How Do You Know When You're Ready to Query?

Working Stiffs welcomes guest blogger, editor Kristen Weber. Welcome!

How do you know when you're ready to query?

It can feel like you've been writing and revising your manuscript forever. But eventually it's time to step away from your computer and start a process that can sometimes seem even more daunting than writing your book - finding an agent.

Before you decide to start offering your manuscript to agents though, you should have had three or four unbiased readers critique it (ideally through all the phases of revision). It's impossible to see your own work for what it really is. It's like walking past the same spot in your house one hundred times before you realize your spouse moved something that was always there - your head will fill in the blanks because you expect to see it. That's why you need to call in fresh eyes to help you. Ideally those readers will be familiar with published books that are similar to yours and can offer constructive comments that aren't formed by their own opinions of what your work should be.  And after you make all of those suggestions, you should still put your manuscript away for a month or so and then come back to it with completely fresh eyes (barring that, you can also change your manuscript's font or the size of the font - sometimes that will make it look different enough and you'll be amazed at what you missed now that you're seeing it in a new way).

After you have the perfect manuscript and a perfect query letter, you can start sending it out. I recommend trying five agents or so first and seeing what kind of reaction you get. You don't want to try every agent you could possibly ever want to go with immediately and then have someone point out a tremendous flaw in your manuscript you might have missed. If you're not getting the kind of responses you want - which could be anything from hearing complete silence back on your query or getting rejections on the full manuscript - it's important that you can make changes and still have plenty of people left to try.

Finding an agent is a numbers game. It might take a lot of no's, but in the end you only need one yes. It's just important to hear what people are saying to you as you submit and be flexible and ready to make changes to your work. And rejection does not mean you should automatically self publish - instead it might mean that you need to call in a professional editor to help you get to the bottom of what is keeping you from publication. And then - even if you decide to self publish after that - at least you'll know you're going out with the very best product possible.

Kristen Weber is currently working as a freelance editor in Los Angeles after over a decade of experience as an in-house editor in New York. Please visit her web site at http://www.kristenweber.com/ for more information about the services she offers.

What Can I Tweet For You?

By Tamara Girardi

I woke up this morning in New York City. The sense of confusion when you open your eyes in a different place and wonder where you are doesn't last long here. The beeping taxis and cars rushing outside your window remind you pretty quickly.

I'm here for a writing conference, and I'm thankful to be here.

Yesterday, I had dinner with college friends at Dos Caminos in midtown. An open-faced shrimp quesadilla. A shared pitcher of sangria. A blueberry margarita with sugar on the rim. I was very thankful for all of those things.

My fabulous and recently agented critique partner emailed me her thoughts on the final 30 pages of my manuscript yesterday. She challenged a weakness in them, and I plan to spend the entire day either at a bookstore or Starbucks working to employ the changes she and I brainstormed. I'm immensely thankful for her and the fact I can spend the full day working on my writing.

But being thankful is not just about saying the words. It's about doing something about them. Let me explain.

Tomorrow, the Backspace Conference begins at the Radisson Martinique on the corner of W. 32nd and Broadway, and I will be the official Twitterer for the conference. I'll spend all day Thursday and Friday hanging on the words of other writers and literary agents, finding the gems that will be helpful to others who cannot attend the conference, and tweeting about them to my followers (@TamaraGirardi) and followers of Backspace (@bksp_org).

I'm thankful for this opportunity, and in order that you and other writers might be thankful of it, too, I'm asking for your help. If you knew a woman who was spending the next two days in a roomful of writers and agents (ha hemn, that would be me), discussing query letters, opening pages of manuscripts, and writing in general, what kinds of things would you want that woman (again, me) to look for and tweet about?

I'm thankful for your responses.

Writers Aren't the Only Ones Who Get Rejected

by Joyce

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday about the rejection letters students have received from colleges. Due to the large number of applicants, more students than ever are being rejected by the schools of their choice. Rejected students have even created a "rejection wall" on a message board. Colleges are rated on how harsh or how compassionate the rejections are.

Rejections ranged from harsh "The deans were obliged to select from among candidates who clearly could do sound work at Bates" (Bates College), to the very nice "Past experience suggests that the particular college a student attends is far less important than what the student does to develop his or her strengths and talents over the next four years" (Harvard). Stanford tells students that appeals will not be considered. Duke wants rejectees to know that they'll "find an institution at which you will be happy."

I couldn't help but see the parallels between these letters and the rejection letters most writers have seen at some point in their careers. Come to think of it, looking for an agent is a lot like searching for that perfect college. Students pore over college websites checking out majors, course requirements and activities. Writers spend hours researching agents to see what they represent, who their clients are and how many sales they've made. Students spend weeks working on the application package and essay, while writers agonize over the perfect hook and query letter.

The rejections are similar, too. Some are harsh, like the one from Bates College. I once had one that said, "I thought it would be better." Ouch. Others are kind, "while I liked this a lot, it's just not right for my list, but please think of me for your next project." Some agents say that you'll surely find another agent who will love it.

Although rejection isn't easy, I think it's healthy for these students to learn to deal with it. Rejection is a part of life, whether it's not getting accepted to the school of one's choice, or getting turned down for the perfect job.

And if the student plans to be a writer someday, well, they'd better get used to it.

Anyone have any rejections they'd like to share? What was your most memorable rejection--either good or bad?

Contests, Pitches, and Queries

by Joyce

This past week, I came across two interesting contests.

On Nathan Bransford's blog, he hosted an Agent for a Day contest. Throughout the day, he posted 50 queries. Readers of the blog were invited to pretend they were agents and either reject or request the manuscript using the comment section. In the mix, Nathan included two queries of books that were to be published soon, and one query from a published book of an NYT bestselling author to see how many of the faux agents could pick them out.

I didn't participate, but I did read through many of the queries and comments, and I picked out the NYT bestseller, but only because I read the book. The comments were interesting. Some people took the time to come up with actual rejection letters, and others gave queriers pointers on how to improve their queries. Although it was only a small sample of what agents do for a living, I think it opened a lot of eyes. One thing I learned is that when agents say "it's not for me" that's exactly what they mean. Even though there were many good queries, and many books that sounded interesting, I would have rejected most of them. They just didn't "do it" for me.

If anyone is interested in trying it out, I believe the Agent for a Day contest is open until Saturday. Even if you don't participate, read some of the queries and comments. You'll probably find as I did, that the pitch is what's most important in a query. After I read a few, I skipped over any introductions, bios, etc., to get to the meat of the letter. Something to keep in mind for anyone crafting a query. Put the pitch first and it damn well better be a good one!

On the Query Tracker blog, agent Joanna Stampfel-Volpe offered to read one-sentence pitches. The winner gets his or her full manuscript read by Joanna. I have a feeling she might be regretting that offer right now as they had over 300 submissions in a four hour time period. And I'll admit--one of the pitches was mine. I couldn't resist boiling down a whole book into one sentence.

These are both good sites for anyone who is going to the Pennwriters Conference (or any conference, for that matter) next month. Even if you don't have a pitch session scheduled, you never know when you might need that one sentence pitch, or even a 30 second pitch you can use while you're chatting with the agent in the bar and waiting for the margaritas to arrive.

How many of you have short pitches ready for those occasions? How short can you get your pitch? Anyone want to give it a shot?