In our recent Purple Sage Publishing Consortium meeting, Matt presented what a literary agent wants to know in a query letter. Here are my notes: 1) Why are you sending me this letter?, e.g., Where did you meet me?, Who referred you to me?, Do you think your subject is in their area of interest, etc; 2) Set forth the essence of the book in one or two paragraphs; 3) Indicate where your book fits in the market, e.g., How is your book similar to and different from other books like yours?, 4) What is the genre, e.g., memoir, sci- fi, etc.; 5) Who are the writers who write in this genre, 6) Ask if you can send the Agent something, 7) Where is your book in the market, e.g., subject matter, 8) Tell the Agent something about you as a writer, some brief bio., e.g., Have you been published? Where? Did you study with a known writer? Do you have a platform (social networking), e.g., do you have people who are interested in your work?
On another note, I'm working on a spiritual will. I'll tell more about it in the next post. Basically, you write this for family and/or friends so you can share your values, your hopes and dreams for them, what you've learned in life, and so forth. Yesterday I wrote letters to my adult children. Today I'm working on my favorite memories of my kids, family and friends. It's kind of crazy writing "from the grave" so to speak, but there's a wonderful freedom with it too. Kind of like being in two places at once. I can only do it for a short time, and then I have to pull myself back into the present. It's spooky "being gone." Anyway, I hope there will be enough interest for my kids to read it. One never knows.
I like your idea of a "spiritual will" - something to consider. So much knowledge gets lost in families, because it does not get passed on from one generation to the other.
ReplyDeleteI recently read a book about writing and getting published, it is called "Write That Book Already!" - it was very good and informative.