Wednesday, May 19, 2010

How do you query?

Have you ever been so excited by one of your works-in-progress that you queried before the book was finished? And if you got a request for the full, what did you do?

I haven’t, but I can understand the urge. I’m really excited by the YA I’m working on now, and can’t wait to see how agents respond.

Of course, most of us know this is a complete no-no. That along with calling your work a “fiction novel.” Uh, what other kind of novel would it be?

And while I’m on the subject of queries, do you only share them with your crit group, or post them on other writing sites? I hold everything pretty close to the vest and only share with my trusted group. Same goes for writing excerpts. I know there are sites out there where you can get feedback from other writers, but I’ve never shared with strangers. Of course, complete strangers will read our books eventually…hopefully.

Just curious to hear from other writers on this.
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5 comments:

  1. I've been tempted to query before being finished, but never have. And I don't share with a ton of people either. I've posted a handful of snippets on my blog, but they weren't anywhere near being done, so it wasn't a big deal. However, as I get closer to the final product, I only hand over my manuscript to a trusted few.

    I think it's harder for me to let people I know read and critique, than to have a stranger do so...I mean, what if they think I'm completely off my rocker??

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  2. I understand where you're coming from Tracy. Hey, and you're a writer. Of course we're all off our rockers.

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  3. Of course it's tempting to put the query before the cart! When we love our own writing and believe in it we want to get it into the hands of the "professionals" as quickly as possible. All the more reason to have a great critique group! I FEEL like a professional after all the first second, third and thirtieth drafts I've read and written (I just can't can't give you a book contract - darn it all :)

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  4. I haven't done this yet, but perhaps I'm on the other end of the spectrum. Waiting too long to query...

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  5. Get out there and query Tina. Do you have completed novel? A critique group?

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