Friday, December 14, 2007

The Agent with Answers: Part 2

More thoughts from my agent, Jennifer Schober.

"Thanks for waiting for my replies to your fantastic questions...I hope that they provide some clues to queries!

On Queries...

The best query is a fantastic pitch-- I want to really get a sense of what is special about your work. Ask Jocelynn about a good query...I read hers and it was like an immediate YES ask for more flashed across my mind. You need to know that I receive about 50 queries a week, sometimes more, so your pitch does need to catch my eye in some way.

Make it short, sweet and to the point. I want to know the following: who you are, a bit about the work, have you published, won awards? ( Don't get nervous if you are a new author) Genre, word count, how to contact you and, of course, the SASE, unless you are sending through email. I like to see the first three chapters of the work. I also like to see the synopsis.

Although a query is an important entree into the agent's radar screen, I make my decision solely on the writing, not a query letter! A query gets my attention and the actual writing takes my attention to the next level."

~Jennifer Schober

1 comment:

Harry Markov said...

I hope you thank your agent for the great words of advice! They helped enough. I am on the stage, where I want to get my short stories published, while I am working on my novel and query letters come to haunt me. Thanks for adding this.