While you're voting...

A brief preview of things to come. Is it exciting? You betcha! Just look at Milly's face over there. Now that's excitement.

We're going to jump forward from the beginnings we've been concentrating on — all the way to the dreaded Query Letter. I know. We hate them. Unfortunately, they're a necessary exercise on the road to publication. We're going to examine the pesky query letter and what we can do to make it stellar, moving it from the slush pile to the request for a partial. Or a full. Or an offer of representation. I'll pass along the title of Nathan Bransford's post today (how timely is that?) when he said:

Think About What
Everyone Else
Would Do:
Then Do
Something Different

But before we get into the details, we need to realize one thing. The whole process is highly subjective. Let me repeat that. The whole process is highly subjective. So, let there be no crying when we enter Query Letterland. Remember this: a rejection from one agent doesn't mean your query is weak, that your story is an undesirable one, that you suck as a writer, or any other negative aspects you might associate with that rejection. It could mean that, but it could also indicate that you haven't done your homework and queried the right agent. Your story may not be the genre or sub-genre that the agent is interested in at the moment. We'll talk about that in a subsequent post and how to find the right agent to query.

Now, the exciting part is that we may (still awaiting a decision) have a well-known literary agent willing to judge the query submissions. If that materializes, we'll have a really nifty prize to go along with it. That's why Milly is so excited for you. But that's still up in the air. More to come as it unfolds.

So, get back to your reviews and your voting for our finalists. I'll have more later today, so check back. And tell your writer friends all about it, too.