User Talkback: QueryFail

In the March Newsletter, we asked for your feedback about the recent QueryFail event that took place on Twitter. We've posted some of our favorites below.

Thanks to everyone who submitted comments. If you don't see yours listed, or you didn't receive our email, please feel free to add your own feedback below.

In case you missed the first QueryFail day, another is planned for April 17th. You can follow the discussion at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23queryfail. And while you're there, be sure to follow our own twitters at www.twitter.com/litmatch.


Christopher Hawkins
LitMatch.net




"I'm sure that agents receive some awful queries, but I think they're using the bad ones as an excuse for their extremely high rejections rates. No matter what excuses the agents give, any system that rejects ninety-eight percent of the material submitted must be throwing out a great many good books that will never see print. And if so many queries are that bad, why don't agents give us a little more information as to why they rejected a query, rather than sending out form letters saying "the market is tight"? We know that already. We also know the generic advice they give out, such as "tell a good story" or "write a good hook". Agents say they're busy, and I'm sure they are, but this practice of telling us absolutely nothing is actually wasting both their time and ours. If all aspiring authors would band together and stop sending anything to agents, perhaps they'd quit being so arrogant."


"I’d call it ‘querysuccess’. That kind of open feedback can only help ...no pain, no gain... J and a chuckle is worth a thousand words..."


"There is only one answer to those writers miffed by agents do not wanting unprofessional queries. ‘If the kitchen is too hot get out’. What more can we say?"


"I personally find the comments sometimes painful but also helpful. As long as they don't use actual names, I think it's a good idea. Gives the rest of us a clue as to what rubs them the wrong way. Might be nice if they said what rubbed them the right way, but oh well."


"About how not to query an agent - the examples they gave were both sad and funny at the same time. I guess it would be possible for the people who wrote them to come across them and be hurt, but I don't feel sorry for them. One of the elements that a lot of the quotes had in common was plain arrogance. It isn't that I'm suggesting writers should be humble, but they certainly should be as professional as they can be when approaching agents, and being professional is not such a difficult thing to learn.
I suspect that if an agent comes across a query in which no attempt to follow the format has been made, they must instantly wonder what it would be like having to work with that person. Perhaps I'm a bit sorry for the plain ignorant ones, but the 'Hey look at me, I'm a genius' style of approach made my toes curl. Egocentricity is the enemy of good writing."


"I have been sending a fair share of queries to literary agents. Over the course of several months, my query letter has improved based on revision and commentary such as QueryFail. If you are going to enter this lonely industry of writing, you need to be realistic and expect rejection after rejection after rejection. As long as the agents maintain the anonymity of these queries—I really see no problem. The truth often hurts, but it will all go away once that first acceptance comes your way. I actually found some of the posting very funny. We need to laugh more and stop being so serious."


"I read some of the comments by agents on Queryfail and did find some of the comments to be derogatory and mocking. It's one thing if you submit your query to somewhere like Janet Reid's QueryShark where you know it will be posted publicly and you expect direct (and sometimes harsh) feedback. It did not seem as if these writers knew their letters would be tabloid fodder. I think for entertainment purposes it was a hit, sort of like watching reality television and laughing at another's misery. However, if the intent was truly to help new authors improve their query technique, I believe you learn much more from positive examples rather than negative ones. I realize many others found it hilarious so this is just one dissenting opinion."


"I believe it is highly unprofessional and a betrayal of trust."


"As someone who has failed at querying for years and years and years, I took no offense, because the failed queries all had egregious errors and the cloak of anonymity had been tossed down. It is possible to write a masterful query letter and still not entice an agent. These were failed queries so much as query blunders."


"I'd just like to say that the comments on the above forum/blog/twitter are a very bad sign. It proves, beyond doubt, that many agents are totally contemptuous of writers, despite the fact that they would be landlocked ships without them.

