Dreamers Forum HELP!

So, I'm working on a new book, and I'm thinking it'll be done by the end of the month. And then I'd like to start thinking about sending it out to publishers. But here's the problem...I don't have the first clue how to write a querey....does anyone have an advice or experience?

N~

First, let me say congratulations on your almost completion!  Do you eat or sleep?  :)

Now, as we all know, different publishers want different things, but I think using these few sources may be able to help you out.

The first is a book which I have read several times, and really does help a person.  It's Stephen King's On Writing.  He explains things clearly and in lamen terms, which is nice, and considering he was once an English teacher besides bestselling author, he knows what he is talking about, and goes through all the motions and tells you what to expect.

The other two are web resources.  The first is a general, basic query format that you can adjust as needed. 

The last has a lot of extras, and just because it's romance, don't skip over it!  Scroll to the bottom, you will find a lot of articles to use.

 

Hope this helps!  Myself, I am one of the worst query writers out there, and can use all the help I can get.

Melissa

 

I can't say I've got tons of experience as far as query writing goes, but the one thing I do know for sure is that you should almost always send your query to an agent before you start sending to publishers. Even the publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts often don't get around to reading them for a very long time--I remember taking a trip to a publishing house in my neighborhood that accepted unsolicited manuscripts; there were seriously hundreds of them waiting to be read, and all I could think of seeing that pile was that I didn't want to be at the bottom of it. XD There are a lot of ways to make a query letter stand out to an agent, but I'll admit, I don't know what all of them are--I do know that there are several books on the subject written by literary agents, so I guess that'd be a good place to start? And there are probably classes in your area that focus exclusively on the publishing end of writing, which might also be worth checking out. 

Thanks, both of y'all. And no, Super...I've sacrificed quite a bit of sleep. lol, its worth it. I will definetely take both y'all's advice in mind.

N~