Querying One Author S Feedback On Tactical Issues

Querying: One Author’s Feedback On Tactical Issues

When I was functioning as that lowest of all life forms, the unpublished author, I benefited from established novelists willing to share their experiences. This article is intended to give something back, especially since my experience had some unexpected turns.

I quickly learned to prefer sending queries by snail mail. Yes, it is slower, expensive, and more work, but my perception is that paper queries are taken more seriously and less likely to be ignored. They are also harder to destroy than merely pushing a delete key.

Where I struck out on my own relative to what I was reading on the Internet was the volume and velocity of my campaign. I sent out more than 500 queries, each a customized package, in three months. I scrupulously abided by all guidelines listed for each agency or publisher except one. I did not abide by the industry's requirement of honoring exclusive reading policies of agencies who request it.

This is an unethical system that appears to have been deliberately rigged to unfairly favor publishers at the expense of writers. Although many publishers no longer ask for it, it is a disgraceful legacy that needs to be put out of its misery as soon as possible. Ignoring it in a massive way will do that. I do, however, think that, for now, writers should state clearly that they are making simultaneous queries.

Why such a massive, saturation bombing approach to querying? Well, life is short, and the more leads you put out, the greater the chance of a productive hit. I also needed it because I discovered that I was disadvantaged relative to many other authors. My novel, Coinage of Commitment, is a new kind of love story, one written of characters who love at a higher level than we see all around us. Plus it is fittingly written in a more emotionally vivid style than is currently fashionable.

Sales figures tell me this works well for readers, but it did not appeal to agencies who, I quickly discovered, are very conservative, extremely risk averse, and looking only for something they are used to or which has sold well in the past. Many have political or ideological agendas that bias their decision making. I never did come that close to landing an agent. Publishers were more sympathetic, more interested in literature for its own sake, but it was still a tough row to hoe.

The high volume approach to querying was decisive in my case because without it I would not have found the three royalty publishers who offered me contracts. Only after I had exhausted the list of addresses in print sources like Writer's Market, and those on subscription sites like http://Firstwriter.com, did I go to open sites like Predators & Editors. There I discovered a new class of royalty publisher not listed in the other sources. These are small outfits with low overheads, who use POD print technology (which is becoming widespread), and who do not accept returns.

Otherwise their books are carried by the leading distributors. This is a group of publishers who have sprung up in the last five years. Many of these folks seem to be in it more for the love of books and literature than the profit motive. I found them much more willing to consider something new, like what I was offering, and this is where I hit gold with my own project.

There are other related issues: how to progress as a writer and improve your manuscript while also trying to sell it; how to deal with independent editors when you feel your manuscript is not good enough; and how to deal with the shadier side of our industry during a query campaign. But that is for a future article.

BONUS : Readers: Are They Involved?

There are two specific, yet lofty goals writers strive for every time they commit words to paper. That goal is to write in such a way as to draw their readers into the written word.

If this goal is in fictional writing the author wants the reader to become so absorbed in the story that they are both satisfied, yet sad to see the story end.

If this goal is in non-fiction the writer accomplishes the objective by relating details in a way that leaves the reader interested in the subject and with a desire to learn more.

For the successful fiction writer the term most often applied to this principle is Active Participation. When a consumer steps up the book display they are looking for certain things such as cover design, color schemes and just enough information to allow them to make their choice in thirty seconds or less. Once the reader has the book in hand they desperately want to be an active participant in the work. They want to identify with your characters and involve themselves in the plot line. They want stay up till 2 o'clock in the morning loosing themselves in a world you created. They simply want to know if you are going to be able to make that possible for them.

For the non-fiction writer the goal is to connect the reader to Active Learning. This process has seen non-fiction books include bullet points, ‘did-you-know’ segments and a link between facts and famous individuals that were involved. School textbooks are full of color and sidebars as they try to connect with students to bridge the gap between factual information to innovative ways to encourage active learning.

It is possible for both Active Participants and Active Learners to approach the written word with an inborn desire to learn and/or participate in the storyline. In this scenario the majority of the work is already done.

If a student comes to a textbook with a refusal to learn, then the best textbooks available may not be able to break through the student's self-imposed learning barrier. Similarly, if an individual purchases a novel with an 'impress me' mentality and are only interested in finding any inconsistency or flaw they may have difficulty participating in the work of fiction. Then again, they didn't really come to participate.

Ultimately what this means to the writer is there is a need to work hard in the removal of any stumbling block in an effort to allow your readers to become the active participant and active learner they want to be.