Tag: Query Letters

It’s COMPlicated.

Sara Mazariegos

Okay, so now that I’m replotting my novel (BIG thanks to my husband for essentially becoming my writing partner these last several months. ❤️) I’ve been thinking about comparative novels again. Comps are important when you’re trying to find representation for your book, and they need to be fresh if not immediately current. I’ve been trying to get my rewrite done in a timely manner since one of my comps is from 2023 (perfect!) and one of them is from 2019 (ehh… I might need to get a new one.)

I’m learning as I go, and though I hit a low point recently, I’m still excited by the process and the potential of my novel. Though I’m rewriting and restructuring, I’m keeping as much of my original writing as I can, as much as still works. I’m confident the muscle of my story is still strong, it just needs a sturdier skeleton.

Queries go on the back burner for now. Queries are currently not my friend.

In other non-book news, who’s excited for Barbenheimer? My husband and I are planning to see both this weekend (one on Saturday, one on Sunday.) Friends will see Barbie with us. That seems like a great movie to see with friends. Oppenheimer might be as well if you and your friends are more macabre. I’m fully expecting to cry during that one.

A lot of great things are planned for after this weekend, actually. I’ve been staggering toward August when the fun starts. Birthday parties and fancy hotel stays and concerts and Atlantic City and Lizzie Borden’s house…

Have I mentioned we’re going to Lizzie Borden’s house? Oh, don’t worry. I will write about the experience.

Oppenheimer makes me sad yet the Lizzie Borden case makes me giddy. Make no mistake, I am macabre. Perhaps just a more compassionate macabre.

“Be more constructive with your feedback, please.”

Sara Mazariegos

Hip and with-it people reference Flight of the Conchords, don’t they?

After switching tracks with my novel, I submitted a new query letter to the query letter critique group I’m in. They seem to think that, because the novel focuses on the growth of the main heroine that it’s not romance. They suggested common romance tropes (like enemies to lovers, forced proximity, etc) are what make a book romance instead of women’s fiction. I’d argue that a novel doesn’t have to conform to (I’m sorry) tired plot themes in order to be a part of a genre. Plenty of romance novels show heroines going through stuff and the hero helps her out of it.

I’ve decided that I might submit my query letter as women’s fiction sometimes, and romance other times, and see what happens.

But first I need to finish revising it AGAIN. Don’t let it ever be said that I’m not a people-pleaser.

Big think.

Sara Mazariegos

I’ve shared my query letter drafts with a few online groups as I struggle to describe my novel within only about three hundred words. It’s made me have a big think about what people’s reaction has been. Not friends or people in my social circle, just random strangers. After all, it would be random strangers who’d consider reading my novel once my devoted loved ones have read it.

It doesn’t feel great to be told that my lived experience of being a Millennial who graduated from college in 2009 and struggled to find a career for years after that isn’t realistic or interesting. I can’t tell if I need to really rework my selling points or the story itself.

So for this week, I’m mostly sad.

I’ve probably got a lot of revisions to do. Big, overhauly type ones. I hesitate to completely start over because I’ve worked on this story for the past three or so years. The query readers want more conflict, so short of introducing a monster in the third act, I have to come up with something more conflicting than being poor and practically frozen in time.

Being a writer is so isolating sometimes, isn’t it?

What’s in a blurb?

Sara Mazariegos

I’ve seen people discussing story blurbs in their query letters, and there seems to be confusion over whether the blurb is meant to be what you see on the back of the book when it’s published, or if it’s meant to be more of a quick summary for potential agents.

As far as I understand it, the query blurb is meant to be “the hook” that captures the agents’ attention and lets them know a brief bit about the story so they can quickly get an idea of what they can expect as far as the novel’s marketability.

The blurb on the back of published books is similar, but it can be longer and more flowery with its wording. It’s meant to entice readers to buy the book. Both are marketing-related, but the former is purely for business whereas the latter is meant to be more creative.

Remember, not everyone buys books. Libraries and borrowing from friends are legitimate ways to read a book. Readers tell their friends, and their friends check out the back of the book or the summary online to see if they would also like to read it.

Agents and publishing houses, on the other hand, want to be able to tell how well a book would do with readers so they can sell a lot of copies. They want to see, in roughly two paragraphs, who the characters are and what’s at stake. Does it align with their current markets? Are there too many books about the subject at the moment? They care about those sorts of things. The big picture of publishing.

Then, of course, there’s the synopsis! That’s essentially a two-page outline of everything that happens in the book. It’s meant to spoil the ending, so it’s not something you’d be sharing with anyone who wants to read the novel as a reader.

This has been Sara Understands Publishing. Tune in next week for maybe more writing tips, but maybe something else entirely.

The waiting game.

Sara Mazariegos

In my experience thus far, there are three main steps to post-writing a novel manuscript:

  1. Elation at having finished! Everyone should know and maybe a bunch of friends should read it?! Such proud.
  2. Wait, wait, wait. This needs to be edited. Reread and edited more. Maybe it’s not as amazing as once believed… But you can make it so!
  3. Query anxiety. <– this is where I am. The manuscript is finished, but now you have to advertise it to potential representation. Crying at this stage is perfectly natural.

I joined a writing forum that seems quite helpful. I signed up for a writing advice newsletter. I shared my novel with some earnest beta readers. It seems like I’m doing everything the correct way.

My buddy Patience and I are just gonna have to get better acquainted.