If you are an aspiring author trying to catch your first big break, feel free to scroll down to my signature at the bottom. You already know that a query letter will make your head spin like a scene from “The Exorcist”. ‘Nuff said…
For the rest of you, here is my enlightening story of trying to chase down that one big “YES!” that will ultimately change my life as an author.
Yes, I have been told, “You are an author, Val! Why do you need a publisher?”
I am an author, a writer, a poet with words…and yes, I have three self-published books on Amazon. It’s been an amazing ride from the very beginning, but there is a deep longing that still pleads for one step further. To walk into Barnes & Noble and see my book on a shelf would be one of the most amazing feats of my life, aside from giving birth to my children. Thankfully, drugs were involved with their “birth-day” (thank you sweet, amazing Jesus for epidurals!), but watching their life begin before my very eyes is the most mesmerizing feat I’ve experienced yet.
A query letter and/or synopsis is a paper, an introduction to who you are and what you’ve got to offer. Kind of like a resume’, but like a billion and one times harder to spit out on paper. I can sit down and write a chapter for my book, my mind usually flying faster than my fingertips. <—-I LOVE that feeling!
But with a synopsis letter, I just sit there and stare at the screen. There are no characters to imagine, a plot to think through, scenery to describe…it’s a letter. I don’t do letters. I’m an author of STORIES, not LETTERS.
Yes, I get the significance of such a letter to a literary agent or publisher, but the last few responses I’ve received from potential agents praise my current manuscript, saying “This storyline has potential….”, yet they say no because:
1) My synopsis is too long
2) My synopsis is too short
3) I need to hire an editor to edit my synopsis because….
4) Pigs haven’t learned to fly yet, and rainbows aren’t made of licorice
We are authors. We write stories. We don’t write documents…
We write novels to share with the world. It’s a story that plays itself out in our head.
I have a hope and I have dream. I am not seeking out a publisher to prove myself worthy, I am seeking one out to spend more time writing what I love.
There may be plenty of people who can write a killer query, but their story stinks. There are a select few who can write a poor query, and their novel is epic!
I thought the purpose of writing was to share the words that our minds poured out onto paper. If someone has a great story with real potential, this should be the focus.
A child doesn’t win the science fair because he put his name on his report in the right font size, he wins because he has created something worth recognizing.
I’ll get off my soapbox now, but not before saying…
Keep writing, never give up ~
VSK
