Why It’s Called The Slush Pile
Filed under: General Writing, Proposals, Queries, Submitting, Writers
The Writing Life
Terry Whalin, write and publisher, and former agent and acquisitions editor, has a great blog called, The Writing Life. Every writer should add this to their list of favorite websites.
In his blog post on Saturday, February 19th, Terry wrote, “Every writers pitch their ideas to literary agents and publishers. I’ve listened to many of these pitches personally at writers’ conferences and I’ve received stacks of these submissions as an editor and agent.
In a matter of seconds, I can tell if something is going to be worth reading and considering. Yes, seconds. Millions of submissions are in circulation at different offices. The editors and agents are actively looking because it is their business to find fresh talent and publish authors.
I’ve received many unusual submissions. The number and variety of these submissions grew that I started a file in my desk and labeled it, Strange But True.”
I encourage you to read the rest of his post. He tells a great story of an ill-conceived submission he received. It is funny and sad at the same time.
Your job as a writer seeking to become published, or get published again, is to know your market – and avoid the slush pile. Let this blog post from Terry help. And remember, this applies to submissions made at writer’s conference too.
Terry’s other website is Right-Writing.com.
Do You Submit Your Writing?
Filed under: General Writing, Proposals, Queries, Submitting
Do you submit your writing? I mean do you ever send a query, a proposal, an article, or whatever you write, to an editor or agent?
A few years ago I was a member of a small writers’ group that focused on writing for children. The other three members were all elementary school teachers. Two of the three ladies wrote a mix of children’s stuff. One of them wrote what you might call “high quality.” The third lady never read anything in three years. I don’t think she ever wrote anything. She simply liked the meetings – as a social outlet.
Before we moved, I challenged them to submit something. Anything. I told them I would be in the group for seven months before leaving. I wanted them to do something. Anything.
None of them did.
Submitting a piece of work was simply too hard for these ladies.
One might ask, “Then why write?”
Maybe it’s for personal satisfaction. Maybe it’s to keep the mind in gear. Maybe it’s just for fun. Maybe it’s for some other personal reason.
Whatever your reason for writing, I challenge you to submit something. If you think your writing is good, why not send it off?
You Know Your Query Letter Sucks When…
Here’s the rest of the sentence. You know your query letter sucks when … you don’t grab them in the first sentence. These are the words of Jeff Rivera, founder of HowToWriteAQueryLetter.com.
Jeff goes on to say:
“Agents are so busy nowadays they won’t even give a query letter an entire paragraph to grab them. If you’ve passed the first test, what I like to call the scan test (meaning it looks professional at first glance), then you’ll be lucky to go on to the next test: the first sentence.
“They might be patient enough to even give you the first few sentences but Honey, if you don’t have it together by then, you can kiss your chances of landing that agent goodbye. There are so many different ways to grab an agent.
“These are five of the techniques I use for my clients. I’ve ghost written over 100 query letters for clients successfully. 100% of them have received at least 10 top agents that have requested to read their manuscript or book proposal. In other words, use these techniques – they work. You don’t need to use all of them, just choose one.
“Here are my top five ways to grab an agent with your query letter in the very first sentence.
- Start with a question that makes them ponder?
- Talk about a dramatic moment in your personal life that connects with the book you’ve written
- Tell them immediately about your platform
- Compliment them on a specific recent sale
- Tell them who referred you
“Use one of the five suggestions above and you’ll be one step closer to landing an agent.”
If you would like to see an example of over 60 different examples of query letters, visit: HowToWriteAQueryLetter.com.
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