In my last post, I talked about researching agents so that I have a good list to start querying when I'm ready for that. Today I want to talk about what else I've been doing to get ready for querying.
While I'm waiting for my beta readers to finish reading and giving me their feedback, I'm going back in and doing a little more editing as I think of things. But I've also been working on my query letter. A query letter, if you don't know, is the first step in the process of getting an agent. A query letter consists of your book information, such as genre and number of words; a blurb, like you'd read on the back of a book; a synopsis, usually about a page long, that gives a quick read-through of what your book is about including the ending; and a short bio, if requested. The bio usually lists your writing qualifications and other information the agent has requested.
I found the blurb and the synopsis nearly harder to write than the book itself. A blurb is basically a hook to get the reader (or the agent) interested in your book and wanting to read more, without giving away the ending. I got some great feedback from one of the writing groups that I'm a member of. I finally decided my blurb was complete.
A synopsis is longer than a blurb and tells the reader exactly what happens in your book without a lot of description and it does tell the ending. My synopsis is still a work in progress but that's okay because I have time to polish it. I went on YouTube and found some great resources for writing a synopsis. One video actually had an agent giving tips for what she looks for in a synopsis. So this research will continue until I have mine as perfect as I can make it.
I'm glad I took the time to do all this before I was done editing my book. I started the process because I was bored and I'm glad I did! Otherwise I would have probably become impatient and cut corners. So I guess you could say hooray for boredom.
