Beast World Series Author Tara Tyler On Query Letters

Beast World Series Author Tara Tyler
QUERY, QUERY, QUITE CONTRARY!
Query Letter Blues and How to Tackle Them.

Juneta is such an inspiration! Not only does she write amazing books, she also promotes other authors  at her blog, encourages writers to work on their skills with the quarterly Storytime Blog Hop, and now she’s co-created a publisher of themed anthologies – Storm Dance Publications!

This is my last guest post for the Windy Hollow, Beast World #3 Blog Tour–and it’s a SURPRISE!

It’s a topic that several writer friends have asked me about lately, something I have to dive back into myself…

QUERY, QUERY, QUITE CONTRARY!
Query Letter Blues and How to Tackle Them.

The problem challenge: How do you convince someone to love your story in 100 words of less? This is the definition of a query letter. It seems daunting and near impossible! Think of it as the back cover of your book–How would you get readers to want to buy it? It’s a very similar process. Tell them enough to want to read more. Tease them!

So here is my advice on
How to Craft a Compelling Query Letter:

• Before You Begin. 
  • Research the people you query. 
  • Know what they are looking for. 
  • And follow their submission guidelines!
• The Opening. This is debatable. Most start with the guts of the story and sum it up at the end. But if you know the agent or were recommended by a friend, a greeting at the beginning is okay.
• The Guts.
  • Try to get this down to 2 paragraphs. 
  • Use as little detail as possible, only the big character names. 
  • Make your incredible story into a generic masterpiece that sounds like no other. 
  • And use your or the MC’s voice! 
• Answer these questions:
  1. The MC – Who is the MC and what is the current situation?
  2. Dire Straits – What is the MC’s problem or goal? What or who is in the way?
  3. Hopeful Hook – Can the problem be solved? What or who will help?
• The Facts. The next paragraph tells the title, word count, and genre. If you have a comparison or mashup of well-known stories, that can help. Awards are okay, but if they got this far, you don’t want to drive them away. No other trivia is needed.
• The Waiting.
  • Don’t get your hopes up. Don’t expect to see a positive response. Don’t expect any response at all–some agencies just don’t bother, even with a form letter. It’s not worth worrying over. Sooner or later, you will get a positive email! Let it be a pleasant surprise.
  • Two to three weeks is a fair amount of time to wait before you begin again. 
  • I send out about 5 at a time.
  • While I wait, I work on other things, improve the query letter, do more research on who to query, then send out 5 more.

More notes: Just like you have betas and crit partners read your story, you should have extra eyes read your query. Sometimes a synopsis is requested–make sure you have one! And the elevator pitch is even harder–try getting the goodness into one sentence. I also have a handy Word Doc just for blurbs. And a spreadsheet of those I’ve queried with dates, details about them, and their responses.

With my publisher dissolved, I am now putting myself out there for an agent/new publisher. I do most of the work myself, but I’m hoping an agent can take me farther with their connections… That’s the only thing I don’t have (besides money and time, ha ha)

Happy Querying!

I’ll say it again, Juneta is the best! She’s been so supportive — I can’t thank you enough, woman! So happy to be here and get the query stuff off my chest. It helps me to organize myself as well as help others, I hope!

Beast World Series

WINDY HOLLOW
Beast World MG Fantasy Series, book #3
by Tara Tyler
Available NOW!

This summer, Gabe and his friends fly over the Great Sea for the wedding of the century: a dragon prince and a beautiful harpy. But Gabe can’t relax on this vacation. Besides competing in rigorous wedding events, he overhears the nearby human village WINDY HOLLOW is in danger from an evil human scientist and a vengeful were-ogre experimenting on beasts. Gabe and his friends risk crossing the mountains to help, despite several warnings. 


Maybe he’s going too far this time, but he’s in too deep to quit. It’s do or die, hopefully not die!

Beast World Series

Tara Tyler has had a hand in everything from waitressing to rocket engineering. After moving all over the US, she now writes and teaches math in Ohio with her husband and one boy left in the nest. She has two series, Pop Travel (sci-fi detective thrillers) and Beast World (fantasy adventures), plus her UnPrincess novella series where the maidens save themselves. She’s a commended blogger, contributed to several anthologies, and to fit in all these projects, she economizes her time, aka the Lazy Housewife—someday she might write a book on that… Make every day an adventure!

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