Your shiny Synopsis… Pokémon style.
Ever heard of Pokémon? It’s a Nintendo GameBoy game that’s all-the-rage with the kids these days. In the game, you come across monsters called Pokémon, catch them, and train them. You see thousands of...
View ArticleLadies and Gentlemen, the About Me presents….
Don’t worry—it’s almost over. All we have left is to wrap up this whole Query Letter thing—by ending with an About Me. An About Me is the closing statement of your Query Letter. It tells your...
View ArticleDon’t be a bore! LESS IS MORE!
So our last blog ended with a mentioning of length… and I wanted to run with that. Size does matter, after all—and in this case, LESS IS MORE. But, Frustrated Intern, I have so much to say! you tell...
View ArticleThe proof is in the proofing
So you’ve huffed and puffed and struggled and slogged, and, finally, you have produced a query (a Query Letter and Writing Sample). The query is akin to a terrible in-law—you had to suffer its presence...
View ArticleHow to screw up a Query Letter in 9 simple steps
While we’re on the track of proofreading, I thought I’d get a little listy (everyone loves lists!), and talk about the most common errors I find in Query Letters: 1) RUN-ONS. Run-ons are the #1...
View ArticleHow to do more than “Dear agent”
I’ve seen Query Letters where the author drones on about himself, and then only mentions the agent as “Dear agent.” Despite this author’s best intentions and agonizing hours perfecting his query, that...
View ArticleGenerate a hook for your book: 5 ways to make This meet That
A this-meets-that hook, which I mentioned earlier, is where you introduce your book by way of comparing other novels, series, authors, or films. It’s a great way to offer a recognizable frame of...
View ArticleFormat and Titles: Cleanup in Aisle Two!
We’re into the home stretch, everyone—I’m gone in three blog posts. So for these, I wanted to jump forward into the Writing Sample. I’ll begin with three simple things you can do with your Sample to...
View ArticleFour ways to make an intern set fire to your first chapter
In her last week as an intern at Speilburg Literary Agency, Mica is sharing some of the irksome things in submissions that led to her persona as Frustrated Intern. Check back on Friday for a last...
View ArticleSeven MORE ways to make an intern set fire to your first chapter
Last week, I started a list of things NOT TO DO in your Writing Sample. Here’s the rest: 1) Too Much Exposition. Don’t bog your story down with detail that you can give later. Readers don’t need...
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