Essential QT Blog Posts

THE CALL

• Fielding the Call: A List of Questions to Ask by Carolyn Kaufman and Elana Johnson
• You may also be interested in Elana Johnson's e-book, From the Query to the Call

DANGERS

• Writer, Beware the Plagiarist by Carolyn Kaufman
• Safeguarding Your WIP by Suzette Saxton

PITCHES

• The Dreaded Pitch – What to Include in That One Line by Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary
• The Oral Pitch by Mary Lindsey

PLATFORM

• Building YOUR Platform by Carolyn Kaufman
• Interview with Get Known Before the Book Deal author Christina Katz on Platform
• Interview with Literary Agent Kate Epstein on Platform

QUERYING

• Cover Letters for Snail Submissions by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 1 - The Hook by Elana Johnson
• Writing the High-Concept Hook by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 2 - The Setup by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 3 - The Conflict by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 4 - The Consequence by Elana Johnson 
• Writing the Query Letter Part 5 - Everything Else by Elana Johnson

RESEARCH

• Be a Google Ninja: Finding ANYTHING on the Web Part I by Carolyn Kaufman
• Be a Google Ninja: Finding ANYTHING on the Web Part II by Carolyn Kaufman
• Turning Grief into Gold by Suzette Saxton

SYNOPSES

• Quantum of Synopsis - Novel Synopsis Basics by HL Dyer
• In Short: Writing a Novel Synopsis that Rocks by HL Dyer

WRITING WHEN YOU HAVE KIDS

• Writing Under the Influence of Children by Suzette Saxton

The QT Blog Team

H. L. Dyer

H.L. Dyer works as the Clinical and Academic Director for the Hospitalist Program at a pediatric teaching hospital near Chicago. She loves that she can now combine her work as a pediatrician with training future physicians.

Her  novel, THE EDGE OF MEMORY, is represented by Katherine Boyle of Veritas Literary Agency. In addition to all things literary (which includes grilling her legion of test readers), she enjoys experimental cooking and composing impromptu parodies to annoy close friends and family.

Mary Lindsey

Mary Lindsey writes paranormal fiction and lives on the Texas Gulf Coast with her husband, three kids, two dogs, her daughter's pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. (The roaches are long story—don't ask.)

Mary is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Her young adult paranormal romance, SHATTERED SOULS (Philomel/Penguin), is scheduled for release Fall 2011.

Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, Mary received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from the University of Houston. She's taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school. Currently, she teaches acting to children and teens at a private studio. She's a member of The Writer's League of Texas, SCBWI, RWA and WH-RWA.

Elana Johnson
Elana is the author of FROM THE QUERY TO THE CALL, an ebook that covers everything you need to know about querying and securing a literary agent. She will be speaking at a conference in April 2010, covering the topics of querying the national market and writing a killer query letter.

Elana is represented by Michelle Andelman at Lynn C. Franklin Associates.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

She runs a personal blog on writing as well as a query critique blog.

Carolyn Kaufman

Carolyn Kaufman has a doctorate in clinical psychology and teaches college full-time in Columbus, Ohio. She is represented by Kate Epstein of the Epstein Literary Agency and her first book, THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior (Quill Driver Books) is slated for an autumn 2010 release.

In addition to her work on the QueryTracker.net Blog, she runs Archetype: Psychology for Fiction Writers, where writers will find articles about psychology tailored to their needs. They can also ask her their writing/psychology questions and read the answers on the Archetype Writing blog.

She is often quoted by the media as an expert resource and has appeared in magazines such as Marie Claire and Seventeen, newspapers like The Boston Globe and The Plain Dealer, and books like Andrea Kay’s Work’s a Bitch and then You Make It Work.

Suzette Saxton

Suzette Saxton is a stay-home mom of three children, two of them beautiful and one of them a teenager. She writes fiction for children of all ages and is represented by Suzie Townsend of FinePrint Literary Management.

You can find Suzette volunteering at the school library on Wednesdays, mentoring teen writers through the Literati Outreach program on Saturdays, and reading to her own children every day of the week. Though occasionally she can be forced to take a walk in the lovely little canyon in which she lives, at all other times you can find her writing.

