Blurred Line

As promised, here's my ripoff of this post from The Swivet. I think any list like this is going to be relatively similar from person to person, whether its an agent getting genre queries, a small press getting lit fic queries, or whatever. Still, it's probably instructive to drive a few of these points home. These are queries sent to Apodis Publishing that I've already responded to, from a stretch back in September and October.

#1 - Fantasy query. Well structured query, but it's not interested in those, as per my submission guidelines.
#2 - SF query. Well structured but fails to grab my interest.
#3 - SF query. Well structured but badly written.
#4 - High concept SF query. Novel described in one brief paragraph, and only two of the sentences in it actually talk about the plot. Lots of details on author's background.
#5 - Lit fic/mystery query. Long paragraph about book -- not much on the plot, though. Mostly on themes and style. Brief description of author's background. Liked the sample pages. Full manuscript requested.
#6 - "No idea what genre this is" query. Novel description full of praise (note: do not, under any circumstances, effusively praise your own novel).
#7 - Lit fic query. Only one sentence about novel. Writing sample is quite good. Full manuscript requested. (A good example that a solid writing sample is waaaay more important than the structure or content of the query letter itself.)
#8 - YA/SF query. Good description of novel with a large number of blurbs from various people who have read it. Writing sample is decent. Full manuscript requested.
#9 - Lit fic query. Good description of novel, but author opens by downplaying their own abilites (note: do not, under any circumstances, saying anything bad about your own novel).
#10 - Lit fic/bizarro query. Short description of novel, but writing sample is too out there for me.
#11 - Lit fic/SF query. Well structured query and writing sample is decent, but not something I can see myself publishing.
#12 - Lit fic query. Nice, short description, but writing sample is just blah.
#13 - Lit fic query. Decent query, but writing sample is just blah.
#14 - Lit fic collection query. Good description and some impressive publishing experience. Writing sample was quite good. Full manuscript requested.
#15 - Lit fic query. Blah query and blah writing sample.

Also, finished another book yesterday. Earlier this year I pledged to read more books than I added to my collection. So, here's where I'm at:

Books read: 5
Books acquired: 8

The book: Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill.
The plot: Alison's middle aged body is falling apart. She's got a bad shoulder. She's got hepatitis. Allison goes for a walk. Remembers her life during her late teens and twenties, when she was a model. Memories of debauchery, unhappiness and most importantly, of Veronica, an obnoxious, middle aged friend who dies of AIDS.
IMO: Another highly regarded book (this one was a National Book Award finalist and on a bunch of best of lists the year it came out) that I just couldn't connect to. A lot of the time, the writing was purposefully abstract. If characters in the novel are going to have realizations of some sort...well, let's just say it's a lot easier to write about it in a stylized, abstract manner. It's a lot more powerful when you can show it definitively on the page and that's something that Gaitskill rarely does. Unfortunately, I've got to hand out another thumbs down.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Sunday, February 22, 2009 - Apodis queries; Veronica As promised, here's my ripoff of this post from The Swivet. I think any list like this is going to be relatively similar from person to person, whether its an agent getting genre queries, a small press getting lit fic queries, or whatever. Still, it's probably instructive to drive a few of these points home. These are queries sent to Apodis Publishing that I've already responded to, from a stretch back in September and October. #1 - Fantasy query. Well structured query, but it's not interested in those, as per my submission guidelines. #2 - SF query. Well structured but fails to grab my interest. #3 - SF query. Well structured but badly written. #4 - High concept SF query. Novel described in one brief paragraph, and only two of the sentences in it actually talk about the plot. Lots of details on author's background. #5 - Lit fic/mystery query. Long paragraph about book -- not much on the plot, though. Mostly on themes and style. Brief description of author's background. Liked the sample pages. Full manuscript requested. #6 - "No idea what genre this is" query. Novel description full of praise (note: do not, under any circumstances, effusively praise your own novel). #7 - Lit fic query. Only one sentence about novel. Writing sample is quite good. Full manuscript requested. (A good example that a solid writing sample is waaaay more important than the structure or content of the query letter itself.) #8 - YA/SF query. Good description of novel with a large number of blurbs from various people who have read it. Writing sample is decent. Full manuscript requested. #9 - Lit fic query. Good description of novel, but author opens by downplaying their own abilites (note: do not, under any circumstances, saying anything bad about your own novel). #10 - Lit fic/bizarro query. Short description of novel, but writing sample is too out there for me. #11 - Lit fic/SF query. Well structured query and writing sample is decent, but not something I can see myself publishing. #12 - Lit fic query. Nice, short description, but writing sample is just blah. #13 - Lit fic query. Decent query, but writing sample is just blah. #14 - Lit fic collection query. Good description and some impressive publishing experience. Writing sample was quite good. Full manuscript requested. #15 - Lit fic query. Blah query and blah writing sample. Also, finished another book yesterday. Earlier this year I pledged to read more books than I added to my collection. So, here's where I'm at: Books read: 5 Books acquired: 8 The book: Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill. The plot: Alison's middle aged body is falling apart. She's got a bad shoulder. She's got hepatitis. Allison goes for a walk. Remembers her life during her late teens and twenties, when she was a model. Memories of debauchery, unhappiness and most importantly, of Veronica, an obnoxious, middle aged friend who dies of AIDS. IMO: Another highly regarded book (this one was a National Book Award finalist and on a bunch of best of lists the year it came out) that I just couldn't connect to. A lot of the time, the writing was purposefully abstract. If characters in the novel are going to have realizations of some sort...well, let's just say it's a lot easier to write about it in a stylized, abstract manner. It's a lot more powerful when you can show it definitively on the page and that's something that Gaitskill rarely does. Unfortunately, I've got to hand out another thumbs down. Cavan blogged at 9:45 AM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart