Querying links and more

Revision update: Working on a change to chapter 2 after my 10-page critique at the Houston SCBWI conference, then back to chapter 12. Still on track to be finished by the end of the month.

I’m holding off my coverage of the Houston SCBWI conference til tomorrow because I was doing some blog surfing yesterday and found some great posts that I wanted to share.

First, a couple of posts that again show the importance of writing a really great query letter. Agent Janet Reid details the reasons why she rejected 50 queries in an hour — such as cliches, stale or not compelling premises and queries that don’t explain what the book is about — then defends her rejections and explains why she wants to see better queries.

Agent Jennifer Jackson posted her latest Letters From the Query Wars update, reporting zero requests on 134 queries. She also details some reasons for the rejections.

And agent Jessica Faust reports the number of queries and requested manuscripts that are on her desk — showing why patience is important in this industry.

Talking about cliches, Frenetic Reader writes about some cliches she never wants to see again in a book and some cliches she’s not yet tired of.

Lisa Schroeder wrote an awesome checklist for what to do before your book launch, showing how much work is necessary to get the word out.

Anita Nolan posted author Neil Gaiman‘s top 8 writing tips and a link to more, and Jill Corcoran included links to each of the individual authors featured. Looks like there’s lots of good stuff here.

Casey McCormick at Literary Rambles wrote about tightening up your writing, part 1 and part 2.

And finally, Beverley BevenFlorez compiled another list of great blog posts, including a very interesting podcast of pacing by author James Dashner.

Got any good posts you’d like to share?

Write On!