Query Letter Writing - First and Last

Last week, I went over how to write your first and last sentences in your query blurb. In a bare bones query, with the first and last paragraph, you could send your query out later this afternoon. So the next step in the query letter writing process is crafting the first and last paragraph.

Let's examine.

First paragraph: Opinions vary on this, but I opened with a sentence about why I was writing the agent. Anything from basic: "I think you'd be interested in my young adult dystopian novel."

to more personalized:

"I read on your website that you're looking for "young adult fiction with strong female leads." Because of this, I believe you'd be interested in my young adult novel."

That's all you need for the opener.**

Closing paragraph: After the blurb, I give the title, the genre, and the word count. (I also compare my novel to similar titles. I've heard some say NOT to do this, but I went George and did it.) Include a brief bio. And an invitation to request more.

Like this:

"A dystopian novel for young adults [genre], CONTROL ISSUES [title] is complete at 75,000 words [word count]. Fans of Lois Lowry’s THE GIVER and Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES will enjoy similar dystopian elements, and a strong teen voice. [comparison]

I am an elementary school teacher by day and a contributing author of the QueryTracker blog by night [brief bio]. If you would like to consider CONTROL ISSUES, I’d be happy to forward the complete manuscript to you. [invitation for more]
Thank you for your time and consideration,

Elana Johnson
[all contact info, including address and telephone number]"

They'll have your email address. And I use a signature on my email that has my personal blog address, my website address, and the QT blog address. (****I totally recommend the whole signature thing over pasting your blog stuff in the email.)

So with my two sentences [that sum up my book from beginning to end] this is what my potential query looks like:

Dear Personalized-to-Agent,

I recently read on the Markson Thoma website where you say you’re looking for “beautiful writing that immediately draws you in, and stories that stick with you long after you’re finished reading.” Because of this, I believe you would be interested in my young adult novel, CONTROL ISSUES.

In a world where Thinkers brainwash the population and Rules are not meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Violet Schoenfeld does a hell of a job shattering them to pieces. When secrets about her “dead” sister and not-so-missing father hit the fan, Vi must make a choice: control or be controlled.

A dystopian novel for young adults, CONTROL ISSUES is complete at 75,000 words. Fans of Lois Lowry’s THE GIVER and Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES will enjoy similar dystopian elements, and a strong teen voice.

I am an elementary school teacher by day and a contributing author of the QueryTracker blog by night. If you would like to consider CONTROL ISSUES, I’d be happy to forward the complete manuscript to you.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

I seriously sent this query letter out to literary agents. I had multiple fulls requested from just those two sentences, an opening graf and a closing graf.

So no matter where you are in the novel-writing process add these pieces to your query! (Cuz you're crafting the query as you write the book, right? Right?? Right.) Next week I'll go over the dreaded middle. But by then, you'll have everything in place, and it'll be a piece of cake. Cake, baby!

What do you think? For a more in-depth look at "Everything Else" that should be in a query, I wrote a post for the QT blog way last year, and just recently The Author Bio.


**Special note: Some agents say to open with the title and word count. I cannot emphasize enough to do your research and arrange your paragraphs accordingly.

Things to Celebrate

Okay, so today's the first day of my monthly newsletter. I hope you got it. It will go out on the last Friday of every month at 9 AM EST (some of you thought I was kidding with the schedule thing, didn't you? Um, nope). And every first Monday of the month will be a book discussion. I think this will really bring us together as blogging buddies. Or maybe it'll bomb and I'll quietly fade into the great black abyss...

Anyway, February's book is The Dark Divine by Bree Despain, so meet me back here on Monday to discuss.

March's book choice is...announced in the newsletter. I really hope you got it. Oh! And the contest details were revealed in painstaking detail. Painstaking. Sort of.

Celebratory point two: as of today, my ebook is 25% off. The sale will go through February 28. Discount code: 25percentoff. Order here.

Numero Tres: I won some blog awards.

Thanks to Corra McFeydon for this one.

I'm giving it to: Elle, Carolyn, Kerri and Brandon.

And then I got this one from a few different people that I'm embarrassed to say I can't remember. (Hey, if you went to such lengths to stuff your inbox, you'd understand why I can't find the emails. I think Emma was the most recent.) I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy.

1. Eating out.
2. Reading good books.
3. My kidlets.
4. Listening to the rain fall.
5. Long showers.
6. Loud music.
7. Driving fast.
8. Peanut butter cookies.
9. Stroking YA covers at Barnes & Noble.
10. Blogging.