Agents should be earning their high fees by ensuring a continual flow of good material gets through, regardless of initial query letters. A query letter, though probably indicative of a poor formal education, does not, necessarily, imply that creative ability is lacking. Because of lazy publishers using agents as clearing houses, it seems many agents have become smug; and smugness is ugliness.

Well, smug agents one and all, please sit in front of a blank page and write a story that will entertain millions for many decades. What, you can't do it! Strange that, given we inferior writers have been doing that for centuries, despite lacking the mere admin skills that you're so proficient in!"


"The #queryfail twitter discussion is awesome, powerful, and an amazing example of this new hyper-communicative virtual community created."


"Is there a site for lame agents who make you wait Months for a response to a request and then only give cutNpaste unhelpful responses or "obviously didn't read my ms carefully/closely" responses? One as snarky and hurtful as the items Colleen Lindsay thinks appropriate?"

User Talkback: The Future of Publishing

In last month’s newsletter, I asked you, our users, to give us your take on the future of the publishing industry. You certainly didn’t disappoint! We received dozens of thoughtful, well-reasoned replies, and if your opinions are any indication, one thing is certain: the publishing industry will live on, regardless of what form it may take.

Thank you to everyone who replied. I’ve included a few of our favorite responses below. Feel free to add your own using the comment form. And if you're not receiving our newsletter, what are you waiting for? Sign up for free at www.litmatch.net/register.asp


Chris Hawkins
LitMatch.net


“I don't think good stories will ever be a thing of the past. More than ever what we need is entertainment that isn't costly, like sitting down with a good novel. Call me optimistic, but it's still cheaper to read a good book than to go out to a movie that takes up 2 hours or go out to dinner. So there you have it!”


“The sheer numbers of new independent authors entering into the field, are bringing about dramatic changes in the way books are being produced, marketed and sold. The Agent/ Publisher strangle hold on the industry is slowly dying. The arrogance of the agents who will not consider even looking at a property of an author who has independently published is unbelievable. How ever they are creating a bottle neck in conventional publishing that obviously they don't even see. More and more really good authors are turning to POD and self publishing just to stay away from the greed games played by the Agent/ Publisher consortium”


“While e-books and web publishing have an audience, I believe that books devoid of technology (not withstanding the technology it took to make it a book) will be around for many years. As our world evolves into the technology age, many people spend their time at work on computers and much of their time at home on them as well. Having said that, people still want to pick up a good book now and then. Technology does not account for the time people spend waiting for whatever reason. A book tends to fill the waiting time. More books are sold by word of mouth rather than advertising. In turn, as we spend our time waiting, we want to share the stories we have been reading with others who are waiting with us. By doing this, we have promoted yet another book that would be lost on the internet. Most waiting places don't require technology to be available on a whim; books, however, are just that and are as portable as a laptop. Having said that, we need publishers to be able to with stand the onslaught of all the economy has to offer, good or bad. While we, as a public, expect certain cutbacks, we do not foresee books going by the wayside. As the price of movies rise, more people will turn back to books as a way of entertainment. Even in the Great Depression, Charlie Chaplin managed to keep his standards high and continued to make money. I know this by simply reading his autobiography. If it can be done during those times, we will continue to make it happen in today's economic downfalls. As writers, as readers, as a public in general, we need publishers and publishing companies to keep their standards high but in within reason and with the times as they change for the better."


“Like banking, book publishing is in a state of flux. The big conglomerates cannot continue their money burning activities with huge advances to big names. The rise of the internet, POD and the execrable quality of much of the conventionally produced material will ensure the contraction of the industry as it exists at present. The book store will take second place to internet downloads and dealers such as Amazon. I foresee the disappearance of the agent whose filtering activities have stalled as they are living in an outdated environment, unable or unwilling to monitor the flood of creativity. The biggest promoters of individual authors and niche interests will again be the internet - writers sites and 'word of mouth' on face book, blogs and such like. In ten years time the situation will be unrecognisable: large publishing houses will have disappeared to be replaced by small outfits which would be the equivalent of cottage industries run by authors themselves and producing POD.”


