Publishing Pulse for April 1, 2011

Oh, and our artwork won an award!

Happy First of April! This has been a tremendous week, hasn't it? I have no idea how we're even going to fit all these ideas into one Pulse, but let's get started!


New At QueryTracker


After months of giddy silence, we are thrilled to announce  QueryTracker: The Movie!  It's the story of a man (played by Robert Pattinson) who chooses to use his literary prowess for the greater good, programming a database of literary agents, and the five hot women who are drawn to his quest. Soundtrack will be by John Williams, and the closing theme song to be sung by Nickelback. Mary Lindsey will even get to do a cameo in the movie! We hope you're as excited about it as we are.


We're also delighted to announce that we're coming up to our one billionth query letter submitted by the members of QueryTracker! And to celebrate the occasion, the writer who submits the one-billionth query letter will have a chance at a partial request, a full, or even an offer of representation, just for submitting that query letter! So go ahead and submit: you never know!


New Feature For QueryTracker Members

From now on, each agent's listing will include the agent's favorite recipes so queriers can promise to make them a home-cooked meal if offered representation. Look for it under "Reports."

New QueryTracker Success Stories

An actual vampire signed with an agent through QueryTracker, later that week landing a six-figure deal on, ironically, an adult contemporary novel about two gardeners who find love while mulching a blackberry bush.

Another QueryTracker member scored an agent and a deal for The Complete Idiot's Guide To Writing A Complete Idiot's Guide.

Publishing News

New Species Of Shark To Be Named After Literary Agent! Discovered off the coast of Libretto, Italy, Carcharodon scriptorum comedentis (to be called the E'er Reid Shark) has been named for the QueryShark herself. In a private ceremony in Washington, DC, the scientist who discovered it took a publicity photo with Janet Reid, then tried to pitch his memoir.

Some agents have changed to only accepting singing query letters.  Queriers can email or mail a recording of themselves singing about the next bestseller, or show up in person to serenade the agent. This seismic shift occurred after literary agent Amanda Lynne (of the Claire Annette Agency) wrote on her agency guidelines to "make sure to sing your query letter," and spell-check didn't catch the issue until after she hit publish. But as she said, "After the first week or two, I realized a lot of authors are uninhibited in song, and you can get a much better sense of the story that way, especially when they use their hook as the chorus." (Pubtip: if your novel has multiple POVs, you have to write the query in multiple parts, and those parts have to harmonize.)

Around The Blogosphere

Industry expert Joanna Wilkinson-Kenderly reports that nine out of ten literary agents have experienced at least one unicorn sighting.


Former agent Nathaniel Brindsfield blogs how he was desperate to score a deal for his client, and after being told by an editor that they'd publish his author's title "when pigs fly," he invented a cannon to shoot pigs ninety-five feet in the air. (He got the deal.) 


At the blog of Anonymous Editorial Coffee-Fetcher, he or she describes several ways they sort the slush pile: throwing darts, folding query letters into paper airplanes for races (fastest airplane wins a partial request!) and reading only the words that appear in the rings left by their coffee mugs.


Agent Rochelle Garden give step-by-step instructions for turning a stack of partials into a rich garden mulch.


Literary Quote Of The Week

"Revision is for those lamest of men who fail to get it right the first time. I never rewrite a thing." -J.R.R. Tolkien

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Jane Lebak is an unbelievable wiseacre who writes stuff from time to time and occasionally makes people laugh on purpose. She's been blogging with QueryTracker since last fall, which is about the same time a wave of unexplained headaches swept the nation. She is represented by the very forgiving Roseanne Wells of the Marianne Strong Literary Agency, who didn't mind that Jane's sung query was off-key.