I'm passing it on to: my critique buddies. Ali, Jenn, Stacy, Christine, Suzy, Bethany, Danyelle, Beth, Mandy, Windy


And I got this one from Lorel Clayton. Thanks!

I'm giving it to: Lisa, Karen, Scott and Holly.


Tiana gave me this one:

I guess I have to answer these questions with just one word:

Your Cell Phone? Old
Your Hair? Short
Your Mother? Kind
Your Father? Hardworking
Your Favorite Food? Pizza
Your Dream Last Night? Dreams?
Your Favorite Drink? Gingerale
Your Dream/Goal? FinishEH
What Room Are You In? Kitchen
Your Hobby? Writing
Your Fear? Dogs
Where Do You Want to be in Six Years? Here
Where Were You Last Night? Home
Something You Aren't? Alone
Muffins? Okay
Wish List Item? iPad
Where Did You Grow Up? Newton
Last Thing You Did? Blog
What Are You Wearing? Glasses
Your TV? On
Your Pets? Nonexistent
Friends? Chatty
Your Life? Happy
Your Mood? Melancholy
Missing Someone? No
Vehicle? Runs
Something You Aren't Wearing? Socks
Your Favorite Store? Amazon.com
Your Favorite Color? Yellow
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Critgroup
Last Time You Cried? Lastweek
Your Best Friend? Dr.J
One Place You Go To Over and Over Again? Library
Facebook? Farmville
Favorite Place to Eat? Olivegarden

I'm giving it to: Angie, Nisa and Jaime.

Got any exciting news to share? A promotion? Finish a chapter? Sent a query letter? Let me squee! with you.

Happy Thanksgiving and Other Such Things

Wow, what a great week of mantra-ing. You guys are made of win. I'm so glad I know each of you!

I'm going to be unplugged next week. I even took Tuesday off from work. Here's why.

Today I'm recovering from a 2 AM showing of New Moon. (srsly) And yes, it's a "recovery."

I've scheduled some major hours in the Revision Batcave of Awesomeness.

I need to make five pies for my husband's sixth grade class. That's how we roll. I toldja you wanted to be in his class.

Then I'm going to stuff myself with chocolate cream pie at my critique group on Tuesday night (make that six pies that need to be made). And then turkey on Thursday.

But since it's Black Friday next week, I'm going to offer a sale on my ebook, From the Query to the Call. This ebook offers everything from how to write a query letter, how to research and submit to agents, query letter samples and then a guide for how to field "the call." It's an essential read for every aspiring author.

And you can get it this whole week for 25% off! It's regularly $9.95. This week? $7.46.

Click this button and enter the code: 25percentoff (all one word, no spaces, caps, etc.)



And I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving. I know I have a lot to be grateful for.

Later gators!

From the Query to the Call Sale!

My ebook, From the Query to the Call, is now on sale for the weekend!

Here's how it works:
1. Add the ebook to your cart. (At the top of this blog. Or this one. Or the website. Or here:

2. Enter the code: 25hoursale (No spaces, no period at the end.)

3. You get the ebook for $7.50 - 25% off!

4. Sale lasts from now - midnight Sunday. Tell your writerly friends.

Easy, peasy.

And I'm sort of under a deadline of sorts. So I'm still AWOL. But I'll be back next week.

Have a great weekend!

FROM THE QUERY TO THE CALL has arrived!!

I know there's been some hype over the release of From the Query to the Call, an interactive ebook for writers.

And now it's finally here!!

Click the buttons below to order. Buttons can also be found up above, and on the official From the Query to the Call website.

But that is not all, my friends. Oh, no. I said I was going to have something special for the first 20 people, but I'm going to renege (isn't that a great word?).

Because, not one, not five, not twenty, but every person who purchases From the Query to the Call gets an added bonus. A query critique by the Query Ninja. That's me, by the way. You can see what you might get by clicking on my brand spanking new blog.

I know, I know. I swore I would never be one of those people who has four blogs. Sadly, I do. Le sigh. But I wanted to add a bonus for those who buy the ebook. So the deal is this: You buy the ebook, read it and apply it to your query, and you get to send me the query to shred, er, critique. I'll only post them on the Query Ninja blog if you want me to, but I think it will be a valuable companion and resource to From the Query to the Call.

Purchase your copy now!

 





Beth Revis's review.
My interview with Beth.

Christine Fonseca's review
My interview with Christine.

Sandra Ulbrich-Almazan's review.

Abby Annis's review.

Robin McCormack's review.

Sara Tribble's review.

My interview with Danyelle Leafty. 

Jamie Harrington's review.

Windy Aphayrath's review. 

