Coyote Con

[Selena] 5:02 pm: Hello everyone and thank you for coming to the Querying and Synopses panel with the lovely ladies, Angela Korrati and Anna Kashina.

[Anna Kashina] 5:02 pm: Hi, everyone, I am Anna Kashina. I am a published fantasy author with small presses in the US and with a big publishing company in Germany. My first novel came out in the US about 10 years ago. My newest novel “Ivan-and-Marya” is upcoming from Drollerie Press at the end of this month. I have published all my work by straight querying, without prior networking or inside knowledge of the markets I was submitting to. I started by knowing nothing about queries and worked my way to a point when most of my queries end up in a manuscript request. For the past three years I have been a part of the Proposal Package Focus Group and synopses writing workshops organized through the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:03 pm: Hi y’all. Angela Korra’ti here, a.k.a Anna the Piper. I’m the author of Faerie Blood from Drollerie as well as one of the stories in the anthology Defiance. What I’m bringing to the table is not only my own experience with querying, but what I’ve also picked up from professionals at the Writer’s Weekend conference, on various blogs, and via Twitter.

[Anna Kashina] 5:04 pm: Today we are covering queries and synopses. The plan is to talk about the overall importance of the queries, about following the guidelines when querying, about query formatting and length, and about the main query elements. We will have a brief talk on synopses and then open the floor for questions, so that we could focus more on the things everyone is interested in.

The query is probably your single most important tool in getting your book read by agents and publishers. So, it is really important to write a good one. It is a very short letter, and every word you put in there has to be weighed really carefully.

A typical query letter consists of 1-3 paragraphs of the book description, a sentence to a paragraph of the author’s credentials, and, as an optional bonus, some personalized explanation of why your work is a good fit with the particular place you are querying.

Angela, please feel free to jump in with any additions.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:07 pm: Sure. I’ll add in that the most vital things I’ve seen agents and editors ask for in query letters is that you should be professional, be polite, and above all, _give them what they ask for_. I’ve found it’s a lot like composing a cover letter for a job, and this helps me when I get a little too excited about sharing my baby with somebody who might hopefully publish it!

[Anna Kashina] 5:08 pm: My paste stopped working, so I will have to type from now on, sorry. It is important to write a personalized query, which means researching the person you are querying, so that you follow their specific guidelines and tailor to their tastes. You should avoid an impression that you are sending out a mass mailing.

A query has to look professional. It has to be properly formatted, and contain no typos, no misspelled names (especially the name of the person you are querying), and ideally no generic addresses (Dear Sir/Madam), unless the guidelines specify this. This is expanding on Angela’s topic.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:11 pm: Yes. Absolutely. I recommend that if you can, find out if the agent/editor has a blog or if they’re on Twitter. If they are, follow them for a while and keep tabs on what they’ve got to say about if they’re open for querying at this time. One of the fastest ways to get your query pitched right into the bin is if you’ve tried to query someone who’s not actually taking queries right now. If they’ve got a blog you can hopefully also get a sense about whether this person is really a good target for your work. Not only whether they work with the genre you’re writing in, but _also_ if they actually like the kind of thing you’re writing. For example, if they post that they have really had it up to HERE with urban fantasies with vampires in ‘em, you probably don’t want to query that person with your vampire novel.

[Anna Kashina] 5:13 pm: Yes, Twitter and blogs are great tools that can go a long way in learning about the agents and their tastes and needs. There are several great agents that blog actively and their blogs are a great resource for querying. One I can highly recommend right away is Nathan Bransford’s blog at http://blog.nathanbransford.com Recently Nathan Bransford posted “the formula of a query” at this link: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2008/03/query-letter-mad-lib.html

Let’s talk briefly about the query formats.
The generally accepted format is a generic font, singje-spaced, with double spaces between paragraphs. This works both for e-mail and snail mail queries.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:15 pm: Kristin Nelson is also awesome with this, as is Jennifer Jackson. Ms. Jackson regularly posts her ‘letters from the query wars’ updates.

