First partial request

[jimnduncan]

Happy day! First request for pages from my new query on the rewritten suspense novel, Deadworld. Seven or eight rejections so far and now one request. If I maintain that ratio over the 100 agents on my list, I'll be pleased. The request was for 100 pages. I'm hoping it actually all gets read. I've had requests before for a large chunk of pages only

Comments

Query #20 (that's me) in yours and Nathan's contest

[dashboard2]

Hi, Jim --

I want to thank you--personally, so to speak--for "Nathan's" contest. You can well imagine that I've been bowled over by the interest in my query. And the kind words! (One or two snarkers, but so what?) I've been on Cloud 9 since Monday, and I have you and Nathan to thank for it. In trucking, when we say "thank you" from the heart we say, "I owe you." I've taken every blog suggestion seriously and changed my last paragraph and some punctuation--the people spoke, they were right, and I owe them too.

I'd like to recommend Truck Stop, by Marc F. Wise and Bryan Di Salvatore. Bryan's offered to write a blurb for In The Driver's Seat and I'm hoping he'll agree to be my reader for the audio book. His voice, honed by years of cigarettes and laughter, growls like a diesel on the Interstate.

One blog commenter suggested that my query include sample anecdotes. Well, you're allowed one page to pitch 300--you've got to leave a few things out. Still, the word "anecdotes" always reminds me of Dispatches, by Michael Herr, and my discovery of anecdotes as an art form. My favorite Dispatches chapter consists of 20 unrelated anecdotes--some a few lines, some a few pages--hung like pictures at an exhibition, no common theme to them but the theme of the book: the war in Vietnam. I had to read the chapter three times before its structured non-structure hit me, and then it hit me hard. Check out Herr's book. It's been in print continuously since 1976.

Anyway, I owe you. Big time. And yes, query writing sucks.

Marc Mayfield / Grass Valley, CA

Re: Query #20 (that's me) in yours and Nathan's contest

[jimnduncan]

Thanks, Marc! Very cool that it has helped. It's been rather interesting (in a good way) that this contest turned more into a query editing exercise than was planned for. It seems to have helped all who got there's posted. I realized that my attempt at doing something different for a query didn't come across very well or the way in which I did it was not good enough. Mine was the one with the character actually speaking about the story. I've since gone back to using my more standard query.

I wish you lots of luck with your story. I actually thought it sounded good, but playing pretend agent I wasn't sure it had a big enough market to request. Hopefully I'm wrong on that one. Thanks again for the post.

Jim