The Bone Setter, her short story inspired by a dream, was published in Mindflights Magazine's ezine and later republished in their print edition. She has a special love of dark fairy tales and very old nursery rhymes. You can find Suzette on Twitter, Facebook, her personal blog, or her website.

Last updated: April 3, 2010

RallyStorm

I know I haven't been around much lately, but I have a good excuse. I've been working on a new website and at last it is ready for the public (more or less).

Though not exclusively for writers, I believe that writers can get a lot of use out of it. The site is called RallyStorm.com and it is a kind of social networking site but with a twist. RallyStorm allows users to create and manager their own forums. Invite just the people you want, or make it open to the public. A small group of testers (writers of course) have been using it quite successfully for private critique groups. RallyStorm for Writers.

I hope you will stop by and give it a try. Don't forget to drop by my profile and say hello.

Here is how one of our members (kiddoc) described it.

Basically, RallyStorm is a social networking site, in some ways similar to MySpace or Facebook.

As a Rallystorm member, you have a profile where you can include information about yourself. You can designate other users as “friends”, post comments on their profile pages, and send virtual gifts. But unlike other sites where your profile is the focus, at Rallystorm it’s just a small part of your ways to connect.

Rallystorm allows you to create and manage your own FORUMS. Your forums can be personal or public, open to anyone or invitation only.

Want to create a public forum to discuss Barack Obama or Paris Hilton or Project Runway or Knitting Techniques? Done.

Want a private forum to post pictures of your kids and talk about them with your family and friends? Sure.

Need a private site for easy group discussion by your test readers on your latest work in progress? Rallystorm can do that too.

Create a virtual Book Club. Discuss the latest breaking news. Form a Chocoholics Support Group. Pretty much anything you can think of to discuss, you can find or make a place to do it.

Success!!

It is really great to see so many success stories on the main site at Querytracker.net. The goal when we started this site was to give writers more accurate methods of gaining representation, and after a year on the Web, it is clear that we have done that. Thank you to all of you who plugged in your data and helped the rest of us. You can follow along with some of our successful authors as they travel the road to publication by visiting the Querytracker forum. Jessica Verday is often online giving us updates on her book, "The Hollow," the first in an amazing new series due to be released by Simon and Schuster in 2009. You can also find updates and things about Jess in general on her blog: http://jessicaverday.blogspot.com

Other members on the forum have procured representation, sold short stories, or just celebrated the completion of a new novel. All these things are a measure of success, and your successes are our successes. So as we venture into our second year here at Querytracker.net, we want to say thank you, both for being a part of our first year, and for giving us our own measure of recognition by voting for us as one of Writer's Digest's top 101 websites for writers. We are proud of that recognition, and we are proud of you! Keep writing!!

Patrick and Jason

How to Write a Great Query Letter

One of our long time members on the Querytracker community recently posted a link to a book that I thought deserved a mention on the blog. Thanks for this great info, Emeraldsky. Everyone who is at the stage in their writing journey where they are ready to start the query process should take a few days and read this book beforehand.

Noah Lukeman, author of The First Five Pages and former literary agent has made his book How to Write a Great Query Letter available online for free. Thanks, Noah. This book is a great resource for writers, as it gives them an inside look at what a lot of agents are really looking for in the ever-so-crucial query letter. As Mr. Lukeman states, so many writers spend months and years writing and polishing their book and then unintentionally shoot themselves in the foot by dashing off a query in a matter of minutes. Even if your work is Pulitzer-quality, no one will ever see it if you can't convince an agent with a well crafted query that it is worth their time to investigate further. I urge everyone to go to the link and get this book RIGHT NOW!! Just click on the title of this post and it will take you there. Keep writing!

Jason

The Second Draft

Most of us in the writing community have a way we like to go about our craft. Some writers like to map out their entire story before they even start to write, while others like to let the characters and the story emerge organically, growing almost of their own volition.

But what about the second draft?