[Anna Kashina] 5:16 pm: Angela, yes,these are great resources too. there is also a number of query review sites — I will mention some at the end if we have time.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:17 pm: Re: formatting–here is a great place to pay attention to what an agent or editor asks for in their guidelines. You’ll get a wide variety of what people want; some people want you to paste pages right into the email while others want you to attach files. Yet others only want you to send stuff if they specifically ask you for it. Reading guidelines is _critical_.

[Anna Kashina] 5:17 pm: Yes, on guidelines — I heard some agents say that only 20% of their queries follow their guidelines. So, following guidelines is one way you could score.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:18 pm: *nodnod* If you make the effort to follow the person’s specific guidelines that’ll automatically get you ahead of a lot of the pack!

[Anna Kashina] 5:18 pm: There is a range of opinions on how long and how detailed a query should be, so this is another place where you need to follow guidelines. If the length is not specified, a ballpark is 200-300 words. But — guidelines again — some major agencies have very specific requirements. I heard of one that wants only the place, the protagonist, and the antagonist mentioned in a very short paragraph, and no story details.

A query has to state the genre and word count of the story. Some people do it upfront, others leave it for the third paragraph after the description of the story itself. There is no right or wrong where to put it, but I have seen more and more people starting queries with the story itself and leave all the other details for later.

Angela, do you have any experience on which way works best?

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:22 pm: For me, I’ve generally led with identifying the title and genre of my story, and then leading into the pitch. I’ll wind up with saying something to the effect of ‘the current draft stands at X number of words’, specifying whether I’ve included an attachment, and thanking the recipient for their time. I’ve seen agents and editors be amazed at how seldom basic data on a person’s work _doesn’t_ get included. So be sure to include genre and wordcount. If you’re not sure about your target genre, work on identifying that. It might be hard but it’s really critical.

[Anna Kashina] 5:23 pm: One of the members of my writing group has been a slush reader for a major agency, and she said she also preferred to see the genre and the word count upfront.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:23 pm: Also critical and which also often gets left out: your contact data. Email might be self-explanatory but if you have alternate email addresses, include those. In case your primary one falls over. And yes, include your phone number too.

[Anna Kashina] 5:23 pm: Yes, it is hugely important to include all this information: genre, word count, and contact information.

I also heard many complaints on how many people omit that, and how bad it can be.

So, let’s talk about the description of the story in a query.

Assuming you formatted it right, and have all the necessary information in there, this description is the centerpiece of the query. This has to be done in 1-3 short paragraphs and be designed to hook a reader rather than tell the whole story. It should be somewhat similar to the back cover blurb, but shorter. It should state who is the character, where does the story take place, what is the main conflict, and what is the character planning to do about it.

Angela, I don’t mean to be ranting, so please jump in whenever you have things to say.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:27 pm: No worries at all.

[Anna Kashina] 5:27 pm: OK!

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:27 pm: I’ll add to this that yeah, following the idea of ‘blurb on the back of a book’ is good; remember that you don’t actually want to give away the resolution of your story or give away critical spoilers. You can also take examples from, oh, say, the episode summaries for Tivo shows or the summaries of movies off satellite TV. I see these on my Tivo all the time, just brief little snippets designed to give you just enough of an idea of what the thing is about to get you to watch it. And yeah, this really is the heart of your query letter. Many, many conference panels are devoted to the art of writing a pitch.

[Anna Kashina] 5:28 pm: This is a very good point. You want the query blurb to entice the agent to want to read more. The query blurb has to be very specific to your story, as specific as possible so that the agent could understand what is unique about your book compared to others in this genre. At the same time, you have to strictly limit the names, leave only the absolutely essential ones – 1-2 per query.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:29 pm: (Note that this is specifically different from a story synopsis, wherein you WILL be summarizing the whole story. But we’ll get to that!)