And The Winner Is...

This past weekend, I launched a Twitter campaign to get the word out about From the Query to the Call. One lucky writer has won a FREE ebook!

And the winner is...

Casey McCormick!!!

(And sidenote: Casey runs an awesome blog, so if you're not following her, dude, you so should be.)

So Casey, email me and I'll get you the goods, okay? Okay. elana (at) elanajohnson.com.

Stay tuned! From the Query to the Call will be officially released in one hour.

FREE Friday!

That's not meant to be read like Free Willy! or anything. It's just Friday and that means that today is a day you can get something for FREE!!

My ebook, From the Query to the Call, to be exact.

You can get 5 entries. Here's how:
1. Leave a comment on this post.
2. Tweet about my ebook today.
3. And on Saturday.
4. And on Sunday (by midnight, please).
5. Leave me another comment on this post, telling me how many twitter entries you have, along with your twitter handle so I can follow you!

Use this to tweet: From the Query to the Call, an ebook by @elanaj comes out on Monday, Sept 14! Click here for all the details: http://tinyurl.com/lgfh8a

Yes, it's only 135 characters. You're all good.

That's it! If you tweet today and not tomorrow, you still get an entry for today. If you're going to be hosting another football party--oh, wait, that's me--and you forget tomorrow, tweet on Sunday. The book will be released on Monday, so tweets must be made by Sunday at midnight, MST. I'll be back here on Monday, before the release, to announce the winner.

That's the free stuff.

Not sure you want to buy the book? Um, dude, you do. But just in case you need some convincing, check out these posts.

Beth Revis's review.
My interview with Beth.

Christine Fonseca's review
My interview with Christine.

Sandra Ulbrich-Almazan's review.

Abby Annis's review.

Robin McCormack's review.

Sara Tribble's review.

Today is also the last day of the Spread the Word campaign. If you have already participated in this, please email me at elana (at) elanajohnson.com and let me know so I can send you the discount code. It's not too late to participate! (Hey! That rhymes!) If you blog about it, tweet about it, Facebook about it--there's even a Facebook fan page--just email me and let me know. I've seen people do this already (THANK YOU!), but I'm not going to give out the code publicly. You must email me. So email me! I love email anyway. Who doesn't??

Oh, and Lisa and Laura--major contributors to From the Query to the Call--are hosting a similar contest like this on their blog. Check it out, because you can see a little taste of what you'll find in the ebook on their blog today.

Oh, and I have something special for the first 20 buyers of From the Query to the Call, coming up on Monday, September 14. So set your alarms if you need to!

Have a great weekend!

WiP Wed

Today is a lucky day. It's 09-09-09. That only happens once a year and only for the first twelve years of a new century. Is it your lucky day? If so, spill!

As for me, I've been steadily working on my WiP. I participated in Julie Butcher's #wordathon on twitter this past weekend. I need to finish this book I started over the summer. And I wrote 6200 words! I'm almost almost done; I'm on target to meet my self-imposed deadline of next Friday. And that makes me happy. It's more like joy. Or ecstasy.

I've been doing a few last minute tweaks on the ebook. Since I bought the software to convert it from Word to .PDF, I can do it a million times a day. Not that I do that or anything...but I could if I wanted to change just that--one--last--word. I've been working on making it available for iPhone and iPod Touch users, something I hope will happen soon after the release. Other than that, promotion is the biggest item on my plate for the ebook. And let me tell you, I have a whole new appreciation for authors who do their own promotion. It's scary and hard and sort of unchartered territory for me, but I've learned so, so much. And that's invaluable.

How's your week been?

Sneak Peek Candidates Wanted!

Job opening: From the Query to the Call Ebook Reviewers to participate in an email campaign.

Qualifications:
1. Must read English.
2. Must have a blog where you will post your review of From the Query to the Call no later than Friday, September 11.
3. Must be willing to personally email 10 aspiring authors about From the Query to the Call no later than Monday, September 14.

Positions available: 25

That’s right! I need YOU! I’m willing to provide From the Query to the Call at a severely discounted price ($5) to 25 people who are willing to help me reach authors I don’t know. If you think this is something you can do, apply to elana (at) elanajohnson.com.

What you’ll do:
1. Receive From the Query to the Call for $5.
2. Read the ebook.
3. Give a review on your blog no later than Friday, September 11. Provide links to the Facebook fan page and Query to Call website.
4. Email 10 aspiring authors about the ebook no later than Monday, September 14. (This is an email outreach effort. Tell them about the book. The fan page on Facebook. The website. Why they should buy it.)