“I believe that The Reader, Kindle, Stanza, Smashwords etc. plus the poor economy is going to reduce the number and size of bookstores and libraries. Only seniors will continue to treasure paper books, the present generation being already immersed in instant content mode. Authonomy and clones has already begin to render the literary agent semi-unnecessary. The big picture? Look for more publishing houses to close because the reading device of choice is already loaded with 88,000 books that one can download for as little as $1.89. Next technology will make it impossible for downloaded books to be e-sent to one's friends, for free.”


“Those who predict the end of the publishing industry are obviously wrong. If at all the big publisher is close to extinction then the small publisher must of necessity fill the gap. Some new method will have to emerge to help people read. Man cannot live by the computer alone. Reading is too basic a need to give up.

If the markets in the West are dwindling, the markets in places like India will come up. Publisher s in the West should find more reasonable printing alternatives in other parts of the world. That must and will happen to keep the reader alive.”


“My thoughts... I believe, as in other recessions and during the great depression of 29, where the: cinema, stage, home entertainment, and the reading of anything printable, increased, this time will be no different. In fact, as the public is more literate than ever in history, to gain information or to escape reality for a while, reading will, and should increase. This makes the path much easy for those writers just entering the industry. Cinema, live shows, TV, newspapers, and books of all genre will flourish. Publishers and agents will grow much faster, as will e-books.”


“It looks bleak for traditional publishing if it continues as is. It's a Catch-22 where publishers won't look at anyone who doesn't have an agent, and agents won't look at anyone who hasn't been published. There are a few exceptions, so I'll relate my own experience. After finishing my novel (in the suspense/thriller genre), I hit the internet to find an agent. It looked promising since there were a thousand of them. After eliminating the scam artists, the ones who had died, retired, gone out of business, didn't handle fiction, didn't handle my genre, or weren't taking submissions, I was left with a more reasonable list of fifty who said they represented thrillers. I boiled my 360 page novel down to a paragraph, sent out queries, and waited. I got back fifty rejections, divided about evenly between saying that thrillers didn't "fit their list" (their web sites stated they handled thrillers, so what exactly is this "list"?) and the other half saying my query didn't "grab" them. In other words, boiling my novel down to a paragraph wasn't sufficient. It had to be boiled down to a sentence or two, and if that sentence didn't completely blow the agent away, forget it. To sum up, if an aspiring author can't impress a handful of people with a one-sentence description of an entire novel, he or she isn't getting published. The current system allows a small number of people to decide what makes it to the book shelves, with publishers and agents terrified to give anything a chance, lest it may not be a million-seller. Perhaps a better way would be to have a website where aspiring authors could submit a sample chapter or two, and the reading public could vote on which ones they liked best. The samples with the most votes could be promised at least a look by the publishers. It would still be a longshot, but better than a system that spends years rejecting John Grisham or Mario Puzo because they couldn't come up with an appropriate one-sentence "hook".”

What We Are and What We’re Not

If you’ve been using LitMatch for a while, then you already know exactly what it is that we’re all about. But, if you’re new to the site, or perhaps new to how the traditional publishing system works in general, a quick overview may be in order:

What We’re Not: A Literary Agency. We don’t represent authors directly, nor can we accept submissions on their behalf. Despite that, we get a fair number of submissions sent to us, most of them via email. Unfortunately, as soon as we see these for what they are, we have to delete them without reading them.

What We Are: A great way to find agents you can submit to. We have searching and browsing features that will help you narrow down our list of over 1700 literary agents and find the ones who are right for your particular book. We allow you to search by the genres an agent represents, the projects and authors they’ve gotten published, and over a dozen other options. Once you find agents you like, you can add them to your hotlist to keep them on hand throughout your entire submission process.

What We’re Not: A Query Blaster. Query blasters, for those unaware, are services that charge you a fee to send your submission materials all at once to a list of agents and agencies that they control. At first, this may seem like a great way to save time. However, query blasters are almost universally frowned upon by agents, who prefer personalized contact and thoughtful selection of recipients. (For more on query blasters, see our blog on the subject.)