[Anna Kashina] 5:29 pm: Yep! A special challenge concerns complicated plots with multiple point-of-view characters. Many people are tempted to mention as many as possible, making the letter confusing. The best way to avoid it is to identify one main plot line and focus on that.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:30 pm: Oh god yes I’ve had this issue with one of the other things I’ve written, which has three POV characters!

[Anna Kashina] 5:30 pm: Another way to handle multiple points of view – to identify two main protagonists and write a paragraph about each one. This is often used in romance queries. If you go this route, you should make sure it is clear how the two characters and plot lines connect into one story. Yes, my current novel has 5 POV characters, and believe me, it really hurt when I had to cut it down to one.

Angela, do you have anything to add about queries before we go to synopses?

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:31 pm: Nope, carry on! Let’s cover that so we can open up for questions.

[Anna Kashina] 5:32 pm: Sounds good.

Synopses are a tool that lets agents and publishers confirm that you have a good story without reading the whole book. They usually get to the synopsis only if they liked the query and sample chapters, and they are a bit more forgiving on synopses. Which is great, because synopses are darn hard. But you can really score if your synopsis is written well. There are short synopses and long synopses, but in the current market everyone is shifting to short and does not specify the length.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:33 pm: Not all agents or publishers will want you to send a synopsis; they seem to be rarer these days than in days past. But it’s a good idea to be prepared with one just in case. Aim for four pages or so, though sometimes you might get asked to go as high as eight. You’ll want to be sure to format your synopsis with the same care that you do your manuscript as well. Make it easy to read or else it won’t get read. And again, _include your contact data_.

[Anna Kashina] 5:35 pm: Yes, that’s right. Typically a synopsis is around 1000 words unless otherwise specified, but no one will nail you on length if you stay in this range. It has to be as focused as possible on the main plot line. It has to avoid excessive names and subplots, and has to be self-explanatory.

One issue that usually comes up with synopses is that they become confusing as you tend to cut your complex story down to bare basics. So — cutting down on names and leaving only important details is really important.

Angela, do you have anything to add before we go to questions?

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:37 pm: I’ll just add right quick that if you happened to write your synopsis early in your story’s life cycle, be sure to doublecheck that it still reflects what you actually wrote when you start querying! I’ve got a couple of synopses written out for books I haven’t actually completed yet, so I’ll have to go back and doublecheck those when those books are ready to go out.

[Anna Kashina] 5:37 pm: Yes, great point. It is actually a good idea to write one before and correct it afterwards. OK, I think we are ready for questions.

[aswiebe] 5:38 pm: How do you condense it all down to a pitch when you’ve got three separate plotlines equally balanced with three main characters, all of which interrelate but are more than just different views of the same thing? Just pitch the opening plotline and allude to the others? I can figure out how to get it down to three paragraphs, but a one-paragraph or heaven forbid one sentence pitch is beyond me. If I focus on the thing that they start out with in common, it requires way too much explanation of how they fit together. How did you do it? Any good resources to read for key things to include or exclude or look for?

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:38 pm: I can touch on this briefly: The novel I’m querying right now, Lament of the Dove, has three POV characters in it, so yeah, I had to figure out how to pitch that thing as tersely as possible. It came down to Anna K’s point of focusing on the main plotline. Which is to say, what these three characters are doing, who’s opposing them, and what’s at stake.

[Anna Kashina] 5:40 pm: Right. You don’t actually have to cover your entire story in a pitch.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:40 pm: The pitch came out to something like ‘An assassin, a healer, and a knight of a holy order must join together to take down the corruption at the heart of the church that dominates their land.’ That’s the 30-second elevator pitch.

[Anna Kashina] 5:40 pm: Angela, this is a one-line pitch — a great one.

[widdershins] 5:41 pm: @Anna Kashina … “Proposal Package Focus Group and synopses writing workshops organized through the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror?” More info or website?

[Anna Kashina] 5:41 pm: http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/. They also have an e-mailing list on yahoo groups. I believe you can join the list without joining the workshop, both are a great resource.

[Anna Kashina] 5:42 pm: And they have periodic focus groups organized where you can polish queries, synopses, etc.

