Introducing: Punch My Query!

Querying is scary. Scary in the 'being-five-years-old-and-watching-The-Shining-for-the-first-time-and-realizing-what-REDRUM-means' way. Okay, maybe not that scary. But it's disturbing - disturbs your sleeping habits, your angsting habits, and most importantly, your refresh-my-inbox habits.

Fear not! I'm here to make things less scary. Querying is only scary when you have a less-than-stellar query. With a great query comes great confidence!

Allow me to introduce a new segment original to this blog; Punch Your Query! Volunteer queriers submit their queries to me.

What I'm doing;

1. Critique the query to help you queriers know what works and what doesn't.

2. Giving the query a makeover! I rewrite the query as if I was querying the project. The author is free to use this query however they wish, or not at all!

Why we're doing it; To help queriers everywhere learn how to shorten, tighten, and make a fabulous query to bolster request rates and hopefully land an agent! Also, we know how hard querying is. It's hell, in the literal 'hot-fire-scary-horned-guy' sense. I want to do everything I can to help out fellow queriers.

My qualifications; I don't claim to be a query expert. I'm only recently agented, but I queried nonstop for three years with five books. The book that landed me my wonderful agent got a 28% request rate! (For comparison, the average request rate is somewhere around 2-5%). This is not me bragging - just trying to let you know that you're in good hands.

How to submit; This query crit is entirely for free. If you wish to submit a query (I accept Young Adult queries only, as they are my speciality), please click the CONTACT ME tab at the top and find my gmail address. Send the query in the body of the email with any email title you wish!

When it happens; We'll be doing this every Friday! Stick around for the first post tomorrow!