Recently, Suzie Townsend got very excited over a query sent to her by author Mindee Arnett. You can read it here. By very excited, I mean she took time away from a conference and from planning a trip to New Zealand to drop everything for it. That's pretty major, right? I want you to notice this line in particular from that query:
2. Have possession of as distinct from ownership.
And in Suzie's pitch that she sent to editors at the Big Six that she sold in 16-days to Tor Teen, she also had an error. You can read it here and I point out the error for you below:
Scratches head in puzzlement.
I'm not trying to throw eggs on Mindee's accomplishment. On the contrary, I congratulate her for being successful. And the same goes for super agent Suzie Townsend...congrats on her being so successful too.
No, what I'mbitching about discussing today is the lack of actual standards for this industry. It's all subjective. It depends on mood, lighting, whatever a person ate for breakfast, timing, what they had to drink, did they sleep well the night before, etc.
I think that for the unpublished, unknown author, the single greatest factor in publishing success is LUCK. Maybe as high as 50%. Think about that...your chance of publishing is at least 50% luck.
I just think that the advice given to authors about writing query letters should be more...I dunno... truthful. For one, spelling errors don't necessarily matter. If your query letter can get the point across and the agent reading it likes what you've written, then you'll be successful. Anyone that's written a query knows what a pain they are to write. A ton of work goes into them. Maybe if agents said, "Hey...you can follow the guidelines but really...to get our attention...you need to be lucky. Sorry...but the truth hurts."
Here's what I would have on my agency website if I were a literary agent. I'd have the usual stuff, query formats and whatnot withstanding, but right after the part that says, "Send us only your most polished query letter" would be the part that says, "And if you're LUCKY, you'll get my attention, and I'll get back to you." That would be honesty.
Random but related thought ==> If Suzie did care about spelling...maybe she actually thinks that "possess" is spelled "posses" and never called into question the quality of the book. I mean, I hear all the time from agents that "an error in your query gives us an impression of how your book is. One error there makes me wonder how chock full of them your manuscript may be. It's an instant form rejection!" So just imagine if the person reading your query thinks a word is spelled one way when in fact it is spelled another and they reject it thinking you didn't spell check. Wouldn't THAT be interesting?
And just for the record...I don't see content-wise why this offering from Mindee caught Suzie's eye. That's why I say she got lucky. It seems like a cross between Harry Potter with a wizard "school" via Chamber of Secrets (kids being killed) with that of other tropes like Being Human's ghost main character that watched her former boyfriend sleep and Piers Anthony's "Nightmare" (part of the Xanth series). I mean...I've read lots of "these types of queries" on my journeys through the blogosphere from people getting ready to send to agents that want help on their query letters.
I'm not saying it doesn't deserve to get published. It absolutely does. And absolutely deserves representation. But so do a dozen others that I can name off the top of my head that have queries very similar to this only without any errors, and these authors got nothing but rejections.
And you know what advice people out there give to these writers that are getting rejected. It's this: "Oh, your query must not be working. It must be bad. Revise and resend." Basically, they are told to go back to the drawing board, to re-edit, and revise, and send to new agents when they are ready. However, there is no scientific rock-solid proof that this is the case. I'm an atheist...I need proof to believe in things. There is no proof. It's simply conjecture...guessing. You know what I say? I say you got rejected because you just WEREN'T LUCKY. You got that? You have BAD frickin' luck? How do you like them apples? I don't suggest you go and buy a lotto ticket anytime soon. You'll probably lose at that too.
With regard to the query example...I don't see what caused the "OMG...I MUST DROP EVERYTHING NOW BECAUSE THIS IS AMAZING" moment. Especially given the spelling error. "Posses" is plural for "posse" which means a group of individuals. It's all...just...interesting.
That's my two cents for today. Invest in some four leaf clovers and some giraffe earrings of amazing juju. They shall serve you better than a spell check.
"Dusty learns that together she and Eli posses the rare ability to predict..."
pos·sessVerb/pəˈzes/
1. Have as belonging to one; own: "I do not possess a television set".
And in Suzie's pitch that she sent to editors at the Big Six that she sold in 16-days to Tor Teen, she also had an error. You can read it here and I point out the error for you below:
"Now the Dusty has to follow the clues..."Extra "the" there in case you don't see it.
Scratches head in puzzlement.
I'm not trying to throw eggs on Mindee's accomplishment. On the contrary, I congratulate her for being successful. And the same goes for super agent Suzie Townsend...congrats on her being so successful too.
No, what I'm
I think that for the unpublished, unknown author, the single greatest factor in publishing success is LUCK. Maybe as high as 50%. Think about that...your chance of publishing is at least 50% luck.
 |
| This should read "Avoid publishing unlucky authors. Throw half of the slush pile in the automatic rejection bin without reading them. What's left are the lucky ones. Thank God for the form rejection. Otherwise you might actually owe some of those people an actual response." |
Here's what I would have on my agency website if I were a literary agent. I'd have the usual stuff, query formats and whatnot withstanding, but right after the part that says, "Send us only your most polished query letter" would be the part that says, "And if you're LUCKY, you'll get my attention, and I'll get back to you." That would be honesty.
Random but related thought ==> If Suzie did care about spelling...maybe she actually thinks that "possess" is spelled "posses" and never called into question the quality of the book. I mean, I hear all the time from agents that "an error in your query gives us an impression of how your book is. One error there makes me wonder how chock full of them your manuscript may be. It's an instant form rejection!" So just imagine if the person reading your query thinks a word is spelled one way when in fact it is spelled another and they reject it thinking you didn't spell check. Wouldn't THAT be interesting?
And just for the record...I don't see content-wise why this offering from Mindee caught Suzie's eye. That's why I say she got lucky. It seems like a cross between Harry Potter with a wizard "school" via Chamber of Secrets (kids being killed) with that of other tropes like Being Human's ghost main character that watched her former boyfriend sleep and Piers Anthony's "Nightmare" (part of the Xanth series). I mean...I've read lots of "these types of queries" on my journeys through the blogosphere from people getting ready to send to agents that want help on their query letters.
I'm not saying it doesn't deserve to get published. It absolutely does. And absolutely deserves representation. But so do a dozen others that I can name off the top of my head that have queries very similar to this only without any errors, and these authors got nothing but rejections.
And you know what advice people out there give to these writers that are getting rejected. It's this: "Oh, your query must not be working. It must be bad. Revise and resend." Basically, they are told to go back to the drawing board, to re-edit, and revise, and send to new agents when they are ready. However, there is no scientific rock-solid proof that this is the case. I'm an atheist...I need proof to believe in things. There is no proof. It's simply conjecture...guessing. You know what I say? I say you got rejected because you just WEREN'T LUCKY. You got that? You have BAD frickin' luck? How do you like them apples? I don't suggest you go and buy a lotto ticket anytime soon. You'll probably lose at that too.
With regard to the query example...I don't see what caused the "OMG...I MUST DROP EVERYTHING NOW BECAUSE THIS IS AMAZING" moment. Especially given the spelling error. "Posses" is plural for "posse" which means a group of individuals. It's all...just...interesting.
That's my two cents for today. Invest in some four leaf clovers and some giraffe earrings of amazing juju. They shall serve you better than a spell check.