[tina_writes_thecleanwhitepage] 5:43 pm: An agent has had my full ms for two months. Would you send a gentle reminder?

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:43 pm: Yes I would!

[Anna Kashina] 5:43 pm: Tina: yes, I definitely would.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:43 pm: But as always be sure to be polite and professional.

[Anna Kashina] 5:43 pm: Just make sure it ‘s gentle.

[tina_writes_thecleanwhitepage] 5:43 pm: Thank you!

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:43 pm: I’ve got an agent who’s been sitting on Lament for _several_ months; I’ve sent her multiple reminders, in fact. She’s been good about answering them.

[PTurner] 5:43 pm: Is it appropriate to capitalize the name of the protagonist and antagonist when first mentioned in the synopsis? I do, and it doesn’t seem to hurt.

[Anna Kashina] 5:44 pm: I think it is now a convention to write the names in all caps when they first come up. This is true for synopses only — not for queries.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:45 pm: Ooh, that’s a convention I wasn’t actually familiar with. Interesting! *notes for reference* If it makes it easier for your recipient to ID your main characters, go for it.

[widdershins] 5:45 pm: What catches the agent/publishers eye more, something that stands out from the crowd, or a ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ format, assuming that both follow submission requirements?

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:46 pm: That’s going to very much depend on the agent, I think.

[Anna Kashina] 5:46 pm: I think this is individual. Ideally you want to balance both. You want to have a generic format, but filled with really individual writing.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:46 pm: I’d try not to worry too much about ‘oh gosh am I standing out from the crowd?’ per se. If your query is strong enough you will stand out from the crowd anyway. Good writing does not need to call attention to itself.

[Anna Kashina] 5:47 pm: Angela: right, I agree. You want to be specific about your story, though. Don’t make it sounds too generic.

[Selena] 5:48 pm: Agents often request that the pitch be in our ‘voice’, hence making it original, but there is also the ‘query formula’ to be sure we get all the info in. How do we balance both without losing one or the other?

[Anna Kashina] 5:49 pm: Selena, that’s a great question.The formula concerns mostly where each element should be.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:49 pm: For me, I’d say that your ‘voice’ is probably going to best come through in the pitch. And the ‘query formula’ part of it comes in more with making sure that you go ahead and include all the necessary data that should be there: your contact data, genre, word count, etc.

[Anna Kashina] 5:50 pm: Right, Angela: the elements themselves have to be written in your unique voice.

[Journey Mouse] 5:51 pm: With regard to synopsis writing before and after – I’ve only really got into the synopsis writing after getting the first couple of long forms out of my head (still unhomed, synopsis writing may be the reason ), but I’m finding that it’s quite handy to go back ater drafting each chapter and rewrite the synopsis as I go – tweaking the story outline. Thoughts as to whether this is to restrictive or useful?

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:52 pm: JM, if it works for you, go for it. So many different writers have so many different ways of tackling their work that I’m reluctant to say ‘oh you shouldn’t do this’ or ‘you shouldn’t do that’. As long as you come out with a finished book and a decent synopsis at the end, that’s the important part.

[Anna Kashina] 5:52 pm: Journey: I think what you describe should help more as a writing tool. As to the finished synopsis, it should click together after you are done with the story. And yes, I agree that there is no right and wrong here — just do what works for you.

[JourneyMouse] 5:52 pm: It doesn’t work for everything i come up with – some stories come out in their own way and some are more formulaic – or at least stick to the outline btter

[Anna Kashina] 5:53 pm: My stories often surprise me, they don’t go along the outline at all.

[widdershins] 5:53 pm: comment … I’ve found that writing a synopsis is good practice for focusing on what my story is really about … also useful when someone asks the inevitable question, “What are you working on now?” … however, my question is …. Is pitching the same as querying?

