If Janet Reid Says So...

So, I've taken the time to write a 69,250 word novel. And I've sent out about eight query letters, with only one, "Thanks, but no", response. I know the book is great - all my friends say so! But I'm perplexed as to how to write a query letter that's even half as good as my book.

As I said on Twitter recently, I'm an author, not a poet (guaranteed someone will slam me for my assumption that poems are always short. Yes, I've read The Faerie Queene, the whole 1200 pages of it!)

But the reality is, I'm not so good with being able to sell a book in two tweets. But I guess that's what the world has come to. These darn computers have foiled everything. I should have written the book on my Olivetti (that's a type-writer for you younger kids out there) back when I was twelve.

In fact, there are a lot of things that technology has made me do, like starting this blog. I figure if Janet Reid, Query Shark, says I need a website (and I quote, "what counts as a website? Blog=yes. Twitter=no. Facebook=no. Myspace=no. LinkedIn=no") then that's what I'm going to do.

For those of you who don't know Janet, she's a genius at tearing apart query letters, hence the big shark teeth. To tell the truth, she scares me. But she seems to be onto something with her blog, and my greatest wish right now is to get a fantastic agent and get my book into the hands of real people.

And that, my friends, is how we find ourselves here. What will be my next step, you ask? Well, aside from fretting over how to fill up a blog with something better than my own random and somewhat neurotic thoughts, I will attempt to write a query that is worthy of Query Shark's bite. Wish me luck and stay tuned. I hear that some people survive.