What We Are: A simple and powerful way to track the submissions you send. We designed our tracking system with ease of use in mind, and our built-in statistics and graphs allow you to see, at a glance, what your response rate is like, how many submissions are still outstanding, and how long it takes for agents to respond. Responses are anonymously gathered and aggregated in order to give users a sense of the response times for each agent.

For more information about who we are and what we do, please visit our About Us and FAQ pages.

Christopher Hawkins
LitMatch.net

New Survey - Publishing Options

We always look forward to getting your feedback here at LitMatch, and we get a lot of it. But from time to time, we like to ask you specific questions about your experiences in the publishing world, and your thoughts about our site and our services. That's why we put together surveys: to learn more about you, and how we can best tailor our site to fit your needs.

Where last summer's survey focused on your thoughts about LitMatch. Now we've posted a new one that focuses on the publishing industry as a whole, the options that are available to writers, and your impressions of each of them.

Like our last survey, we designed this one to only take about five minutes of your time to complete, and like our last survey, you'll need to be logged in to complete it. Your feedback is incredibly important to us, so I hope you'll check it out:

http://www.litmatch.net/survey.asp

Anniversary Giveaway Winners Announced!

Back in September, we announced the LitMatch Anniversary Giveaway as a way to say thank you to everyone who helped make our first year such a great success. The winners were drawn at the end of last month, and if you're a newsletter subscriber, you already know who they are. But just in case you missed it (and because good news bears repeating), here is the list of the lucky winners:

Free Subscription to The Writer Magazine
Jan Morrill
Barbara Florio-Graham
Maria del Mar Gomez
Maria Nestorides
Joann Mazzio

Free Membership to TheNextBigWriter.com
Charles Petterson
Michele Ivy Davis
Robert Hamilton

Free Online Class From The Gotham Writers' Workshop
Karen Simpson

The winners have been notified via email, so if you see your name here and haven't heard from us, please contact me at admin@litmatch.net.

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who entered. And a special thanks to each and every one of you for the support you've given us in our first year (of many!)


Christopher Hawkins
LitMatch.net

Encouragement for the Discouraged

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a LitMatch member who was having trouble getting started in her search for publication. Like a lot of writers, she found the whole process daunting and a little scary. This, paraphrased slightly, is my response to her. It seemed to help at the time, and I'm posting it here in hopes that it might help someone else who's in the same position...


First of all, don't be discouraged. Even absent the publishing side of things, writing is a difficult pursuit. Too many writers give up too easily. The fact that you're still putting pen to paper already puts you ahead of the game.

In the process of creating LitMatch, I've learned some things about the publishing industry (any industry, really). You might find them comforting, or you might find them frustrating, depending on how you look at them. Anyway, here they are:

1) Talent means less than you might think. When I look at writers who are successful, especially those who are wildly so, I'm amazed at how many of them, well, stink. Dan Brown, Christopher Paolini, Steve Alten...all barely mediocre and all making millions. On the flipside, how many really good writers get overlooked each year because their books aren't seen as marketable? We'll never know, because those good writers aren't getting published.

2) Tastes are subjective. There are lots of people who like Dan Brown, Christopher Paolini and Steve Alten. Does that make me wrong about them? No. And, yes. As long as someone enjoys your work, then it has value, even if it only has value to you. In the end, you have to write for yourself, and no one else.

3) Who gets published when can often be a bit of a crap shoot. If you don't hit someone the right way at the right time, in the right market, you could get overlooked. (See points #1 and #2).

4) Agents are just people. There's nothing to be afraid of, or even nervous about. Put your best foot forward, naturally, but if you happen to stumble a little, don't worry about it. You're not going to get blacklisted if you have a typo in your query. They're not going to bite if they don't like your work. You might find some who are unresponsive, or even dismissive, but that's just part of the game, and nothing to take personally.

