - The feeling you get when you lack the desire to keep on blogging.
10 Things I want to see in TweetDeck - While TweetDeck is a great tool that does so many things so well (the Love), it doesn’t do everything we want or need.
How to Market and Sell Your book - A unique business-oriented webinar for authors who have self-published books out, authors who have traditional published books out, and authors who have books coming out soon.
Don't forget to come back Monday for our first Teen Panel discussion!
Showing posts with label querying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label querying. Show all posts
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Mardi Gras 411/Elana Johnson on Querying
411 on Marketing Mardi Gras
As you know, next week (Feb 15 - Feb 19) is my Marketing Mardi Gras Party. The party will last all week long and include many special guests, daily prizes, a Marketing Scavenger Hunt, and 2 Grand Prizes awarded at the end of the week.
1) A Marketing Package for agented authors
2) My Agent's Critique Package (Alyssa Henkin at Trident Media group) for unagented authors.
Sound fun or what!?
Now, Elana Johnson (The Query Master) and I are throwing this PAR-Tee together. She will be having tons of prizes as well including additional agent query critiques.
The thing is to enter this Mardi Gras Party - you really need to follow us BOTH.
So go ahead and sign up for both blogs today and get a head start.
What do you have to lose? We give great advice, we are fun, and we give 30 day guarantees if you don't laugh at least once. Plus let's face it - the prizes are awesome! (if i do say so myself :)
All details on the party will be announced TOMORROW so come back!
===================
Today, Elana stopped by today to tell us the Five Things To Avoid When Querying (On her blog today she asked me about how to balance Social networking with Writing. GO check it out!)
Querying can be a long and tiring process. Writing a query letter can feel the same way. And since your letter is what you use to query, here are a few hints for what to avoid when getting ready to enter the query trenches.
1. Querying too early. Write your query letter. Revise it a few times. Post it for others to review. Rewrite it a few more times. This same advice should be applied to your manuscript. Write it. Revise a few times. Give it to some trusted readers. Rewrite some more. Don’t query until both your letter and your MS have gone through this process.
2. Sending mass queries. You need to personalize. Research each agent. QueryTracker.net has all the pertinent links you need for every reputable agent. And stats for how long they take to respond, how often they request, etc. Make sure you spell the agent’s name right. Be sure they’d be a good match for your work. Mass querying is bad for everyone.
3. Gushing. The query letter is a business letter. Treat it as such. It’s okay to say you read something on their blog/twitter/website that made you think they’d be a good match for your book. Don’t gush about how amazingly awesome they are or that you like their cat or whatever. That just screams “stalker!” and that’s not really how you want to start your professional relationship.
4. Blathering on and on. We all want to make ourselves personable. But as I said before, the query letter is a business letter. State your business and be done. They don’t need to know how many kids you have or anything like that. They want to know if you can craft a concise summary of your book. Because usually, that means you know how to use words well, and your MS won’t be stuffed with useless words. If your query is, agents likely think your MS is too.
5. Sending repeatedly. Follow the rules. If an agency says a “no” from one is a “no” from all, don’t try someone else at the agency. Don’t send your query letter to the same agent over and over again. If they say no, they mean it.
Get that query polished to a high shine, coat your nerves in steel and sit back and wait for the requests to come rolling in!
See you back here tomorrow for the Pre-Party!
As you know, next week (Feb 15 - Feb 19) is my Marketing Mardi Gras Party. The party will last all week long and include many special guests, daily prizes, a Marketing Scavenger Hunt, and 2 Grand Prizes awarded at the end of the week.
1) A Marketing Package for agented authors
2) My Agent's Critique Package (Alyssa Henkin at Trident Media group) for unagented authors.
Sound fun or what!?
Now, Elana Johnson (The Query Master) and I are throwing this PAR-Tee together. She will be having tons of prizes as well including additional agent query critiques.
The thing is to enter this Mardi Gras Party - you really need to follow us BOTH.
So go ahead and sign up for both blogs today and get a head start.
What do you have to lose? We give great advice, we are fun, and we give 30 day guarantees if you don't laugh at least once. Plus let's face it - the prizes are awesome! (if i do say so myself :)
All details on the party will be announced TOMORROW so come back!
===================
Today, Elana stopped by today to tell us the Five Things To Avoid When Querying (On her blog today she asked me about how to balance Social networking with Writing. GO check it out!)
Querying can be a long and tiring process. Writing a query letter can feel the same way. And since your letter is what you use to query, here are a few hints for what to avoid when getting ready to enter the query trenches.
1. Querying too early. Write your query letter. Revise it a few times. Post it for others to review. Rewrite it a few more times. This same advice should be applied to your manuscript. Write it. Revise a few times. Give it to some trusted readers. Rewrite some more. Don’t query until both your letter and your MS have gone through this process.
2. Sending mass queries. You need to personalize. Research each agent. QueryTracker.net has all the pertinent links you need for every reputable agent. And stats for how long they take to respond, how often they request, etc. Make sure you spell the agent’s name right. Be sure they’d be a good match for your work. Mass querying is bad for everyone.
3. Gushing. The query letter is a business letter. Treat it as such. It’s okay to say you read something on their blog/twitter/website that made you think they’d be a good match for your book. Don’t gush about how amazingly awesome they are or that you like their cat or whatever. That just screams “stalker!” and that’s not really how you want to start your professional relationship.
4. Blathering on and on. We all want to make ourselves personable. But as I said before, the query letter is a business letter. State your business and be done. They don’t need to know how many kids you have or anything like that. They want to know if you can craft a concise summary of your book. Because usually, that means you know how to use words well, and your MS won’t be stuffed with useless words. If your query is, agents likely think your MS is too.
5. Sending repeatedly. Follow the rules. If an agency says a “no” from one is a “no” from all, don’t try someone else at the agency. Don’t send your query letter to the same agent over and over again. If they say no, they mean it.
Get that query polished to a high shine, coat your nerves in steel and sit back and wait for the requests to come rolling in!
See you back here tomorrow for the Pre-Party!
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