Based upon a query, we asked an author for the complete manuscript. Here is the response.
"I had recently been in contact with another publisher that I agreed to send my manuscript to. I would like to see how that pans out. All Things That Matter Press was one of only a handful of publishers that I have queried because I was very impressed with your company and thought that my novel may be a good fit. No publisher has seen the full manuscript yet, and I would like to put you second on my list if that's ok.
Thankyou"
The above is copied and pasted. Our response was a big NO THANK YOU! Good luck! Can anyone think of a better way in which the author may have responded?
LOL. Did you really receive this letter? I wish I could get more authors to read The Frugal Editor. I interviewed dozens of agents who gave me their pet peeves for query letters--above and beyond the editing. So there are a couple chapter in TFE that tell people how to write great queries, in addition to a couple of sample query letters AND the list of agents who were caring enough to take their time to respond. Some of them were funny, too!
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, query letters go to publishers. They also go to editors when an author is seeking an interview or feature story. And on and on. Gosh, they're the single most important tool for marketing!
Thanks for giving me a good laugh.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers
Blogging at www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
We all had a good laugh and I highly recommend your book to current and 'would be' authors. It will help avoid these kinds of mistakes.
ReplyDelete