Saturday, September 02, 2006

Read this if you want to get an agent/get published

Miss Snark has just started analysing REAL query letters and REAL first pages from fiction submissions on her blog.

See the mistakes people make. See what puts an agent off quicker'n a malfunctioning coffee percolator. Stop reading my blog and go and look at hers instead

If you have any intention of getting an agent or getting published, read them all. Now.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trotting over there now. Thanks for the heads up.

mary

Fahim said...

Funny you should say that, Simon :) I have both this blog and Miss Snark on my RSS feed reader and I loaded it up today and it said 1 new post for you and 25 for Miss Snark - so I said, "Oh, boy" and came to read yours and you're asking me to go back to Miss Snark? :p

Incidentally (and quite irrelevantly) I submitted to Miss Snark's crapometer but never received a number. By the time I got around to thinking about asking her about it, she'd already posted the winners. Ah well, there's always next year :)

Simon Haynes said...

I think there's just as much (more?) to be gained from reading other people's queries. If you study enough of them I believe writing your own should be much easier.

Fahim said...

There's definitely a lot to be gained by reading other people's queries (and of course, Miss Snark's comments help as well :p) Still would have been nice to see if she thought my query worked or not since so far, my query hasn't really worked for me - and it does seem to have everything that she actually looks for ... but then again, I bet half the people who submitted to the Crapometer thought the same thing and she's tearing some of their queries apart :p

Simon Haynes said...

If you send it to me I'll do a Miss Snark on it for you, but bear in mind my last query letter remains unanswered six years after I mailed it.

Fahim said...

LOL. You shouldn't make such promises online - the next thing you know, you'll have this deluge of mails with query letters and first pages and people asking for your "Snark" :) Yeah, my query letters haven't been very successful either - I think I sent out like 80 and so far have gotten back maybe five responses which expressed interest and two of them were scammers :p

Bill Fullerton said...

Snarky's site is a good one for all writers, especially those of us still in the "not yet published novelist" category, to check-out on a regular bases.

Bill

Gabriele Campbell said...

What I find encouraging is that many of the entries in Miss Snark's blog suck worse than mine. At least, I do have a plot. :)

But I didn't make the lottery.

Speaking about lottery, is there another HS giveaway drawing in the one that works per email and numbers? I really want book 2. :-)

Simon Haynes said...

Glad you want book 2 - that's a good sign for book one ;-)
I didn't want to overdo the draws through the email list in case people felt there were too many of them.
Might be time for another, though.

Fahim said...

Having read book one and almost through with book two, I must say that if you enjoyed book one, you'll absolutely love book two - it's miles ahead of book one ... and I loved the first book :) Now what *I* want is book three :p

Simon Haynes said...

By staggering coincidence, Hal Spacejock Just Desserts is now listed in the Penguin Catalogue. Jan 8 release, ISBN 1921064390
(Not available yet. Just an advanced listing.)

Gabriele Campbell said...

I have no luck with numbers. :(