Josin McQuein's PREMEDITATED, about the lengths one girl will go in order to get revenge on the boy who ruined her cousin's life, to Krista Vitola at Delacorte, at auction, for publication in Fall 2013, by Suzie Townsend at Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation.
And here's the blog post by Josin.
Yea baby!
And here is how QueryShark feels about this:
36 comments:
:-D <--- imagine this is a fair likeness of me, grinning like an idiot.
This is so cool! Thanks for keeping us updated. :)
This is so awesome! This query pops into my head every few weeks just because it was so simple and effective (and downright amazing). I've been wondering what ever happened to it and if it would ever become a book--can't wait to pick it up!
Thank you for posting this! I think about this entry all the time and how much I wanted to read it. Congrats to the author!
Woohoo! I'm so glad to hear that. It was a fantastic query.
Wonderful news! Congratulations, Josin!
That's heartwarming :)
Way cool!
Josin,
Congrats!
I have a quick question. How does the auction come into play for publication?
This is also a good primer for the hopelessly impatient. The lag time between writing and publication is years, not weeks.
I figure the picture is you, fair enough? My picture is a hundred year old tugboat sunk in Sandusky Bay.
Keep up the good work.
OMG Congratulations! I TOTALLY remember that one! The description in PM was enough to make me remember a QS entry I read a year ago - that really was a great query! Can't wait to read the actual book!
Yep, I remember that one too. Congratulations.
~t
@kregger
Here's the (very long/very short) timeline toward auction:
When I sent that query to QS, Premeditated wasn't finished. It was my "back-up" MS, in case Arclight didn't get any bites. I had written this weird query for it, and I wanted to get an opinion or two on it because the format was decidedly not standard. I'd sent to QS before, and not had the query used, so I wasn't expecting a quick response. (I was, in fact, considering not finishing the novel at that point.)
I got a response from Janet that night asking to read the MS, and I fessed up to it not being done, that it was my back-up, etc. She told me to query Suzie T. when it was finished.
After the query went up on QS, I had other agents email to request it, so I set the polishing on Arclight aside and tried to finish Premeditated really, really fast.
It wasn't working, so I went back to Arclight, finished polishing/queried it and got my agent.
I sent Suzie Premeditated after we were done with that one. It went on submission earlier this month, then to auction last Wednesday because there was more than one offer for it.
After weighing the different factors (advance, royalties, release date, etc.) Suzie and I agreed on the Delacorte offer.
/my hijack of QS comment feed
(Sorry Janet. Don't sick the minions on me.)
I've never forgotten this query. Amazing. Congrats!
Yay! Josin, you've always been a great and insightful commenter around the blogs, and I'm so happy to see you find success1
Wunderbar for the Wunderkind! (And I actually liked her comment hijack; nice for us non-agent types to see how the process works.)
Well-deserved congrats, Josin! Your query for this was, in my mind, *the* classic example of a query that doesn't necessarily follow all the rules except the most important rule: make the agent want to read more. This is excellent news! :)
And thank you Janet for the update!
Congrats! Add me to the list of people who remembered that one:)
Super congrats. Great success story!
Thanks for sharing the process Josin and congrats!
I'm so excited. I cannot wait to read this book. I've wanted to ever since I first read the query here.
Congratulations! I've got to say, I was not surprised at all to see you got a book deal. That was one of my top three EVER memorable queries. :)
This is wonderful. I remember 192. Glad to see how this blog helps all the way to a book deal!
Josin,
Excellent example of perseverance.
I am not at all surprised about this. This was an example of a query that reflected a talented writer with a great premise and voice to burn. WIN WIN WIN.
Majorly deserved conratulations Josin!
I, as many others clearly have, was so captivated by 192 that I was drawn into it, and that kind of book generally doesn't appeal to me.
Thanks Janet for the update (which incidentally I read that PW release!)
Again, conrats Josin! Your hard work and diligence has clearly paid off!
I can't wait for the movie!
:-D
Oh, congratulations, Josin! And well-deserved.
I'm sooooooooooo glad for the update.
Like pretty much everyone else, I LOVED the query but when I read the MS wasn't complete I had two thoughts.
1) would the MS live up to the query?
2) would everyone now jump on Josin's query letter style bandwagon and she would miss her opportunity and the freshness of query originality?
The second concern was strengthened when I read (within days) on just about every writing site, copy-cat query letters.
So like everyone else, I send my warm congrats... well earned and well deserved.
Honestly, often I read query letters (on here and other places) and people wax lyrical at how good they are, while I am left thinking what the??? Not with yours.
For what it's worth, you have at least one guaranteed sale here in Melbourne Australia :)
Congrats, Josin! I still remember that query and have been waiting to read the book.
Everyone keeps saying Josin's query broke the rules, but it seems to me it exemplified them: write a pitch that shows character, conflict, what's at stake...and voice. That query had it all. What's breaking the rules about that?
Anyway, congrats to Josin. The query was dynamite and I'm sure the book will be, too.
That's amazing! That query was fantastic. I want to read this book and will probably be pre-ordering it. :D
OMG, I saw that in PL and I just knew it was that pitch! Fantastic!
The only sucky thing about this announcement.... FALL 2013?!?!?
Gah. I needed this book like December 31, 2010.
Congratulations! I'm very much looking forward to reading this.
Kudos to Josin and best wishes for her future projects. When I first saw the query I knew this one was a winner. She is obviously a talented writer and blessed with a talented mentor.
If you have time for stupid questions (er, you DO have time for stupid questions, don't you?) could you explain some time why publishers bid against each other for some properties when there are thousands and thousands of them out there. I am sure Josin's book is primo, but could you help those of us not in the publishing industry understand it in more detail. Much appreciated.
I'm so excited to read this book!!!!
I just checked Amazon for the release date and was thrilled to see that tomorrow is the big day.
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