Queryitis: Prognosis Poor
The test-drive of the latest version of the query crashed and burned. I am so tired of working on this thing!
I've been looking at successful queries (i.e., landed an agent with this), such as here, here, and here. One thing I noticed (once I scrolled down far enough to find something that wasn't YA or women's fiction) is that all these queries are guilty of that great query sin, being vague. Or at least, it's what I would consider vagueness. "looks for safety in self-destruction"? "change him and music forever"? Really? And the third one barely mentions the plot at all.
I'm drawing the following conclusions from this:
1) If an agent thinks the concept is cool, you're halfway there. The Janet Reid one, in particular, does a whole host of things she's known for ranting against. But the concept of a guy who can't feel pain grabbed her enough that that didn't matter.
2) Same goes for writing style, a.k.a. "voice". Although how one's supposed to convey that in query format rather escapes me; maybe it's just a matter of a particular line or phrase that grabs the agent's attention?
3) I've been using a different definition of "vague" and its antonyms than the industry pros. And so have the commenters on every query-review site I've tried. It's not that they want details of actions taken, so much as... details of concept? I'm not sure how to explain it; I've only got the vaguest (sorry) grasp of of it myself. But it seems to dovetail nicely with my new-found determination to focus on the "ethical plot" of my novel, and not be distracted by advice urging me to highlight shiny action stuff when the action plot's really tertiary.
I've been looking at successful queries (i.e., landed an agent with this), such as here, here, and here. One thing I noticed (once I scrolled down far enough to find something that wasn't YA or women's fiction) is that all these queries are guilty of that great query sin, being vague. Or at least, it's what I would consider vagueness. "looks for safety in self-destruction"? "change him and music forever"? Really? And the third one barely mentions the plot at all.
I'm drawing the following conclusions from this:
1) If an agent thinks the concept is cool, you're halfway there. The Janet Reid one, in particular, does a whole host of things she's known for ranting against. But the concept of a guy who can't feel pain grabbed her enough that that didn't matter.
2) Same goes for writing style, a.k.a. "voice". Although how one's supposed to convey that in query format rather escapes me; maybe it's just a matter of a particular line or phrase that grabs the agent's attention?
3) I've been using a different definition of "vague" and its antonyms than the industry pros. And so have the commenters on every query-review site I've tried. It's not that they want details of actions taken, so much as... details of concept? I'm not sure how to explain it; I've only got the vaguest (sorry) grasp of of it myself. But it seems to dovetail nicely with my new-found determination to focus on the "ethical plot" of my novel, and not be distracted by advice urging me to highlight shiny action stuff when the action plot's really tertiary.