Writing Excuses 6.5: Query Letters

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Business, Careers, Fiction

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2011

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dan and Howard had the recent opportunity to interview Dan's agent, http://saracrowe.com/index.html, who works with the Harvey Klinger agency. We decided to address a topic that is by far the most-requested (and under-addressed) topic on our list: query letters.

Dan begins by reading the query letter he sent to Sara four years ago. Sara then explains why she accepted him as a client. The letter had something to do with it, yes. Sara talks a bit about what she likes and doesn't like in query letters, and this leads us into a nice discussion of what does and doesn't work, and why.

We then further deconstruct the letter, and Dan's decision-making process in writing it. We discuss the synopsis he included, and how well the hook of the novel was presented. We then distill this into some basic points for query-letter writing.

Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences, by Brian Yansky, narrated by Alexander Cendese

Writing Prompt: Write a query letter based on your current project.

This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible.
Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*.
*Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please!

Audible® Free Trial Details
Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® Gold membership plan free, which includes one audiobook credit. After your 14 day trial, your membership will renew each month for just $14.95 per month so you can continue to receive one audiobook credit per month plus members-only discounts on all audio purchases. A very small number of titles are more than one credit. Cancel your membership before your free trial period is up and you will not be charged. Thereafter, cancel anytime, effective the next billing cycle. Any unused audiobook credits will be lost at cancellation. Our Sponsors: * Check out HomeServe and use my code homeserve.com/excuses for a great deal: https://www.homeserve.com * Check out Talkiatry and use my code Talkiatry.com/WX for a great deal: https://www.talkiatry.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This year my family will be having our 67th annual Christmas Eve dinner.
0:04.8	It's a menu passed down from my grandmother through my mom to me.
0:08.8	The entire family shows up.
0:11.8	I'm talking fourth cousins once removed and this is not an
0:15.1	exaggeration which means that during the lead up I don't have time to menu plan or
0:20.0	cook anything else. That's when I turn to prepared meals like Factor, America's
0:26.0	number one ready-to-eat meal delivery service. Factor can help you eat well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with chef-prepared, dietition approved, ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door.
0:37.0	It allows me to save time and not eat garbage while tackling all my holiday to-do's.
0:42.0	So if you want to cross meal prepping... while tackling all my holiday to-do's.
0:42.6	So if you want to cross meal prepping off your list
0:45.8	this holiday season, consider factor.
0:48.4	You can skip the meal planning, grocery shopping,
0:50.9	shopping, shopping, prepping, and cleaning up, and get factors fresh never frozen meals delivered
0:55.8	to your door.
0:56.8	They're ready in just two minutes, which my dad says is the appropriate amount of time to cook
1:01.4	a meal.
1:02.4	He has no idea. The point is, all you have to do is heat and enjoy.
1:07.0	And if you're trying to squeeze writing into the holiday press, it might be useful to know that Factor isn't just for dinner.
1:15.1	Count on extra convenience any time of the day with an assortment of 55-plus add-ons to suit various
1:20.8	preferences and tastes.
1:22.8	So you can carve out some writing time in the morning by choosing quick breakfast items,
1:27.2	lunch to go, grab and go snacks, or ready to eat cold-pressed juices, shakes, and smoothies.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.