How to Write Activist Literature – Nine – Query Agents and Publishers
By Andy Heath
Now you’ve finished writing your manuscript and you’re at least in the process of revising it. Now you have to start thinking about a home for your book. That’s when it is time to query agents and publishers.
But not so fast…
There are a few tasks to complete before querying agents and publishers. These two tasks are both the shortest and one of the hardest you’ll have to do.
First, you must write a synopsis. A synopsis is a summary of the book, and should not be any longer than two pages, single spaced. Sounds easy? It’s not! You have just written hundreds of pages on your novel, and now you must condense that whole thing to two pages? That’s a daunting task.
The way I tackle the synopsis is to follow these steps:
First, I write a one line summary of each scene from my note cards. Note that this is different than Step 2, which was write a one line summary of the book. This is a one line summary of each scene. Once you do that, you have some idea of the important things that are going on.
Second, you want to pick the important scenes, the ones that go along with your theme - and you thought you were done with your theme didn’t you? Amazing how these things just keep coming back to haunt you. So you’re going to look for the scenes the resonate most strongly with your theme and you’re going to expound on them. You’re going to tell the basic, bare bones story and you’re going to keep it under two pages. Now, if you write the thing and you find that it’s more than two pages, which is likely, then you will have to CUT.
In the synopsis you certainly want to stay true to the story, but you also don’t want it to be too long. Two pages single spaced is a good length for a synopsis. You also want to revise the hell out of it. It must be perfect, more perfect even than your novel. And yes, it must divulge the end of your book.
The second task to perform is to write a query letter. When asking publishers and agents to review your work, you NEVER send the whole manuscript without permission. The way you get permission is to send a query letter with the synopsis. A query letter starts out with a punchy, catchy statement or question, something to get the agent or publisher’s attention. In my query for Preston, my first line was, “Why would a religious, gay teenager renounce his faith in God?” The purpose of that line is to get the agent or publisher’s attention and let him keep reading. The query letter should also have the word count and the genre of the book. Genres include mystery, science fiction, gay or lesbian, non-fiction, etc. For more information on queries and querying agents, check out Writers.net. These people are not gentle with newbies, so be sure you have thick skin before going in, but they do offer some wonderful advice on query letters.
Then in your query letter, you want to give a brief, one paragraph summary of the work you want to send. In the next paragraph, you include a brief summary of your qualifications and why you’re the best person to write the book. Then ask permission to send the manuscript.
One other side note is that when querying agents and publishers, there are different guidelines to follow for each one, but one that is NOT NEGOTIABLE is sending a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE). You always send this, and if you don’t, you will never get a reply.
One thing to note is that most of the time, you will get rejection letters. They will be impersonal and are often form letters. Don’t be discouraged. Rejection has happened to every great writer. I’m sure the people that rejected Harry Potter are probably kicking themselves, so just remember that others might do the same for your work at some point.
If you need a list of agents to submit to, try buying a copy of the current year’s Writer’s Market. There are also some wonderful resources on the Internet such as 1,000 Literary Agents. I would recommend submitting to agents before submitting to publishers, but there are authors that submit directly to publishers and do very well with it. You must make that decision for yourself.
As the rejections start piling up, it can be very discouraging. Step 10 actually discusses a strategy for dealing with the infamous rejections, and it may not make you feel much better, but you will see that it really does. I will post about writing your next book in Step 10 in two days.
