8 Query Letter Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

8 Query Letter Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Along with writing my own books, I work with a publishing house that publishes novels of experienced, award-winning authors along with emerging authors. Part of being a small publisher is helping new writers sharpen the craft of writing and allowing them to experience the art of storytelling.

To get to that point, a writer has to introduce the manuscript to an agent or publisher with a query letter. This is one area where most writers struggle – the query letter is a business sales letter.

Writers use it to introduce their work to an agent or publisher, and hopefully, to get a commitment to send more of the manuscript for evaluation.  Both experienced and novice writers struggle with this. Like any good business letter, there are aspects that should be avoided.

Here are eight mistakes that I’ve seen in just the past three months (along with some real-life examples).

1.    Don’t start with what you want.

You are offering something that the publisher/agent will discover that they want.

NO: “I am interested in having my recently completed a 74,000-word mystery titled Deathly Deadbeats published by Cherokee McGhee Press.”

YES: “My recently completed a 74,000-word mystery Deathly Deadbeats features an off-beat amateur sleuth who tracks down men behind on their child support payments, but…”

2.    Don’t query your first novel outside your country. 

I have received several queries from South Africa, Israel, India and the United Kingdom.  Small publishers, who usually take first novels, have so many queries that the added complexities of working with foreign authors make them an easy rejection. Not fair, I know – but it’s a business.

3.    If you receive a rejection from a publisher, don’t turn around and send a query for another manuscript. 

This makes it look like you have a computer full of old manuscripts – even if you do, always query with the one that best fits the publisher/agent’s list.

4.    Don’t re-query a year later thinking the agent/publisher won’t remember and maybe accept the exact same manuscript this time around. 

I read all the queries. I have a process of tracking what comes through the mail. This shows that the author is not working on his craft and a new manuscript; he just keeps shotgunning the same manuscript to every e-mail address he can find.

As in dating, the same in publishing: “No means no.”

5.    Watch for wishy-washy lead sentences. Start the query with confidence.

“I’m seeking a publisher who is willing to consider publishing my first novel, Dancing Trees.” A publisher “willing to consider” would be the first logical step, but don’t put that as the focus. If the publisher is taking query letters, it is willing to consider manuscripts.

6.   Don’t query a manuscript that’s not appropriate for the list. Know the agent/publisher’s genres.

I receive queries for books on business or textbooks or poetry – we publish fiction. That’s not hard to decipher; it’s in the submission guidelines.

7.   Don’t describe yourself. It’s the manuscript that is being evaluated.

“I am a Paul Newman/Kirk Douglas looking Jew with long hair and beard that is observant and has done serious time.”  Am I supposed to be impressed, afraid, cautious, or introduce him to my sister?

8.   Do not query a self-published book (that includes a book that has been an eBook)

Self-publishing or subsidy publishing a manuscript in paper or eBook format is considered a published book. The “First” Worldwide, North American, or whatever print rights have been used. We have found a book’s original publication usually taps out its initial sales potential, and that first period of sales is when the book recoups the publisher’s investment.  Most paper and/or eBook publishers only consider unpublished works.

So, if you decide to self-publish, that book is technically published. Most publishing houses will not consider it.

That last one is a big one as aspiring authors have more opportunities to self-publish.  Even something like SmashWords makes your manuscript “published” and not eligible to be considered for original publication by another publisher.  This is usually in the contract and could become a legal issue if you try to conceal the fact.

These are just a few of the things to watch. More information on creating the perfect query letter to snag a publisher is in my new “field guide to the Writer’s Life” – SUNSETS & SEMICOLONS.

e-Book Pricing

I've heard a lot of chatter on e-book pricing. I understand how some of it comes about. For example: I have a hard time spending money for a reader then shelling out trade paperback prices for a NYT bestseller from a NY mammoth publishing house. Lisa Unger for $11.99 Kindle edition? That just seems greedy.

A publisher can’t drop the price of e-books too low because the cost of editing, graphic design, royalties, management and promotion are all still there. The only cost-savings is paper printing and distribution – but then the e-book seller/distributor replaces those with their own costs.

Because I can (I still control the electronic rights to all my books), I lowered the price of my four novels on the Kindle format, from $6.99 to $2.99 (the lowest price Amazon will allow me to use). This is an experiment to see if price really enters into the buying decision.

At that price, I would make a few cents per book. This scenario would be difficult for a publisher to get everyone who has a finger in the per book margin to agree to take pennies, so it can’t happen in a for-profit company, but with me, sure – for a limited time experiment.

March is my birthday month. So, for a few days, I want to extend a price break to readers, and also, test the pricing model. Does a 58% reduction in price increase demand as our economics professors claimed? I’ll let you know.

eBooks on the “Down Low”

I’m finishing Elena Santangelo’s Poison to Purge Melancholy, which I bought at Malice Domestic this year. I’m enjoying the way she works poisons into the historical subplot and how readily available those poisons were in the 1700s. Even before I started reading it, I had heard a NPR radio interview with Deborah Blum on her new book about poisons and forensic science in New York City in the 1920s.

I’m not a CSI TV show watcher; in fact I don’t think I’ve watched a cop show since “Hill Street Blues.” Forensic science is fascinating. I’ve heard multiple opinions from the real technicians: Either they say the TV labs have more funds and equipment than real life could ever hope for, or they say they never get involved and only write up reports – not much drama there. So I think I avoid those CSI-type programs because I don’t want to write a mystery where the research comes from watching TV. That’s second-hand knowledge.

Back to the poisons. Now the public is gaga over forensics. I don’t know if Blum’s book would have been on NPR if it weren’t for the success of television shows like CSI. I listened to the interview as I drove and found her anecdotes fascinating. I went into the William & Mary Bookstore yesterday and bought The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum. It has bumped up on my reading list to follow Santangelo’s mystery, which is just a few chapters from the end.

The “Down Low” part of this tangential blog is how self-conscience I felt walking around town with a book titled The Poisoner’s Handbook (trying to be green, I declined the shopping bag for the one item). Sunday afternoon is a time for beer in Colonial Williamsburg. People tended to guard their drinks when I sat down near them and they saw the book’s title.

[I will clarify: Blum does not give poison recipes.]

I thought, maybe I should have bought the Kindle copy. That way, no one would know what I was reading.

That covert reading is a plus for eBooks. I will admit I have bought Kindle books that I probably wouldn’t have bought in paper form – mainly because of the cover or title. Some books look too much like romances (not that there is anything wrong with that), when they aren’t. Some aren’t as literary as you want your reading image to convey. Some covers are just too sexy to have complete strangers see you carry on the train or bus.

My first Derek Mason Mystery Fingering the Family Jewels is doing great Kindle sales. Yes, I know the title is a bit risqué for some people, and I wonder if that’s who is buying it in eBook format. Read the book, but don’t let mama know.

Where the Internet opened up a way to buy any book without awkwardness, now eBooks let you read any book, anywhere with complete subject/storyline anonymity.

Be it books on poison, romances, erotica, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Phil, or books with risqué titles, now you can read on the down low. And that (as VP Biden likes to say) is a big f-ing deal.

Read what you want!