Putting glitter in snail mail queries. Addressing Ginger Clark as Mr. Brown. Querying your project before it’s finished. Query/industry faux pas—we’ve all made them. We were all that wide-eyed, incredibly ignorant dense naïve newbie once. And since the publishing industry seems to have its own set of rules, it’s almost impossible not to leap off the good querying etiquette mountain trip into the black pit of querying doom stumble along the way.
Today, we’re going to share the boo-boos we’ve made on our quest for publication, big and small. If you’re feeling brave, join us and blog about your own, or just leave them in the comments. Visit our blogs to read about:
how Debra emailed a complete stranger for a critique.
how Krista queried before her manuscript was complete
how Annie jumped the querying gun
how Jenn sent out a first chapter where her MC woke up from a deep sleep
how Jamie queried an agent by the wrong name
how Sarah managed to fit SEVEN rhetorical questions into the first draft of her query
We figured after you read our blunders, you won’t feel half as bad about yours. Unless you sent a Stripper-gram to your agent of choice, along with a sonnet about how your project will knock her socks off—and everyone else’s. We can’t help you there.
Stay tuned for our next installment, when we get agents to share the worst querying offenses ever!
Old People Writing for Teens 