![The Swivet [Colleen Lindsay]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ydq3peK34xU/SkolThqi6kI/AAAAAAAAARU/LsOSWgUXFSw/S760/headerbw.jpg)
Today is #Queryfail Day on Twitter, the first of what will probably become a monthly or semi-monthly experience. What is #Queryfail Day, you ask? * rubs hands together gleefully * A group of online agents, book editors and periodicals acquisition editors are posting about their queries in real time. The idea is to educate people about what exactly it is in a query that made us stop reading and say "Not for me." We're being very careful not to include personal identifiers of any kind. The idea isn't to mock or be intentionally cruel, but to educate.
Here are a few of the agents and editors participating (other than myself):
Secret Editor Rockstar Moonrat
Anonymous Ranty Editor
Editor Angela James (Samhain Publishing)
Publisher Public_Affairs
Publisher Renee Ting (Shen's Books)
Publisher Hollyridge Press
Illustrator Agency IllusArtist
Agent Lauren MacLeod
Agent Greg Daniel
Agent Kate Schafer Testerman
Agent Rachelle Gardner
Agent Matt Wagner
Agent Deirdre Knight
Agent Elaine Spencer
Agent Kate McKean
Agent Diana Fox
Agency Intern Sarah "JJ" Jae-Jones
Author Ben Mezrich
If you're an agent or an editor on Twitter and you'd like to play along, just remember to add the #queryfail tag to your post so that people who use Monittor.com or any live-streaming Twitter aggregator can follow along. And email me so I can add you to this post!
Have fun and remember - don't be mean!
(Edit to add: Fixed Greg Daniel's link to Twitter!)
Posts
The Ugly Truth (part 2)
24 minutes ago
32 comments:
I know, I've been following you on Twitter and your tweets are just hilarious. thanks for giving me a good laugh at work!
I've been following the thread all day. I still can't believe some of the queries you guys get. Hopefully I won't make those mistakes now! (not that I would ever do some of the things you've mentioned!)
Thanks for the heads up! I'm still learning twitter to be honest. Didn't know they had a full chat room for it!
Can't get Greg Daniels link to open. Is it me?
So submitting a picture of my ultra cute dog (and/or cat - I have 2 of each) won't work? Dang!!
So far, I haven't made any of the mistakes. Some of them are too darn funny (well, at least from my perspective).
Fran - I couldn't get Greg Daniel's link to open either.
S
Ooooh, my latest manuscript isn't ready yet, but maybe it will be by next month and then I can watch my query get torn apart (in a good way!).
Seriously, this idea was brilliant! I can't tear myself away from Twitter! Thank you, Colleen! What do you think about having a #querywin day? May not be as funny, though.
Not to sound ungrateful or anything:
My name is Sarah Jae-Jones. :) I don't respond to Sarah; I've gone by JJ for so long it takes me a minute. Jae-Jones is my last name.
This is so helpful thanks so much for doing this!
By the way, my brilliant plan for the next query fail day is this: Since no personal identifiers are being used and I want to know when the agents get to my query, I will stick a graphic of a cute wittle kitten with a pink bow in the middle of my letter.
The exceptions being Colleen, who will receive a photo of Nanerpuss with a cute wittle kitten, and Nathan Bransford, who will receive a photo of a cute wittle kitten sitting beside a giant plate of bacon, with Sacramento Kings' tickets on the side and a television on in the background showing reruns of the Bachelor.
My plan cannot fail! Muhahahaha!
love it! 500 hundred queries a day keeps the delusion away. :)
Wish I could follow this. Is there a way to collect them all after the fact and post them?
It was awesome Colleen! Great idea, fabulous turnout and so educational... not to mention hilarious. I'll be watching for a post about when the next one will be.
This was really helpful. Thank you!
I saw queryfail tweets a couple of times yesterday, but had no idea what they were. Guess this explains it.
Hey, Colleen, you and your queryfail idea got a mention on PubLunch today. Cool, huh?
I apparently felt differently than most about this. I actually found some of the comments to be mocking which supposedly wasn't the intent, and I feel that someone could have identified their query based on some of the postings. It made me glad I haven't begun the query process yet, as I found this to be somewhat unprofessional and will tailor my agent list accordingly. For the record, Nathan Bransford did NOT participate as listed, and he gives great feedback on his blog without being insulting. Just one writer's opinion on this process.
