#query letter help

New video! I wanted to start making some useful videos, so I started by creating a series about the querying process for authors. 

This is my first video in the series, which is an introduction to query letters and the querying process. 

In this video:

- How do you get your novel published? 

- What is a query letter?

- Literary agents, what they do, and why you need one if you want to publish your novel the traditional way

- What you need to include in your query letter

- How long should your query letter be

- Some resources you can use to find literary agents, and to craft your first query letter

*Btw, I know my puppy stickers behind me are a little distracting. Sorry about that. haha

I hope you like my video! And if you do, please subscribe to my channel! I’m just starting out with this channel, and I appreciate SO much your support. <3

I am uploading new videos on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Next Sunday: 

Episode #2 of my Querying Process series: How to start querying + Query letter DOs and DON’Ts. 

Wednesday’s video: I will review Jenny Han’s YA novel “Ps. I still love you”

I hope to see you there! 

I offer free advice and feedback on any query letter that you are trying to prepare for submission to a literary agent or publisher’s. I have submitted many query letters and manuscripts to agents myself over the years and have become involved in many online and offline writing communities that have taught me a lot. 

All you need to do is:

1) Follow this tumblr and my instagram: laurenvdw91 (I also use twitter laurenvdw91 and on occasions where I have a long waiting list will prioritise people who have followed me on twitter as well as instagram.) 

2) Submit your query letter to me through the ‘submit your query letter’ option on the left hand side of the screen. 

I'm trying to adjust my query letter, and I want to get a few opinions please? You don't need to have read the book, or heard me talk about it, I just want to know if it sounds like purple prose or rambling. 

It's supposed to be a hook opening statement, but this is NOT the plot bio, hence my worry that it's verging on purple prose. 

Anomalies: Control is an urban fantasy, set in a big city, and it features (and breaks) a few norms in standard supernatural and dystopian/utopian novels. Cole, the main character is believed to be one of the supernatural Anomalies that live and hide across the world cities. He meets other outcasts, nurtures a skewed vision of his county’s government, and paints a picture for the reader something along the lines of X-Men or The Hunger Games, moving toward the realization that his view isn’t the only, and that nothing he thinks he knows is purely black and white. The emphasis is on the characters without losing sight of the main plot, and portray how one’s past and experiences and any prejudice against them can affect how they see and react to the world. 

Writing a query letter to sell a story that you just poured all your energy into writing is, in my opinion, the suckiest part of trying to be a writer. I wrote one query letter and immediately sent it out (dumb), only to receive rejections (of course). I…