Tuesday, November 8, 2011

M. Willy Wonka & the Query Letter

Amy and I just finished up with edits on one of our YA thrillers that has been a WIP for some time now.  Thanks to some extra time and motivation recently, we got it finished and ready for submitting that query letter.

As most of you know, we have already tried the traditional method of publishing twice.  First, we tried Liberty and then Tristen, as you can see we didn't get through that way and self published.  Which brings me to my point.  Charlie Bucket was the poor boy in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and despite his few attempts and several failures; he kept looking for that golden ticket.

Not saying that writing a query letter is as easy as buying a piece of chocolate and opening a wrapper, I am just saying that I can understand his desperation to win.  I think that even with all of the talent, planning, writing, rewriting, and editing of a query letter, it takes a little luck some times too.

So please, if you can, wish us luck as we trek back down the path of traditional publishing and try to get past the point that we made it the last time.  Every time the foil peels back, it is a different surprise, I just hope this time around our golden ticket will come instead of a form letter.

3 comments:

  1. Good luck!! Are you trying for an agent, or submitting to small presses?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Katie, we are trying to the agent method first and then we will consider small press or self publishing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I like that analogy. Query letters always feel like the search for the golden ticket to me too.

    ReplyDelete