Query letter/Prose and Poetry Contest

Writer’s Thought for the Week: There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away. ~  Emily Dickinson

QUERY LETTERS

Want help with writing query letters? Here’s a video of Marla Miller’s query workshop. Four writing read their queries and the class and Marla give them critiques. Three are for nonfiction books and one is for a novel. The advice is succinct and on the mark.

THE BINNACLE 10th Annual Ultra-Short Competition
Deadline: March 15, 2013

This free-to-enter contest seeks prose works of 150 words or fewer and poetry of sixteen lines or fewer and fewer than 150 words. All works should have a narrative element to them. A minimum of $300 in cash prizes will be awarded, with a minimum prize of $50. Submit no more than two works total, prose and/or poetry.

Nail Your Query/Blackbird Literary Journal

Apropos to the query/rejection process: Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Don't sabotage your writing by submitting a poorly written query. The best queries are targeted for a specific market, but first you need to get the basics down. Marla Miller has about 90 “quick query” analysis samples on her web site: http://www.marlamiller.com/quick-query-critiques/.  Various genres are included from children’s to romance to memoir to suspense. Just scroll down the list and click one to start the YouTube video.

Marla is an author, founder of Marketing the Muse, and past Assistant Director of Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Her video series “Critique My Query” is available at theWriterMag.com.

Blackbird

http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/

This online journal of literature and the arts is open to submissions until April 15, 2012. Considers poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and plays. Pays after publication.

Query Help and Free Query Critique

Thought for the week: If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius. ~ Joseph Addison

Query letters 

You’ve slaved over your book. Now it’s done and you have to pitch it to agents or editors via the query letter. Because you know so much is riding on the query, it can be agonizing to write. “How to” articles and books don’t all agree on how to write one and real life experience proves there is no one right way.

One author wrote two versions of her query and could not decide which one to use, so she used both. As she sent them, she alternated between versions. After a number of months, she received two offers of representation, one from each version of her query letter. So don’t be too hard on yourself. There’s more than one way to grab an agent or an editor.

Smart writers start working on their query before they finish their books. It can help you focus while you write your book, and your query will be ready to go as soon as your book is done.

If you need help with your queries, here are some resources:

The 10-Question QueryChecklist

Pointers on the perfect Novel Query

You can send your fiction or nonfiction book query letter to Marla Miller at The Writer magazine website and she critiques it online for free. Click Marla Miller to read or view her most recent critique.

If you want Marla to critique your query, send it to marketingthemuse@gmail.com. Use the subject line "The Writer Query Letter Critique." Queries for nonfiction and fiction (all genres) are welcome, and critiques are free.