I don’t think this will take very long for anyone who applies. And you’ll be getting the ebook for 67% off! I happen to think that’s worth a lot.

What you’ll get from me:
1. Free publicity. I’ll put your name here on my blog as a Sneak Peek Reviewer, with a link to your review. I have almost 200 followers and twice that many subscribers. That’s 600 people who see my feed every day.

2. Undying gratitude.

Again, this is an EMAIL campaign. And the 10 authors you email must be people I don’t know. Now, how will you know this? Trust me, I think you’ll know. For example, Michelle McLean wouldn’t be able to email Christine Fonseca or Windy Aphayrath or Amanda Bonilla or Suzanne Palmeiri. She knows I know those people. You know? You know if you have writers you communicate with that I don’t. And if you don’t know that, ask me, okay? Okay. I’m willing to practically give away my product, but only if the product is going to get to people I normally can’t reach by myself.

Apply to elana (at) elanajohnson.com. Applications will be taken until the positions are filled.

Have a great weekend!

WiP Wedne--Batman Blogger!

Yes, I get distracted easily. This was going to be a report of my progress. I'm going to get to it. Promise.

But Abby made the kewlest Batman Blogger badge based on my post last week. Here it is!

Then Eric made it into an award, and conjured up the image of me wearing a cape, leaping from rooftops. Um, yeah, who doesn't do that in their spare time? Pshaw.

So I forward the Batman Blogger onto these kewl peeps:

1. Suzette Saxton and Bethany Wiggins

2. Christine Fonseca

3. Jaime Theler

4. Ali Cross

5. Carrie Harris - she loves superheroes! Yay!

Okay, onto Work in Progress Wednesday stuff. I'm so freaking excited to announce that my upcoming ebook, From The Query the The Call will be released soon soon soon! This ebook has everything an aspiring author needs, including (but not limited to) a step-by-step guide to writing a query letter, researching agents, sending submissions and fielding "the call." 

It will launch just in time for the fall querying season on Monday, September 14, and you can click here to become a fan on Facebook. Anyone who helps me promote it by announcing it on their blog or website or facebook or twitter or whatever will get a discount! So mark your calendars, okay? Okay.


On the fiction front, I've been playing avoidance. But my current WiP only has about 7,000 unwritten words. I've set a goal to have those words on screen by Friday, September 18. That's only 500 words a day. Totally doable.


So what have you accomplished this week, writing or otherwise? I played tennis--got slaughtered--but that was a major accomplishment. I didn't make anyone cry last week, another major goal. What have you done?

Work In Progress Wednesday

Okay, so I've taken a few weeks off of reporting on the WiP. So sue me. I think I've voiced my strong feelings about this topic in the past. Um, yeah.

I don't always feel like that, for the record. It just happened to get to me and well, you had to be the sounding box for that. So thanks!

I'm feeling better about the whole WiP thing. It's not haunting me anymore. Thankfully.

So here's the low-down:

1. I finished revisions on Control Issues and sent it out to agents. Bring on the waiting! I actually love waiting. It's one of my favorite things to do. I also like watching Cialis commercials, going to the gym and being annihilated on the tennis court. Oooh! Did you see the Roddick/Federer match on Sunday? Brilliant. Bloody brilliant. Hey, I just turned British!

Ahem.

2. I have been attempting to write on my WiP. I think I've probably done a couple thousand words over the past few weeks. Not stellar, but it's something. And anything is better than nothing, at least that's what I tell myself. Over and over.

3. I finished writing the e-book, From the Query to the Call. And after much research (*shudders*), I have decided to pay someone smarter than me to get it into publishable e-book format. I designed the layout, the colors, the fonts, made my own 3D cover, everything. But even I am not a genius. Shocking, I know. *wink, wink*

I wrote the thing, solicited shamelessly for examples and permission from my query-writing friends, and really did everything I could do. If I wanted to compile the document with HTML codes that would preserve all my bookmarks, links, and clickables, I'd be 95 before it was done. And I can pay $20 and have it done in like, no time at all.

So who's smarter? The girl who is determined to do it herself (and would have to buy a $295 program to do it) or the one who's willing to give some small piece of control to someone else? Well, for a control-freak like me, it might be the determined girl. But I really think I'll be better off in the long run if I just shell out the $20. My kids will thank me, I'm sure.

I did make my own cover. This is the flat one, the one that's on the inside title page of the book. You like? It's okay if you don't. After the number of rejections I've received, I don't have feelings anymore.


How have you been doing on your writing ambitions? Lay it on me. Lay it on thick.