While I am not saying that this is the only way to go about revising your work, it is a great place to start. Believe me, I don't care if you're Hemingway, your first draft needs work. We've all heard that most of writing is re-writing, and I am a subscriber to that theory. The first draft is all about blasting out those words and getting the story down. Once that's done, the real work begins.

A story is like a gemstone. I'm sure no one has ever heard that comparison before, but it is a really good way to visualize the process. In the first draft, you have unearthed this rock. It is big and blocky and very organic-looking. The first thing you're going to do is look at the whole thing and see where the heart of the gem lies. You cut away the roughest material until you can see its true form. Once that is done, you rough it into the general shape you want it to take, and finally you polish it and facet it until it glitters like a star. These are the same steps you can take when you begin the revision process.

Step one: Story If you are not an outliner, then once the first draft is finished you should go back and re-read your story and create an outline along the way. Some people suggest putting the manuscript away for anywhere from a week to a month, but that is up to you. The idea is to give yourself "fresh eyes" for your manuscript. This is important because we are so close to our work and know it so intimately that we can't look at it objectively. You need objectivity to honestly evaluate your work, so if you need time away, take it, and when you're ready, pull it back out and get to reading. Once you have a feel for your story as a whole, go back and look over your outline and make sure that everything in the story fits. Ensure that the subplots and characters are there for a reason. A major rewrite may be necessary at this step, and if it is, don't let it intimidate you. Rewriting is good if it is making the story better. Conflict, character, tension and obstacles for your main character to overcome must all be there and must all be necessary to resolve the story. Once you have the story set and you are sure that all the elements fit together you can move on to the next step.

Step Two: Scene Now that you have the story set, it is time to go back through and look at each scene you have created. Look at them with an eye toward cutting. If a scene doesn't need to be there and the story still flows nicely without it, cut it. Sometimes this step will lead you to a major plot revision. If this is the case, then go back to Step One and start all over again. I know that sounds like the worst thing in the world, but it is better than having a bad story. Scenes should begin and end naturally and dialog should be clean and realistic.

Step Three: Sentence Now your are ready to facet and polish your gem. Go through each and every sentence of your book, watching for anything that makes you stop and go back to reread. Watch for excessive adjectives and adverbs, and make sure you have strong verbs. Word conservation is what you should be focusing on here. There should be no unnecessary words in your sentences. Sentence lengths should be varied and provide an easy rhythm. It is a good idea to read your book out loud so that you can hear how it sounds. You will catch a lot of flow and rhythm problems here.

It is at this point that you should feel confident to present your work to a critique group or your beta readers, but don't be surprised if they still find things that you missed. Beta readers are especially valuable in the sense that if several readers point out the same issue, then you can be fairly sure that you have a real problem. Beta readers are going to want to give you input, but remember that it is your story, and if you don't feel like a suggested change then don't make it. Ultimately it is up to you.

This approach is logical to me, as it moves from general down to specific, from the broad stroke of the story to the microscopic sentence structure. Though it is in no way the only method for revision, it's one that many people can use and is easy to keep in your head during the process. There are definite steps and goals to be reached in each step. If you have methods that you prefer, leave a comment and let us know! Keep writing!

QT 2 is Now Live

After two long months of development, QT2 is now up and running. I thought it would take most of the day, but things went smoothly and it was ready by about 9am on December 31st.

Of course, it is far from being done. I will be tweaking and adding things to it for several weeks. I figure I was able to incorporate about two-thirds of the features I wanted to add, so I still have some work ahead of me. If you made a suggestion for a new feature but don't see it, it probably just means I haven't gotten to it yet. If you want to contact me to see if your feature is on the list, please go right ahead.

The first thing most people will likely notice is the new menu system. The original menu became quite cluttered as more and more features were added. This one is cleaner and can grow without getting ugly.

The other thing that stands out almost right away is all the on-screen help. Just put your mouse over any of the yellow question marks to get instant help. Plus, almost any icon also has help attatched, which can be viewed just by placing your mouse over it.

Enjoy and Happy New Year.