http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/ All of the things a good writer was supposed to be born knowing -- but none of us actually were. To check out extensive archives or ask a salient question, please visit the Author! Author! website. en-us 2012-02-04T07:05:26+00:00 Publishers Marketplace Anne Mini hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00:00+00:00 http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/images/PM_rssimg.gif http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/ http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/index.html#20120203020448 The long-awaited day has come at last, : the mail carrier no longer staggers on his way into the agency; photocopying form-letter rejections has ceased being a full-time job; the last outgoing royalty statement has been finalized, and Millicent the agency screener can once again open her e-mail without having to suppress an impulse to switch lines of work into something more soothing, like becoming a tightrope walker or human fly. No more are aspiring writers across North America basing ... Anne Mini 2012-02-03T07:04:48+00:00 http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/index.html#20120203020251 Before we can legitimately draw such grand, sweeping, and possibly unwarranted conclusions about a book proposal none of us have read -- Millicent may not harbor qualms about that, but we should -- let's first double-check that this query meets all of the entry-level criteria for consideration, as it were. Because a paper query (i.e., one that sent via regular mail, rather than by e-mail, and thus is likely to receive longer scrutiny) will first strike a screener on a presentation ... Anne Mini 2012-02-03T07:02:51+00:00 http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/index.html#20120203020151 Let's dust off that list of what content needs to be in a query letter, and let's see how Pippi's missive measures up. A query letter must contain: 1. The book’s title: check. As someone who reads quite a few titles in any given month, though, I found myself wondering if the use of the singular (A COOL PARENT'S GUIDE) meant that the book was aimed only at single parents. If it isn't, THE COOL PARENTS' GUIDE would be inclusive of everybody. Except the uncool, of course. 2. The ... Anne Mini 2012-02-03T07:01:51+00:00 http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/index.html#20120203020038 4. A descriptive paragraph or two, giving a compelling foretaste of the premise, plot, and/or argument of the book, ideally in a voice similar to the narrative's: Pippi does quite a good job of this conceptually -- well done! -- but this paragraph contains a couple of red flags. Did you spot them? No? Millicent's detail-oriented eye would. First, there is a missing word in that second sentence and an omitted apostrophe in the third -- dead give-aways that the sender did not proofread this ... Anne Mini 2012-02-03T07:00:38+00:00 http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/index.html#20120129081600 After so many white and gray Seattle winter images in a row, campers, I thought everyone might be refreshed by the sight of a little green. As I like to tell the students in my writing classes, hitting the same note over and over again, even in the name of realism, can get a little old. Breaking out of the mold occasionally can be very refreshing for the reader. Speaking of getting set in one's ways -- or, at any rate, in one's worldview -- do you remember how at the beginning of this ... Anne Mini 2012-01-29T13:16:00+00:00 http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/index.html#20120129081501 Yet conflating the demands of different venues is precisely what many of the templates out there do, at least by omission. I'm perpetually astonished by frequently rules get posted with no mention to those who stumble across them that the formula or visual approximation is geared toward a particular part of the writing industry. Because writing is writing, right? Not to those who handle writing professionally, no -- which is why, in case those of you perplexed (and who could blame you?) by ... Anne Mini 2012-01-29T13:15:01+00:00 http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/authoress1/index.html#20120129081320 If you are querying via e-mail, naturally, you should skip a few of these niceties: because it is difficult to ensure that spacing will remain intact in transit (it's strange how much a different e-mail program can mangle an otherwise perfectly acceptable letter, isn't it?), it's safer not to skip lines between paragraphs. While indentation is still nice, it isn't mandatory here, and as e-mails inherently contain a date marker, you need not include the date line. For the same reason, you ... Anne Mini 2012-01-29T13:13:20+00:00