[Anna Kashina] 5:53 pm: But it is OK if it works in the end. widdershins: pitching often happens in a conversation — or chat.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:54 pm: Pitching is not _quite_ the same thing as querying, no. They ARE often the same but not always. It’s possible to pitch a story without actually writing a query letter. E.g., if you attend a pitch session for an editor or agent at a conference.I’ve done that a few times, and in one instance to an editor who didn’t otherwise take direct queries!

[Anna Kashina] 5:55 pm: An agent you meet at the bar in a convention asks you: so, what is your book about? And you have to come up with a one-line to one-paragraph that would interest him/her. So, a pitch is usually shorter than a query. And the result of a pitch is often an invitation to send a query and sample chapters.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:56 pm: If that happens though it’s generally a good idea to mention in your query letter that you spoke with that person at such and such a conference on such and such a date, and as per their request you are sending them your stuff.

[Anna Kashina] 5:57 pm: Yes, a general rule is that editors/agents are busy and swamped and you want to identify yourself as much as possible. Tina, you had a comment?

[tina_writes_thecleanwhitepage] 5:57 pm: Just as a matter of interest, the request for my full ms came from an online submission form, but the content was most of the stuff from my query letter.

[Anna Kashina] 5:58 pm: Online submission forms are used by some publishers as a way to channel queries into a more uniform format.

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:58 pm: Agents, too!

[Anna Kashina] 5:58 pm: Right. But your query blurb still has to be as good. widdershins, you had a comment?

[widdershins] 5:59 pm: The worst query I’ve heard of is a writer who said words to the effect of …. “My story is self-explanatory. Read the manuscript”…. sort of a conversation killer! needless to say…didn’t get a look-in

[Angela Korra'ti] 5:59 pm: *shudders* That’s another great way to get your query pitched right in the bin, yeah.

[Anna Kashina] 6:00 pm: Yep.

[widdershins] 6:01 pm: yeah… attitude will only get you so far.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:01 pm: More questions? More comments? Any other aspects of the topic y’all would like us to cover?

[widdershins] 6:02 pm: someone said synopsis’s are going the way of the dodo? or was it querys? why?

[Anna Kashina] 6:03 pm: um. What way?… sorry.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:03 pm: Synopses are becoming more rare from what I’ve seen, yeah. A lot of it seems to do with how a lot of agents are going towards accepting email queries. The volume of submissions they receive is so high that in some cases they’ll go straight to just asking you for your manuscript and pitch, and skip a synopsis completely.

[widdershins] 6:03 pm: dodo… extinct bird

[Anna Kashina] 6:03 pm: OK, sorry, got it.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:03 pm: Also, I’ve seen some agents just say that they don’t want to read your synopsis and risk getting spoiled for the story!

[widdershins] 6:03 pm:

[Anna Kashina] 6:03 pm: Yes, not everyone requests synopses these days. But some do, and you have to be ready for it.

[widdershins] 6:04 pm: so that makes a query even more important

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:04 pm: Yeah. Be prepared just in case.

[Anna Kashina] 6:04 pm: Sometimes it happens on a short notice, too. I had it happen to me once and I panicked.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:04 pm: You will want to be in practice writing synopses if nothing else because if you _do_ make that first critical sale and get yourself an agent, you might find that the synopsis will actually be what sells future books.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:05 pm: Because your agent will be working on selling things for you _on proposal_, things you haven’t even written yet. So that’ll be when those synopsis skills you’ve been working on all this time will come in _real_ handy.

[Anna Kashina] 6:05 pm: I also think writing a good synopsis can sometimes help to polish the focus of the story.

[spot_writes] 6:05 pm: On a personal note, do you each have agents? And how many queries did you have to send out before you got one?

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:05 pm: I am not yet agented. I’m still working on that.

[Anna Kashina] 6:05 pm: I have an agent in Germany, but no agent in the US. Working on that now.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:06 pm: I’m still aiming for it mostly because while I do have a title with Drollerie, which I sold on my own, I’m also aiming for getting a book into bigger markets.

