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Query Shark - telling it like it is

edited September 2010 in - Resources
This month's Writers' Forum mag recommended Query Shark, a blog about how to write query letters.

There's a reason Janet Reid's known as 'Shark' - she tells it like it is. Writers submit their query letters to her and, if they agree, she publicly analyses the letter, comments on it and criticises it when she sees fit - which is frequently.

I was quite stunned at one of her latest slaughters at http://queryshark.blogspot.com/2010/09/176.html but equally I found it refreshing. To know what agents are thinking and what makes them read on, or reject a query letter is so important.

The extraordinary number of comments also show how appreciative writers are of what she has to say, and that they value the honesty.

Don't be scared - take a look! http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

Comments

  • it's good stuff. Go read it, all you who need to write a query letter. Thanks for that, Lily, enjoyed the bits I read.
  • saw it and noted.
  • Good one - and makes the 'new voices' comp comments look like a tea party ;-)

    pp x
  • Thanks, Lily - I'll have a look at this later. I've read other bits and piece on Query Shark and found it very illuminating.
  • OMG, Lily, I'm not surprised Shark had a minor coronary at the clunkiness of the style in your first link. Surely an adviser HAS to say it like it is? Her style is palatable in its criticism, I feel, but certainly a timely dose of medicine.

    Thanks for this link. I love reading editor responses to queries.
  • I loved it - and she was spot on!
  • Dip your toe in that pond at your ego's peril - but if you dare, send and be bitten: learn, revise, paddle again, get bitten again. Eventually, you might send an editor a piece of work that gets snapped up, not chewed up and spat out.
    Shark Rules!
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