Authoring & Playwriting

Thats great, Terrence Sellers! Thank you for sharing this resource with everyone! We'll also be having an Ask Me Anything in February with a best-selling author, here in the Authoring Lounge, focused on Query Letters and Book Proposals. Stay tuned! =)

Congratulations on finishing your query letter, Terrence Sellers!

Great share! I knew 0% about writing a query letter for a novel before reading this article.

Jane said in the article, "Novelists and most memoirists should have a finished and polished manuscript before they begin querying. However, some may be tempted to begin early because it can take so long to receive responses from agents and publishers. The thinking goes: Well, the agent probably won’t respond any earlier than a month anyway, and I’ll be done by then, so why not get a jump on it?" Sending out a query letter before finishing a novel, script, etc. is dangerous. I've done it with scripts. It felt terrible, and I missed opportunities.

Maurice Vaughan I've never even considered sending out a query letter for an unfinished project. In fact, I've had people advise me to, and I flat out ignored them. The entire idea of leaving myself in such a vulnerable position sounds entirely too stressful to risk.

As for me, it’s the voice in the head that starts the process. Sometimes it’s been dreams that were seeds, planted in my imagination.

I'm not a romance writer, but I know many. I've been worldbuilding a fantasy story idea that I'm playing with.

I love thrillers! Is it more of a suspense adventure or a "whodunit" mystery?

Hi Ashley Renee Smith Most of my novels are more thrillers and suspense than whodunits

Hi Stella Marie Alden All the best on your new romcom thriller. I'm not a romance writer but I do enjoy seeing romance writers portrayed in features. "As Good As It Gets" as an example is one of my favorite movies.

Congratulations on reading three books and writing again, Ashley Renee Smith!

I revised one of my scripts ready to enter into a few competitions, and as of today, OFFICIALLY, I finished another script I had already started writing. That was my plan for the month of JANUARY..... It feels GREAT.

Congratulations on finishing your script and reaching your goal for January, Kerson Raymond!

Thank you so much Maurice Vaughan... Always appreciate the kudos.

You're welcome, Kerson Raymond.

@Anna Marton Henry, a couple good places to start... PW.org and Writer's Digest. There are lots of other legit ones, of course, but these are the first two that spring to mind!

Hey, Jonathan Jordan! Loving this thread - thank you so much for your in-depth answers! If I can sneak two more questions in under the wire, they would be:

1) Have you seen independent publishers offer packages like the audiobooks on ACX? It's usually one of three packages - pay all up front so you retain all the rights, pay part upfront and release a small percentage of the profits, OR pay nothing upfront and relinquish a hefty heap of the profits. If you have seen this for book publishing, do you feel this is a fair deal for up-and-coming writers? Or is there a better way to pursue independent publishing?

2) More and more authors seem to be enlisting the talents of film&video producers, not to convert their IP, but to create book trailers and teasers. Would you recommend book trailers for authors? If so, do you have any examples of successful/professional ones?

THANKS SO MUCH!

Karen "Kay" Ross 1) I've seen some of this, yes. More publishers are adding audiobook options to their packages and generally speaking, the model you describe is pretty fair as it aligns with the rest of the industry. For instance, if you traditionally publish your book, the publisher is fronting the costs for production/distribution, so it's only fair they recoup through the royalties. For up-and-coming writers who are self-publishing or digitally publishing, I'd encourage them to look into audio. I've recorded one book on ACX as an experiment to learn the process and after some initial frustration, it wasn't too difficult. The best thing a new writer can do, though, is start audience building by getting your work out there: lit journals, WattPad, Vella, Medium, short fiction/poetry contests, whatever. No matter what route you end up publishing, you won't get much of anywhere if you don't start building credibility.

2) Yes, I'd definitely recommend a book trailer. Leveraging video is the newest trend in book marketing. Check out this one as a decent example because it's short, sets the tone of the book, and knows its audience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UbsNfwkZwk It's definitely worth using video to market your book, but you need to have a great plan in place to be successful. I'm no expert in that particular arena, but the poet Shelby Leigh has done really well using video to promote her books and even landed a traditional publishing deal because of it. "BookTok" is totally a thing now and while it's not my personal cup of tea, new writers with no audience should study up on how to successfully promote via video. Shelby now offers some online courses that are pretty affordable for learning how to do this. https://www.marketingbyshelby.com/

Thanks for your cogent and helpful answers about Memoirs, Jonathan. I'll definitely keep those things in mind. Recently I heard someone reply to the question, "When are you going to write your memoir?" with a rather humorous (or maybe totally serious) reply -- "As soon as the Statue of Limitations is up". But as you noted, with some thoughtfulness to the approach a writer should be able to avoid those sorts of problems. Thanks again!

Hi Jonthan , I just finished my first book ( a collection of 3 memoirs ) with a ghost writer . I have the final script ready . However I am not happy . And need a help of professional to bring it to the next level . I am open to all suggestions and changes .

Best regards,

Tariq

Thank you to everyone who has shared their experiences. I will be opened minded with next steps. I have learnt so much from this single post. Will keep you all posted.

I highly recommend Micky Levy's Stage 32 webinar on adapting books into screenplays - its great - here's a link so you can check it out: https://www.stage32.com/webinars/The-Adaptation-Journey-Adapting-an-exis...

Thank you Sam

Hi Sam Carbon! Definitley recommend looking into Adaptation Reviews!!>>>https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/coverage/buy?id=66

One of the best moves you can make is to go back through your manuscript and decide on what you're dead set on keeping vs. what you're willing to leave out. This is mentally and emotionally taxing when it's your own work you're adapting! Translating a manuscript into a script is "show don't tell" on steroids, so you want to hone in on visual cues.

I would also recommend outlining the script based on the character arc, not on the chapters structure of the book. You'll often find the character arc moves at a different pace, so making it central makes more sense for a script. This will also allow you to see which parts you can combine or skip altogether because the character arc remains intact.

A query letter depends on the venue you're sending the query to. Here's my successful query I did for an on-line publication: Dear Editor: Given the overturning of Roe v Wade, your audience might want to read a 700 word, Christian's Biblical defense of exceptions for rape, incest, and health of the mother in anti-abortion laws. I had a year's contract with the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper as a monthly columnist (2005), was the editor/writer for the Brawley Tribune newspaper (1993), and was a regular contributor to the Imperial Valley Press Reader's Write Column (1994). Writing sample attached. Regards ... Editors take little time to wade through a bunch of blah-blah. As for a novel, make sure your material is something the agent/publication handles. Editors are notorious narcissists, so mention you did research on them, and share their interest in circus animals (or a pet cause, how you share their politics, etc.) but the most important thing you can tell them is about your "platform" and how you can and will help with marketing, and the famous people you know who have read the novel and called you the second Jane Austen. Include your "intersectionalities" and areas of expertise. It's outrageous, but publishing is political. Don't believe otherwise. My tip: Be prepared, be brief, and deliver.

Bill Albert I do not have Query Tracker. I will check it out.

Emily J I just sent you an email.

Best wishes with this!

Terrence Sellers I highly recommend the podcast "The Shit No One Tells You About Writing" because every episode, they read real query letters and critique them...tell you what works, what doesn't work...specific to novels, which is substantially different than querying a script. Best of luck and keep us all updated to cheer you on!

What a great lab to share, thanks Sam!