Does anyone have any tips on how can I induce a lgbtqia+ character without making it feel forced?

And for those who are wondering here is the synopsis:

The last year of high school can change your life, especially when you are an aspiring writer and future detective who's convinced that there was a murder in your school. But what to do when no one believes in you?

So I saw this lovely excerpt from Suffer Love by Ashley Herring, the other day and I thought to myself: “Wow! We are really getting the stereotype ball rolling today!” And guess what? This was in the first 5% of this E-ARC my lovely friend Sue ( @daisycalloway ) had provided me with. Now, I don’t know how the the end copy will turn out (and I really don’t care since I don’t want to read more lol) but I think at least let me show a little of understanding on why this is super shitty and absolutely harmful.

I won’t go into depth, but I want to say how obvious it is to point out is that apparently in this author’s world (i won’t go name calling that is not my job and I have an inkling the author does not give a single fuck) a brown person = terrorist.

Lovely.

This isn’t funny. Like, at all. Maybe it was meant to be funny or some form of joking with a buddy, but considering our history as a country, I digress. I just wish that Indian characters, Muslim characters, and many, many others weren’t constantly put in this box. How can I, as a South Asian, read a quote like this and think it’s something to laugh about? It’s not funny, it’s not cute, and it’s certainly perpetrating a notion that we have been trying to destroy for YEARS.

I’m not going to write this big rant about how this is absolutely distasteful and harmful, because it really isn’t worth my time, but PLEASE the underlying depiction that we are all “terrorists” is absolutely horrifying. Brown people should not be having to put up with this, we shouldn’t have to read a book with a character like us, only to be betrayed.

A 5-Part Series

Querying Agents

Finding Agents

Query Letter Example #1

Contacting Agents

So you’ve read about how to write a query letter and then you wrote it. You’ve discovered how to find agents you’d like to work with. The next and final-ish step is to contact those agents.

Submissions, once you get past your anxiety and self doubt, is relatively easy. No postage and no phone calls, all you need is your manuscript and exactly what the agent requests for submission.

In each and every case, the agent you want to contact has told you exactly what they want from a submission. They may want something specific in the email’s Subject line. They may want 10 pages of your book or 50. One thing they don’t want? Attachments.

If you attach anything to an email you send an agent, they will delete it out of hand. If fact, they probably have a filter set up that deletes any emails with attachments. Don’t chance it.

Remember the list from Finding Agents? Let’s drill down into what two agents specifically require for a submission. Specifically, Rosemary Stimola who represented The Hunger Games and Joanna Volpe who represented Divergent.

Ms. Stimola’s website tells me she just wants a query letter and nothing else. In fact you don’t even need to send an email, there’s a form designed for you to fill out. Simply upload the query letter into the ‘Note’ section and you’re good.

Ms. Volpe, on the other hand, requests an email submission and her agency, New Leaf Literary, has the following request for each submission

Email Subject line: “Query, [Agent Name]”

5 pages from your manuscript, double-spaced

paste the 5 pages at the end of the email, no attachments!

I read somewhere (I believe it was an agent’s website) to advise them whether or not you are submitting multiple queries. I’m sorry, who is not submitting multiple queries? This strikes me as a throwback to the golden days of publishing where agents held all the power (perhaps not such a bad thing…they’d have never allowed 50 Shades of Grey to see the light of day). If someone asks, be honest. Other than that, you’re playing the field. You’ll never find the right one unless you fish the whole of the sea.

To that end, you’re dating. I have a friend who dates as if the next date is going to be the one. Needless to say she has a terrible love life. Be skeptical. Be thoughtful. Be overt. Be as ethically slutty with your query letters as possible.

To that end, there are a lot of agents to contact and the temptation is to send out query letters to all of them. Don’t. First, it’s a lot of work following my suggestions above researching each agent and massaging your query letter for each person. Second, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Mike Sambuchino suggests sending only 6 to 8 query letters out at a go. Adjust as needed and then go for round 2!

Also, keep in mind that I’ve never worked with an agent. For slightly more refined advice, check out Jane Friedman’s article. There are tons of articles and a thousand different iterations of the same advice. Trust your gut and remember, these are people too.

Get all your ducks in a row (I recommend a spreadsheet to keep yourself sane) and get to work. Good luck!

A 5-Part Series

Querying Agents

Finding Agents

Query Letter Example #1

Contacting Agents

As I said in my Querying Agents post, I used this query as the basis for my letter. It’s concise and polite, which I think will go a long way for most agents. These folks get a ton of representation requests – so it’ll go a long way if short and sweet defines your submission.

I wrote my first letter in about five minutes, pushing through all doubt. It was terrible, but what did that matter? I had a beginning. From there, I probably rewrote the letter between 25-30 times over the course of two days. After each “finish” I read the letter out loud and noted what worked and what didn’t.

It wasn’t perfect and after sending off the first round of queries, I’m getting ready to redo the letter for a second round of queries. When I get done with the second go-around, I’ll be sure to post it.

In the meantime, here’s the first letter. Have some fun and good luck!

Dear Ms./Mr. [for Pete’s sake spell their last name correctly]:

What if Stonehenge was a prison? Who would’ve been imprisoned there? Why? The answers begin in CHARLOTTE GNOLL, my first novel. A Young Adult fantasy set in both modern-day Wales and an old Celtic world, the manuscript is complete at 85,000 words. {There’s some debate as to where the genre and word count of your book appears in the query list. I will likely move this technical information later in the letter when I send it to more agents. However, always include it along with the statement that your manuscript is complete. For fiction, it’s a must.}

{Describe your book. Honestly, this could be another post on its own. Write, rewrite, and rewrite about 50 times more. Let it percolate…this is your best chance to sell your book with a clear and efficient description.} Charlotte Addo’s life turned upside down the day her dad disappeared. Before she was fearless, yet now she’d rather bury her head in the last book they read together. But when she stumbles into a world where reality bests her imagination, will Charlotte remember her courage? Her new friends are counting on it. So is her dad.

{As you can see, my description is broken into two pieces, which makes sense with my particular book because there’s Charlotte and then there’s the other world.} A witch, bent on destroying the world, was defeated 5,000 years ago and locked away. Yet no prison lasts forever, not even Stonehenge. Charlotte, a last hope, must learn to control a magic she never knew existed and stop the witch. It’s a lot to ask of an eight-year old.

{Why did you choose this agent? If you’ve done the work recommended in the Finding Agents, you should know exactly why. Let them know; connect with them.} I am submitting this novel to you after I read that you represented [a book I have found similar to my own that liked]. [Compare your book to that book]: e.g., I see Charlotte as strong and vulnerable as Katsa, though we meet Charlotte long before she masters or even understands her power.

{A little about yourself} I quit my job as an Economic advisor in Baltimore last October and ran away to Germany with my fiancé so we could explore Europe and I could finish CHARLOTTE (plus other stories). You can read some of those other stories on my website, www.pswgear.com. {Do you have a website or any presence on the net? You should, if only to show that you are willing and able to engage peoples with some rudimentary knowledge of how. Increasingly, publishers are relying on their authors to get the good word out. This is a start.}

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you. {Professionalism and politeness! But don’t be afraid to make your sign-off a little more casual. Just never forget to thank them for reading.}

Sincerely,

p.s.w. gear

[phone number]

[email address]

A 5-Part Series

Querying Agents

Finding Agents

Query Letter Example #1

Contacting Agents

The four pieces of advice I’ve read about finding agents:

Find someone who has represented a book similar to yours – MSWishList is amazing in this respect

Be interesting. Be concise.

Accommodate the submission guidelines

Research the agent and personalize