It's been a busy weekend. Sometimes I take time off to be with family and friends and I leave writing and school far behind. It helps to recharge the batteries, so to speak.
A note on the assignment I gave to my students concerning query letters.
Some agents ask for the first ten pages of the novel. Some ask for the first chapter. Some ask for three chapters or 50 pages. What to do, what to do, what to do?
Easy. We took an obscure thriller, published in 1973, changed the names of the characters and used that as our novel. Since it is a published novel, and one that was a New York Times Bestseller, we know it's publishable. We know it's good (we also checked reviews from the time period and for the most part, they were favorable).
I should also tell you this: The kids in the class are absolutely giddy about this assignment. They want to know which agents are assholes as well. As of this afternoon's class, about half of the queries have been sent. We had only a minor glitch with one student who sent out several emails, only to have them stopped by the fine folks at Hotmail who thought he was spamming people. That issue has been resolved and we're off and running.
One interesting note so far. Now I can't tell you the name of the agent (YET) because I'm only relating what the student told me. The student sent off the query letter at 10:30 PM on Saturday night. He had a poorly worded rejection in his inbox at 10:47 the same night. I'm guessing that the agent may have been a little influenced by liquid motivators in making his or her decision. As soon as the student's report comes back in, I'll let you know who it was, and possible post the actual email.
Stay tuned. We're gonna have fun.
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