One piece of advice that’s stuck with me, though, has been the “never start your query letter with a question” adage. I actually did this once and I still had a few nibbles from agents, but I wouldn’t do it again. I’m pretty sure I came across this in an article in the 2010 or 2011 Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents. It makes sense–if I were an agent, the last thing I’d want is to be asked hundreds of rhetorical questions a day.

I think the best advice I’ve ever been given came from mystery writer Carolyn G. Hart. I attended a talk she gave at a literary festival a few years ago in Little Rock, Arkansas. She explained that she wrote at least 8 or 9 manuscripts before she ever got an agent to look at any of them. It helped immensely to hear this. It’s way too easy to think of the Zadie Smiths of the world and feel like a failure for querying four books with no luck. But Carolyn had to do *twice* what I’ve already done before getting her big break. I think beginning writers need to know it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Just because the first one, two, three, or four books don’t “take,” it’s not the end of a dream. It just means you have to work harder and longer to achieve it.

Mildly freaked out about the “no-manuscripts-over-400-pages” idea, but that’s because I tend to write longish SF. No 800 page manuscripts for me yet, but 400-something isn’t too unusual. I’ll just hope that particular editor doesn’t do SF and follow the general reassurance I’ve seen on other blogs and writing sites that SF and fantasy can and tend to be a bit longer. (Of course, I’ll also try to trim away any unnecessary fat. There’s no point in padding a book for the sake of it.)

I am the Books editor at Before It’s News (beforeitsnews.com). Our site is a rapidly growing people-powered news platform currently serving over 3 million visits a month. We like to call ourselves the “YouTube of news.”

We would love to republish your blog’s RSS Feed in our new Books section. Every post would have a description of your site and a link back to it. Our visitors would love to read your content and find out more about you!

You could also publish excerpts of your books if you’d like :), along with links back to pages where they are for sale.

It’s a great opportunity to spread the word about your work and reach new readers. We don’t censor or edit work.

We will be featuring and promoting content and book excerpts across the web.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,

Sebastian Clouth
Books Editor, Before It’s News
Sclouth@beforeitsnews.com