Well, I love scrapbooking so for fun I created a digital scrapbook of Drift on my favourite website Mixbook: www.mixbook.com
It wasn't as easy as making a personal scrapbook because I didn't have Fern's photo albumn (becuase she is a fictional character) so I had to search the web for free pictures.
Finding the right 'free' picture wasn't easy either as I didn't want to take away from the reader how they may have imagined the scenes or characters I've written about. Therefore, I tried really hard to find universal pictures that illustrated the point I was making without giving away too much.
I also don't want to give away the plot of the story... as I'd like it to be like a visual blurb. Now I've got a few pictures I'm happy with, I'm thinking about trying to make a trailer next as this is somethign a lot of other authors have done and it looks like fun.
I have had a draft query letter saved on my PC for sometime.
Draft 1
My first draft was designed using examples from AgentQuery and advice I read in Writers & Artists Yearbook. The most important parts I learnt to include in a query letter are:
- Title of story: This is easy mine it Drift.
- Genre: What audience should the book be marketted for, i.e. Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal. I find this hard as my story will appeal to more than one genre but apparently that is not a good thing. What I did was choose the genre match that also would appeal most to the agent.
- Word count: This should be rounded up/down to the nearest thousand i.e. 50,000 words. You can use features in word processing software to see the word count (MS Word, this is displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen). Don't write 50,817 words.
- Description of story: Tell them what they are investing in. What is the story about? what can they expect? Why will it appeal to readers? Why are you best suited to write it?
- Witers Bio: It just needs to be a paragraph about your previous achiements. This can be hard for new writers. A way to solve this is to enter compeitions, write short stories or articles for the small press or donate your writing to support a book to raise money for charity.
- Why you chose the agent: Look at the titles that they already represent and consider whether you feel that your book would sit comfortably next to those.
- Have you sent this to other agents: Agents can take 6 weeks or more to get back to you if they are intersted and not at all if they aren't intersted. However, they don't like you sending your manuscript to other agents without their knowledge. The solution is to add a simple sentence in your letter saying 'This is a simulataneous enquiry' or something along those lines.
- Enclosures: Have you checked their website to see if they want any enclosures such as a synopsis, first 1,000 words or first 3 chapters? If they do expect these with an enquiry, then you need to enclose them and just mention in your letter 'Please find enclosed.... for your consideration'
Draft 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
The first letter got my thought process going and I now needed to make it more professional. I had a look at the examples on WeBook:
http://www.webook.com/landing/query-sample-1It is interactive but does not display well on a small screen - so watch out if you are using a netbook.
Studying each of the four examples I rewrote each query letter for my own use, editing as necessary. At the end, I drafted my final version using the best bits of the previous 5 letters.
I have asked people to read my 'perfect' letter to get their feedback. As usual, it is always funny to hear how it isn't so perfect.
The tricky part for me, is the paragraph about my story. I have now redrafted that 1 paragraph a further 6 times and hopefully will get it REALLY perfect later this week.
i finally figured out how to use this website thanks to some guidance from a member named RichardBard. The top tips he sared is:
- I need to upload at least 10,000 words to appear in searches. I had uploaded my first 3 chapers which came to 9,750. Thanks to this top tip, I added chapter 4 and now people are reading and backing my story.
- Adding a book to your watchlist doesn't boost their ratings. They need to at least feature on your shelf. this involves rotating your faves so they all get points and supporting people who have backed you.
- People who have gathered lots of points for backing popular stories get a higher status and therefore reward with triple points.
I am feeling really positive now. Since last night I am on someones bookshelf and on a few watchlists. i have recieved a positive comment from someone who has read it. I think I will definitely keep visiting this site.
It's also really enlightening to be able to view the other peoples work that they are sending for publication. I wish I had more time to read them as there are some really interesting blubs.
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