Yesterday I queried an agent who wanted to know the last book I read and the writer who influenced me most. She asked me to include a sentence from my book that I loved and a whole lot of other stuff I won’t bore you with. Too late? This took me nearly two hours to write. But let us differentiate between ‘long’ and ‘hard.’ This one was easy, it was fun, and very interesting. Why? It made me focus, it gave me a sense of who the agent was, and what she really wanted. Also, I suspect she’s actually going to read my letter. Otherwise why bother asking for so much info? Please do not say “Everyone needs a good laugh in the morning.”

The hardest queries are the ones that just say ‘Send a query letter to’ im2busy@closeddoorlit.net. Yes. I checked. There’s no such URL.

Everyone who can remember something they wrote yesterday raise your right hand. No, the other right hand.