Jim N. Duncan

 Querying An Agent

Querying an agent is a subtle art form. While it generally adheres to a specific format, what is considered a good query can be quite subjective. What catches the eye of one agent and leaves them wanting more can fall flat and bore the heck out of the next one. You cannot, will not, and should not please all agents with even the best of queries. Do not even try this exercise in futility, unless of course you are the masochistic sort. You can only do two things with a query: adhere to the general format, and write your best.

Easy part first. If you look at many writer and agent sites on the net you will find that a query follows a reasonably set format: dear 'Mr. or Ms. Name of agent', an introductory paragraph, the body of your query, a short bio, and a thank you. It is pretty straightforward and simple in structure at least. You would be surprised however by how many people lose an agent's interest right off the bat by not adhering to the general format. People need to understand that agents read through thousands of these per year. They want it to be as effortless as possible. It is to your advantage as well. You don't want to throw a monkey wrench into the works by breaking the agent's mental stride. You want them to slam on the brakes due to great writing. That's it. No bells and whistles, no blowing horns, pretty drawings, or anything that will pull attention away from the one thing that matters. Your writing. Do yourself a huge favor and abide by the generally accepted format. Your chances will go up right away because of it.

In the introductory paragraph you only need a few basic items. You want the agent to know you are seeking representation on whatever the title of your manuscript is. They want to know the length of your manuscript. They wish to know the genre of your story, i.e. paranormal, romance, suspense, etc. You can put in one sentence about your story here, something unique and eye-catching if at all possible, otherwise you can leave the story information to the body paragraph. If your story has a high concept such as, "This story is 'Lost in Space' meets 'Lord of the Flies,'" then including it here in the intro is generally a good spot. If you aren't sure if you have an eye-grabbing one-liner, don't do it. Some agents like these, others don't.

In the body of your query, you tell the very basics of your story. There is some leeway here, but in general you want three things at a minimum: who is the protagonist, who is the villain or threat, and what is the conflict. Given the other elements in the query, you have about half a page at most to do this. While back story might be important to understanding the main character, or you have some really great and quirky minor characters, keep all of this to a bare minimum or out entirely if you have no space. Write it up with those three main things first. You can always add a bit to embelish if you have room, but you have a page to do this. This is something akin to the back cover blurb of a book. You do not need to tell the whole story in a paragraph. Your goal: get a partial/full request for your manuscript. That's it. Many agents will want sample pages along with a query letter anyway. Think of it as a sales pitch. You have a few sentences at the most to attract interest. Agents will get testy on you if it is much more than that. The trick of course, and the hardest part of nailing these damn things down, is showing your unique writing voice in all of half a page. It can be done, trust me. There are examples all over the net you can find of what works and doesn't. Many, many, many examples of what doesn't. Look at them, study them, and then don't do that.

I won't tell you how to write the good stuff here, not that I could anywhere else for that matter, but in that body of the query you need to let your writing voice shine through. If you don't then an agent is not going to be snagged. Of course being subjective to the n'th degree, agents will sometimes see something they like in spite of your inability to craft a good query. They will like your idea, or the main character, or some little bit that makes them think that maybe something good will be there. I'm not going to even try to cover that. Just follow the format, and work really hard at being the best writer you can. There are hundreds of agents out there with their own unique tastes in writing. If you write well, stick to the format, and present yourself professionally, you are almost guaranteed of getting passed that initial stage and getting more material requested with at least a few agents. I would suggest checking out some of the agent site's listed on my site. They discuss queries and have samples as well. Good luck!

The Myth of the Write Way

There are tens of thousands of aspiring writers out there. Most will never see their words in print.  In fact, most never complete a single project to even make the attempt to publish.  The reasons for this are many and often complex. Sometimes it is merely a lack of enough motivation or discipline; it takes a high degree of both to make it to the cherished realm of publication. Sometimes a person doesn't have adequate writing skills, a fact that can be remedied of course, but more often than not, that is used as an excuse to quit writing. One does actually have to learn how to write well.  It is not one of those arts that you can just pick up and start doing with quality results right away.  The person who can do this is the rare exception, very, very rare. However, given adequate motivation to learn, to want to get past the stage of horrible writing, many aspiring writers look for a better way to do things.

Go to any of the big bookstores and you will find numerous shelves on the subject of writing.  Many of these describe the author's way of doing things.  There are books on plotting, character, structure, conflict, and so on.  Most of these books come from successful, professional, published writers. An aspiring writer, and I am included in those ranks, will often look to these wise words in order to find that one special way of doing things that will provide that ride over the publishing rainbow to the pot of gold on the other side. Someone out there who knows what they are doing must know that one thing that will work for me!  Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Honestly, the only thing that I believe can be said for these books is that they are right for whomever wrote them.  They found a way, some unique method, through trial and error, or perhaps using someone else's method in combination with another to make things click for their writing process.  It worked and has continued to work over the years for them, and that is great for them, and great for you too.  In writing, there really is only one true mantra:  it depends. Will someone's process for writing work for you?  It depends of course on how well their process gels with how you like to write, how your brain works, and a dozen other little bits that make up the madness of becoming a successful writer. Odds are, some little bit of it will work, and some of it will not.  You are not them, so how can you expect what works for their mind will be utterly in sync with yours? You can't.  Don't even try to make it work, because you will only end up frustrated and discouraged.

