I recently submitted a query, and I’m nervous as hell. 

One of the SCARIEST THINGS about submitting a query is the waiting. I cannot even begin to tell you how long I stared at that word file on my computer before I finally decided to do it and just send it.

Why is querying such a scary thing? Imagine that you are a shy, introverted individual and in groups of people, you tend to get a little panicky.

Now imagine that you’re being forced to put yourself on a pedestal.

They hand you the ladder and you climb on up, and you stand there with an awkward smile on your face explaining all of the reasons that YOU are fantastic and wonderful, and deserve to have a publisher or agent represent you.

(Did I mention that you’re secretly praying that you don’t vomit onto the upturned faces of the people below you?)

 

Apparently, I’m not the only one who has this nightmare.

It’s not because I don’t think they’ll like my book—I have every confidence in my book—what I don’t have, however, is confidence that I sold myself.

The thing is, actually getting people to read your work and like it is not the hardest part—the hardest part is convincing them that you deserve the representation MORE than anyone else in their rather large stack of hopefuls. 

When you first realize that you’ve finished your book, you may leap with joy, but you can’t sit back and think that you’re done, because you are far from it. 

You’ll have to write your own professional query/bio letter. In that case, you’ll need to snazz it up as much as possible, and the best thing to do is to look to those who have successfully completed one before.  

MAKE SURE TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK. 

  

Choose the examples that best suit your needs to make the best impression possible. There are different parameters per your genre, the type of material, whether they want physical or electronic submissions, and even what the agency you’re submitting to require as far as formatting goes. You must make certain that you’ve got the correct formatting so that your submission doesn’t immediately end up in the trash bin. 

Terrifying? Yes. Worth it? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.