I thought I would cross-post here since I still have love for my blog.
On my writing journey, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve gone to conferences and festivals, taken courses and gone to workshops. The most recent of them from the WCYR (I’m a member of the WCYR - Writer’s Community of York Region) and the FOLD (Festival of Literary Diversity).
What is my first Substack going to be about? Query letters! That’s not only what’s on my mind, it’s also important to any writer who wants to be traditionally published. In simple terms, a query letter is a writer’s introduction to an agent who they want to represent them. (They can also be sent to some publishers directly, typically small presses, who do not require writers to be represented by an agent, but we’re going to focus on agents.)
On the first day of the FOLD, my query letter was presented on the panel “The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing” based on the popular podcast. It was an exciting moment for me. Each agent (Kelvin Kong, CeCe Lyra, Carly Watters, Léonicka Valcius) presented a query letter. They then discussed the letter, what worked and didn't work, then talked about the author’s first five pages. Not only was the feedback for my query letter valuable, but so was the feedback the agents gave the other writers.
How did I get to that point? How did I create a query letter I was ready to give to agents? I went to workshops. So many. I did research. (I’ve included a few links below). The best information I got about how to write a query letter was attending presentations. Before “The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing”, I attended presentations given by Farah Heron, Greg Ioannou, and MJ Moores, among others. I attended workshops where I could submit my letter and get personal feedback. There are free workshops out there. I've gone to ones put on by local libraries and writers groups. If time is an issue, listen to a podcast like The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing. There are others out there.
Remember, the letter needs to entice an agent to want to read your work and give them a sense of who you are. I hope we can all get our query letters right.
Check me out here: https://lonicameron.substack.com/
Non-exhaustive references and resources:
https://www.theshitaboutwriting.com/
https://thefoldcanada.org
https://wcyork.ca
https://www.carlywatters.com/2013/11/04/how-to-write-a-book-synopsis/
https://www.writerswrite.co.za/how-to-write-a-query-letter-in-12-easy-steps/
https://www.writersdigest.com/getting-published/tips-on-writing-query-letters-to-publishers-and-literary-agents
https://www.writersdigest.com/publishing-insights/how-to-write-successful-queries-for-any-genre-of-writing
https://thefoldcanada.org/festival-events/the-festival-of-literary-diversity/schedule/3-the-sht-no-one-tells-you-about-writing/
https://www.ericsmithrocks.com/perfect-pitch
https://farahheron.com/
https://mjmoores.com/
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