Like anything though, you cull from it what is useful, you try something out and see how it helps or hinders your writing. Over time, from all of these bits of wisdom from teachers, friends, and fellow writers, you mold and shape something that will eventually make it work.  Some folks never quite get there, it's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.  You have to be willing to keep trying, over and over and over again.  Somewhere out there are all of the pieces of the writing puzzle.  It's your puzzle and yours only, made from all the unique things that make you who you are.  Hopefully you get enough of it together over time to see something of the bigger picture and your writing becomes a success.  Good luck to all of you aspiring writers!

The New World of E-books

The world is a-changin', or at least in the murky, confusing realm of internet publishing. Everyone in the industry is wondering just how it is all going to play out over the next few years. As it stands now, anyone can publish online. Anyone can write a book, arrange to have an ISBN slapped on it, and put out there for people to read and buy. This doesn't mean you will sell anything of course, but it is certainly far easier now to make it possible. However, unlike the cliche, 'build it and they will come,' writing does not follow suit. Just because you write it, does not mean anyone is going to read it. Marketing and networking are just as key in the e-world as they are out in the real world of publishing. That said, there is certainly a wealth of new opportunities for writers out there in the virtual realm.

Right now, e-pubbing is limited by those willing and able to read digital material. Not everyone has a computer. Far fewer have readers to download material to. Many people, myself included, do not like reading book length material on the computer. I might like a reader, but I don't find them worth the required investment at this point. If I read a lot, i.e. several books a week, I might feel differently. Certainly a big boon to agents and editors. I love reader's ability to make them more efficient at getting through my queries and pages. Then you have issues like proprietary formatting. Anything on  Kindle must be converted to its format in order to be readable, and apparently Amazon is going to stop selling any ebooks that are not in Kindle format. Thus, it makes me happy to see technology developing such that readers will be open to a variety of formats, such as Plastic Logic's new reader, which will reduce the monopolistic effects Amazon can have on such formats. One of these days, likely not too far down the road, we will be able to buy a portable device that will essentially be a paperback book sized laptop, that will provide an easy to read screen, play music and movies, be a phone, and everything else our computers do now. When this happens, I may actually invest and read my books on a screen.

From what I've seen and read thus far, people do and will buy digital books. Many will pass them along to friends and family if they can, without paying for additional copies. Some will be courteous and simply tell them to go buy it for themselves. Some will pirate material and attempt to make a profit off of it. It's almost unavoidable. The industry will make attempts to limit that ability. It will be restrictive and a pain in the ass at first, until something is found that is a happy medium between pissing customers off too much and maximizing profits. Regardless, writers will be able to make money from it. Will it be the same as traditional publishing? Hard to say. Money will be lost in free distribution, but the digital world has a far broader audience base to draw from. So, there is greater potential. Writers need to think longer term. Building a readership is key, whether it be digital or paper. If people like your writing, they'll come back, and some will buy while others will access it for free. The bigger problem I think is also the internets biggest feature. Anyone can do it.

As the ebook world flourishes, the sheer amount of material to wade through will become exponential in comparison to tradtional publishing. If we think it's hard to find good material to read in the traditional format, you ain't seen nothing yet. I see this as the biggest obstacle to writers trying to make a go of it digitally. How do you get yourself noticed in the ever growing sea of material out there to chose from? People complain about the amount of 'dreck' that gets published today, but it will and does pale in comparison to what can be found on the web. Legitimate critics, those who know the craft of writing, who can offer an informed opinion about an author's work, cannot possibly inform us about what comes out digitally. Hell, they can't do it for what comes out in paper. Review sites proliferate on the net. Anyone can hang up there 'critic' shingle and offer opinions. The vast majority are not very informed. Myself, I pay little attention to reviewers, other than to see what is actually being published. But readers need some method of sifting through everything to find what they want. How this comes to pass over the next few years will be a key element in my opinion on the success writers can have publshing online. How can one get oneself known to the online reading public?

My opinion, and it is just that, and not even an expert one, is that those who find success will either have money back them for online advertising, in whatever form that may take, or they will find a way to add content to their work that takes it beyond just the simple reading of a book. I know this flies in the face of the reading experience that many treasure, the simple curly up on the couch with paperback in hand, the feel and smell of the pages, and so on, but the simple fact of the matter is, the internet audience expects more for their money. This isn't to say that many readers aren't looking to just find their favorite author in ebook form and downloading the book, but there is a greater audience out there where the various media formats hold greater appeal. Whether it's author interviews, maps and glosseries, character bios, artwork, book trailers, or whatever else creative minds might come up with, the point is, value-added content is going to become a driving force in marketing and selling the actual book. Writers may decry this, and who has skills in all these things or wants to invest the time and energy away from actual wrting to do this, but the fact is, if you want to garner a larger digital audience, it is going to take more than simply putting words on a page (best selling authors aside). Writers and publishers are going to have to become in some sense, entertainers beyond the written word.