Kristi -
Nathan isn't actually listed up there. He wasn't a participant.
Best,
C
It was at the time I posted my comment. I see it has since been removed. Thank you and have a good weekend.
I usually just lurk, but I felt I had to add my two cents on this after seeing the wild, frothing-at-the-mouth frenzy some of the folks at Nathan Bransford's blog worked themselves into. I'm a teacher in my day job, so I see a disturbing trend of people wanting to be rewarded for half-assed work and getting very upset when they are called out for doing half-assed work. Most of the queries you discussed on queryfail failed because the author did a half-assed job. Why is it so upsetting to everyone that you would point this out? If you don't want to be called out for being half-assed...then don't be half-assed. It's an easy fix really.
I didn't fully understand queryfail. But after reading your comments on the NB blog, I do now.
I only saw a few tweets and they sort of shocked me...first impression-wise...not fully knowing what it was about. But they weren't your tweets and I doubt the ones I read represented most of the people who participated.
Thanks again for explaining.
LOL! I am laughing my ass off over this. It sucks that I missed it and I don't quite understand Twitter so it's a pain trying to find everyone's entries to the project but the ones I did find are hilarious!
My favorite one of yours was,
"My book is differentiated from Twilight because the vampires have wings, and are half-breed angels."
OH MY GOD. I mean really? Twilight is your basic 'Mary Sue' fanservice and it reads like fanfiction...and now there are people who think tossing a bunch of mythos in a blender is a good idea?...Is the sky falling?
I'd SO love to have read that entire query, I bet it was full of epic lulz.
"The idea isn't to mock or be intentionally cruel. . ."
As a writer, I have to say that isn't how it comes across. Sure those are bad queries, but just how do you think those writers feel? I would say humiliated, most likely. Nice, making fun of people. Very nice.
Looking at it from the other side, it makes a good list of agents I don't want to do business with though.
Maybe publishers should start putting out lists of stupid agent tricks.
I thought I commented here about this, but apparently not. Though I felt a bit like I was standing at the side of the road gawking at a car wreck, I thought #queryfail was a good thing.
I blogged about it today (Sunday - I know, I know, major lag time there) if anyone is interested. http://selestial-owg.livejournal.com/
Word verification: prefi - is that like a prefix that didn't quite make the cut?
Here's the thing:
Back when I was new at this and was sending agents rhyming picture books about singing cats (and I tried to forcibly rhyme 'party' and 'soiree'), I still only sent my query to those agents who represented picturebooks, I proofread my query, and addressed each query individually.
The vast majority of query senders who were snarked upon didn't follow any of these basics. They didn't strike me as hard-working writers who just had a badly written query. They struck me as people who hadn't done the most basic homework on publishing, who were rude and who were more interested in making easy money than in writing a good book.
In grateful appreciation of #queryfail:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cassandrabrown/3340234725/
I don't do Twitter but have heard about the queryfail. Even if it's been snarky, I think it's great that you're educating followers on what works and what doesn't. I've heard you took some flack but just wanted to let you know that I appreciate, however snarky it may be, feedback and pointers on how to succeed. Thanks!
I've just been given a valid reason to twitter. Love this idea.
Among the other reasons I like this post, that was a handy list of agents/editors/publishers on Twitter ... and now I'm following them!
The "Myself" link on the original posting seems to be broken (Twitter reports page not found). On investigation it looks like a spurious underscore between first and last name.
I do appreciate the list of agents who took part in this since it gives me a good list of agents who DO NOT respect authors and are happy to mock us. No, none of my queries were on twitter. But the entire thing was nothing more than an exercise in meanness and I'm glad to know which agents to seriously hesitate to work with.
I notice that none of the agents were nearly so enthusiastic about authors turning the tables in agentfail.
And I HAVE had supposedly respectable agents request manuscripts and then not even bother to ever respond. So don't tell me it's just authors who need to look in the mirror.
I didn't take part in either. Both were questionable. It MIGHT be a good idea for BOTH sides to try to treat each other with a little PROFESSIONALISM -- and neither queryfail nor agentfail qualified.
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