Still Stunned

When I finished the latest draft of my book, The Time Traveler, I dreaded doing a query letter. Seriously dreaded it. I prayed about it a lot and made lots of attempts at writing one. I'm sure if search my blog, you will find some of my failed attempts for the old version of my book.

I also did tons of research. I've read every entry on Query Shark at least twice. If for some reason you've never heard of Query Shark aka literary agent Janet Reid, visit her blog. Read every entry. Digest her comments. Look at your query letter. Realize you've probably been doing this wrong. Mope about it. Try again. The end result will be a much better query letter.

That's basically what happened to me.

One day, I sat at my computer and decided I would not get up until I wrote a query letter that not only described my book, but one I was happy with. I read this article by author Shallee McArthur, which helped a lot as well. It took several hours, but I finally did one. I let it sit for a day or two, sent it to my best friend/Critique Partner/ awesome person Christy for critique, and made edits. I then participated in the Query Letter Blog Hop. The feedback I've received has been amazing. It's always awesome when your fellow writers tell you something is good.

But then, something totally unexpected happened.

On Friday, December 5th, I decided to send it to the master of query letter critiques, the Query Shark.

On Sunday, December 7th, she posted it and called it splendid.

Splendid! My letter! Written by me, the black girl in the hood who still hears shootings every night.

This doesn't happen to people like me.

I'm still stunned.

Maybe this writing thing is possible after all.

Now, excuse me as I go make sure my book is as good as my letter.

- A.C.