Anyway, I hope this helps a little. The important thing to remember is that writing is something you started doing because you enjoy it. Everything else is secondary.

Christopher Hawkins
LitMatch.net

How to Get Published in a Bad Economy

The economy is awful right now. Unless you’ve been living under that proverbial rock these past months, that much is obvious. If you’ve been following the publishing world lately, the dire state of things is even more apparent. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt put a stop to buying new manuscripts, Borders is cutting jobs, and publishers are having to make more hard choices just to stay afloat. Whether you believe the doomsayers who are predicting the downfall of the publishing industry or not, one thing is clear: the difficult road to traditional publication has become even more difficult.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s not all bad news. People are still reading, and at least one study suggests that the number of people who read fiction is actually going up. And as long as people are reading, writers are going to get published. So, how does an aspiring author get published in a difficult economic climate? Here are a few points to keep in mind…

Realize That the Rules Haven’t Changed
A good book is still a good book. Generally speaking, what was marketable before the economic collapse is still marketable today. The fact that fewer books are being bought doesn’t mean that no books are being bought, so don’t give up before you start, or throw in the towel early. If you had a good book six months ago, you still have a good book now. Fewer books make it these days, but the cream will always rise to the top.

Be As Ready As You Can Be
Now, more than ever, your query materials need to be perfect. Perfect is a subjective word in this industry, and what I mean by it is that the presentation of your book needs to be the best that you can possibly make it. Your query letter needs to be as compelling as possible. Your synopsis needs to read like the great book it represents. Your sample chapters need to be engaging and free of errors. Your final manuscript needs to be fantastic.

Just as important, all of these materials need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. You don’t ever want to be in a situation where an agent requests chapters that aren’t quite ready yet, or a full manuscript that’s still undergoing editing. A delay like that can cost you representation, and ultimately a sale, so be as prepared as you can before you send your query.

Work Your Contacts
You’ve heard of the idea of six degrees of separation, that every person in the world is only six people away from every other person in the world (though the author of a recent favorite book of mine suggests that number is even smaller). That means that, even if you don’t know someone in the publishing business, chances are good that you know someone who does (or that you know someone who knows someone who does.)

Talk to your friends. Tell them what you’re trying to accomplish, and ask them to talk to their friends and family. Reach out to the contacts you’ve established on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and other social networks you might use. Ask those contacts to reach out to their contacts. If you look long enough, chances are good that you’ll find someone who’s in a position to help you, whether that help comes in the form of a introduction to an agent or actually putting your manuscript in front of a publisher. Sometimes, just one, well-placed person is enough to make all the difference.

Attend Conferences
Conferences are a great way to expand your contacts and, in some cases, actually meet agents face-to-face. They’re also great places to meet other writers, share ideas, and compare experiences. Of course, attending a conference is going to cost money, and getting to it could involve a fair amount of travel, but finding a good one can be well worth the cost and the effort.

Remember, however, that not all conferences are created equal. Do your research and determine which ones are likely to give you the most benefit for the time and money you’ll be putting into them. Also be sure to pick a conference that best fits your personality. If you’re the kind of person who thrives in social situations, pick a conference that lets you mingle with industry professionals in a relaxed setting. If you prefer something more structured, a conference with scheduled meet-and-pitch sessions may be right for you.

Re-evaluate Your Publishing Goals
If you’re seeking publication through a traditional publisher, chances are good that you’re doing it for a specific reason. It could be because you’re hoping for a big advance or a movie deal. It could be that you want to walk into a major bookstore chain and see your book there on the shelf. It could be because of the prestige and recognition that traditional publishers bring with them.

On the other hand, maybe you’re a person who just wants to see his name in print. Or perhaps you have a book meant to appeal to a smaller audience that might do just as well with a small-press publisher. Think long and hard about what you want to accomplish in your publishing career, and pick the best venue to accomplish that, whether that venue is traditional, small-press, self-, or electronic publishing.

Christopher Hawkins
LitMatch.net