[spot_writes] 6:06 pm: the question was strictly for encouragement purposes. I didn’t want to hear you got one on the first try! Lol.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:06 pm: And several of the big NY publishers won’t even talk to you unless you’re agented.

[Anna Kashina] 6:06 pm: Yes, selling to small press you don’t really need an agent, but going to big publishers you definitely do. [Editor's Note: See Transcript: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy. Some panelists disagree.]

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:06 pm: Tina, your question?

[tina_writes_thecleanwhitepage] 6:06 pm: I’ve been asked for an author bio. It’s a tough one to do when you haven’t been published yet. Any advice?

[Anna Kashina] 6:07 pm: I think if you can write something unique about yourself — possibly also lightly humorous — it helps. Something to have the people want to know more about you and to see your work.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:08 pm: Author bios: not really pertinent to the panel topic, so I’ll say briefly that you can always try looking in the backs of your favorite books to see what the authors have said about themselves in the ‘About the Author’ sections. Kind of like with following the examples of blurbs on published novels when you’re learning how to write your own pitches!

[Anna Kashina] 6:08 pm: Prior publications are not as essential in a bio as a good style. Good point, Angela.

[tina_writes_thecleanwhitepage] 6:08 pm: The agent who asked for it says he goes straight to the author bio before he even looks at the query.

[Anna Kashina] 6:09 pm: That is strange.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:09 pm: Tina, that’s an excellent example of why it’s so vital to pay attention to an agent’s guidelines!

[widdershins] 6:09 pm: @Tina… some of the back pages of books (where the author info usually is) are the most interesting and humerous parts of the book! oops wrong humorous.

[Anna Kashina] 6:10 pm: This agent is either looking for your style in a bio, or it is a way of saying he/she prefers published authors, I think. There are always some strange ones out there.

[tina_writes_thecleanwhitepage] 6:10 pm: Well he rejected me after a 75 page partial, so he liked the bio better than the book!

[Anna Kashina] 6:11 pm: Tina — this means your bio was good. And, a partial request is something to celebrate. It means you are close.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:12 pm: Indeed.

[tina_writes_thecleanwhitepage] 6:12 pm:

[Anna Kashina] 6:12 pm: Any more questions? Comments?

There are a couple of things I wanted to mention in closing. A member of my workshop is beta testing a query review site, where you can post your polished query and get votes on whether random readers would request a manuscript based on that query. The address is http://www.querytest.com

I found it a very useful resource if you have, say, two versions of a polished query and want to choose which one to send. Or, if you want to know how good your query fares with a random reader.

There are also a number of sites where you can enter a queue to get your query critiqued by professionals.

[spot_writes] 6:15 pm: Thanks ladies for sharing with us! I took copius notes!

[Anna Kashina] 6:15 pm: One is Query Shark. Another is (W)ords and (W)ardances by Jodi Meadows.

Awesome. Keep an eye on the aforementioned Nathan Bransford’s blog, too; he frequently runs features encouraging people to play the role of an agent and vote on whether they’d ask for pages based on someone’s query. If you have beta readers available, don’t be afraid to use them to ask for their input on your queries and synopses and pitches, just as much as on the manuscript itself. I will be posting a follow-up on this discussion and a list of useful links on my blog at http://blog.annakashina.com.

Please check in if you are interested. I am also on Facebook and Twitter as @akashina.

And yes, Nathan Bransford is my #1 resourse site for queries. He often posts very useful information.

[Angela Korra'ti] 6:16 pm: Kristin Nelson by the way lives over at http://pubrants.blogspot.com, and Jennifer Jackson at http://arcaedia.livejournal.com. Watch both their blogs for useful posts on querying and stuff that’s involved with it.

[Anna Kashina] 6:17 pm: Yes, both of these are great resources too.

[aswiebe] 6:18 pm: Might also like the Query Shark: http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

[Anna Kashina] 6:19 pm: Yes, Query Shark is great, but her queue is really long. It is more useful in seeing other queries critiqued than to get comments on your own.

[aswiebe] 6:19 pm: Even seeing her dissect others can help.