March17
I think one of the hardest things for a writer to compose is a query letter. This diminutive piece of composition must profile your book in less than a page and be so engaging that the editor or agent who reads it will request your novel to read.
It can’t be too cutesy, or too self aggrandizing. Every word has to work to convey the power of your writing and illicit curiosity about your book. Every writer’s magazine I’ve ever owned has addressed how to write a query in either a full article or helpful tips throughout. Additionally, all professional writer’s conferences will devote time to this subject matter as well. Editors teach, agents teach and successful authors teach these jam packed classes.
I am not writing this blog today to give you any hints that have worked for me—I don’t think I’ve actually figured out the formula yet. I am just noting that for me, writing a 600 page novel is easier than composing an intriguing one page summary of said novel.
However, all that being said, I did find an article with sample letters I liked. I copied the format and came up with the following query letter draft:
Dear Mr. Somebody:
Did you have a pushy mother? You know, the kind of mom who felt completely justified in butting into your life all in the name of “helping?”
Brooklyn Brady, twenty-eight and single, has a mother who does just that—only her mother recently died and gets involved via Facebooking from the “other side.” Brooklyn, who lived under the influence of her real invalid mother for years, is alarmed to find her new “computer” persona is contacting single men in her behalf. Is this for real, or is someone hacking into Brooklyn’s computer?
Brooklyn is first frightened, then annoyed, then intrigued with the results of this unwanted intrusion into her heretofore quiet life in Sacramento, CA. Brooklyn is further conflicted over these budding male/female relationships because of her best friend Tracy’s insistence that all men are jerks and only want one thing – based on Tracy’s own disastrous encounter with a member of the opposite sex that resulted in a pregnancy when she was just sixteen.
As Brooklyn is forced out of her comfort zone by her interfering “mother,” she goes through a physical and mental metamorphous that makes her appeal to an ever widening circle of men—including Finn Chambers, her aloof and ultra secretive, Irish landlord. Unfortunately, because she is painfully naive and ends up making poor choices that are usually reserved for girls in their teens, she continually puts herself in potentially dangerous situations with men .
Will Brooklyn be able to safely navigate through the development stages she missed growing up, find lasting love and most importantly, be able to figure out whether the person who has taken over her computer is a prankster or her dead mother? Will Finn, the man who comes to loves her, be able to open up despite his horrific divorce and subsequent avoidance of intimacy? Dead is a Temporary Thing explores the lives of these two fractured characters as they work, argue, laugh and eventually bond in spite of their respective skewed views of life. Readers of women’s contemporary fiction will enjoy this couple’s hit and miss efforts at connecting and delight at their experiences, struggles and insights.
Dead is a Temporary Thing is 125,000+ words and is my sixth novel. I’ve been a part-time freelance journalist for the past fifteen years and a full-time novelist for the past year. My first two novels, CTR’s Ring and 80 Miles from Nowhere were published in 2005 and 2006 by Cedar Fort, Inc.
Please let me know if you’re interested in seeing a synopsis and three chapters or the complete manuscript of Dead is a Temporary Thing. I’m contacting a handful of editors and agents who I think might be interested in this book, and hope to find a home for it soon.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
Melissa Aylstock
I would love feedback. Would you want to read this novel?