Comments on: Query Turn-Offs

By: Kevin A. Lewis

Kevin A. Lewis — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 01:03:12 +0000

Righto-by the way it’s “then quit”; I always hate these little gremlin typos…

By: sharon

sharon — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 13:27:11 +0000

So true, Kevin! If anything inspires us to give a second chance to a project that didn’t interest us…it’s certainly not a snotty reply!

By: Kevin A. Lewis

Kevin A. Lewis — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:41:27 +0000

It’s not much discussed in these many query etiquette posts, but your 5th point might better have been called “Keep A Civil Tone & Don’t Smash The Furniture”. I’m forever amazed at all the writers out there who grind their gears trying to argue with a rejection; an agent read-request being like nothing so much as an audience with a medieval monarch-hard to get and any decisions are final and irrevocable. Make your best artistic parting flourish with your top hat and exit stage left before the guards start fingering their scimitars. After all, it’s a big world out there and we always have W.C. Fields’ law of persistence to inspire and guide us: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. The quit-no sense being a damn fool about it…”

By: sharon

sharon — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 20:30:40 +0000

Great suggestion, Judith! Thanks!
And remember, we aren’t reading queries to look for your tiny mistakes – we’re reading them to discover exciting projects. All these query details just contribute to our overall impression of how you’d be to work with.

By: Judith Burnett Schneider

Judith Burnett Schneider — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 17:40:12 +0000

Stephen, when faced with the problem of a name that is not gender-specific, I usually write “Dear Sharon Pelletier.” It’s a bit more formal than simply “Dear Sharon”, and it’s far safer than writing “Mr.” to a Mrs. or a Ms.!

By: sharon

sharon — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 21:36:32 +0000

Hi Stephen, good question – no strong feelings either way! I do agree with the advice that a query is a business letter. But I would suggest going with whichever one YOU feel more comfortable with, since the query is also my first glimpse at your voice as a writer. If you’re sending me a super fun romance, it’s not at all out-of-place to write “Dear Sharon”; if you’re querying an exhaustively researched nonfiction, “Ms. Pelletier” might be the better choice. Hope that helps!

By: Stephen Kozeniewski

Stephen Kozeniewski — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 20:53:58 +0000

Any strong feelings about whether it should be “Sharon” or “Ms. Pelletier?” Personally, when someone I don’t know calls me by my first name it irritates me a bit, and they say to treat a query like a business letter. I almost always use an honorific, unless the agent’s gender is totally unclear, like their first name is “Taylor” and there’s no picture or something.