A query letter may be sent separately, before you send in your entire proposal, or it may take the form of a cover letter. It can be sent via email (check to make sure your intended recipient – agent or editor – accepts email format!), or hard copy. A query letter is your pitch…the what, why, and how’s of your story. What makes a good query letter? 1. A compelling, succinct first paragraph hook (aka, premise/big bang) 2. A summary of your book in two-three sentences 3. An explanation of where your manuscript fits into the publishing world 4. Who you are and why you can successfully pull off this book 5. The mechanics of the manuscript – where you’re at in production. Again, I cover this in […]
Read the RestArchive | Delivering Convincing Proposals RSS feed for this section
Synopsis of….well, whatever we’re calling our book
Limelight, or Take Another Shot, or Dark Secrets – (Current Working Titles) Synopsis Former Green Beret Luke Alexander just wants to forget his past, and mind his own business in the wood of east Tennessee. And, his park ranger job seems just the solution…until into his world walks a diva movie star looking for someplace to hide. But the Cherokee forest isn’t big enough for the both of them, not if you include the trouble MacKenzie has dragged along behind her. And soon she’s stirring up his own murky past – a past out for revenge. Which trouble will find them first? It’s going to get much darker for Luke and MacKenzie in the hills of Tennesse… [okay, that is what I call the big bang, or one-two punch […]
Read the RestThe Plotting Roadmap…or scribbles about how I put a book together
The Plotting Roadmap Now that we have three chapters written of our story, I wanted to flesh out the plot to the end so you could see where we want to go. One of the voices asked me – do you always write a story by “the Seat of your Pants?” Uh, NO. I hate that, actually, because it gets me all blocked and wandering the house in a fog. I like having a plan, a roadmap. In my workbook: From the Inside/Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you, I have a plotting roadmap template – and of course explanations of each step in the journey and how to determine them. If you want deeper explanations, you can either pick up the book, or search […]
Read the RestThe Knock on the door: Query Letters!
Now that you are tying up your threads for your synopsis, and packing it with a punch, have written those amazing sample chapters…now it’s time to put it in a cheery, compelling package and knock on the agent’s door. Aka: the Query letter. A query letter is that first meeting, (unless, of course, you meet at a conference!), where you pitch your idea to an editor. It’s what will get your toe in the door, so it has to be something that makes the editor take notice, and shows them how your book will be the Next Hot Thing. What makes a good Query Letter? Let’s take it apart…. 1.. A compelling, succinct first paragraph hook 2.. A summary of your book in 2-3 sentences 3.. Where […]
Read the Rest
