Questions:-----
The first person viewpoint character of my novel is blind but the story is not about her blindness. It’s just something she happens to be. I know it’s a selling point, but it’s not a plot point.
Originally, I had it as a logline (A blind girl and her best friend…) Now, I’m having trouble fitting it back in earlier in the query. Is it too far down?
At the end I talk mention the blurb (author) promised-- is that worth including? It’s not a lie, but I’m worried it’s not relevant or I’m jumping the gun.
Dear Query Shark,
When something from space (missing word) and lands in the parking lot outside the pizza shop, Meg knows she’s in trouble.
You're missing a verb here. As I read your query that kind of typo stands out like a pink flamingo on Astroturf. It leads me to form some opinions about your work and they're not good.
I cannot over stress the ironclad necessity of making sure these kind of glitches get revised out. We ALL leave out verbs, make typos, have too many thats, and discover errant the thes in our writing. The trick is to REVISE those errors out.
Other than that, this is pretty funny.
But when a boy who smells like spearmint invites her to see his band and her boy-crazy, best friend, June, overhears? Meg knows she’s screwed.
And this is splat. The second paragraph should build on the first. You have an alien space craft (or something!) landing in the parking lot. Your BFF hearing a boy invite you to a concert is pretty anti climatic.
The solution? Leave it out. Move directly to the next paragraph.
There’s rumblings in town that something like this
Together, the three of them must unravel the mystery behind the object that fell—and they’re not the only ones searching.
Why do they have to unravel the mystery? What's at stake if they don't? Unicorns will go extinct?
And, it all has to happen before Meg’s “date” (June’s words) at Battle of the Bands this weekend.
Why? What's so important about this concert?
THE DODO AND THE SPACESHIP OUTSIDE is a lighthearted YA, slice-of-life novel interrupted by the arrival of a sci-fi adventure in the parking lot outside.
One of the things agents say at writers conferences panels about queries goes like this: "I was reading this terrific manuscript, pretty sure it was a rom-com, then all of a sudden, aliens arrive in Chapter 14. That's why I ask writers to submit a synopsis."
And here you are with aliens interrupting a rom com, but you've kindly put it in chapter one.
You're trying to be witty here. Oh hell you ARE witty. But the purpose of a query isn't to show your wit, it's to entice me to read your novel. You're undercutting that here by using the word "interrupted."
It’s all experienced though the ears, hands, and nose of Meg, who is blind.
It is completed at 60,000 words. Comparables are “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” meets “Steelheart.”
I’m currently a creative copywriter at (Big Ass and Famous), a large advertising agency. This novel was workshopped over a semester under (Good writer) and he has promised a blurb once it’s published. As an LGBTQ+ minority, I’m also passionate about including those narratives in my work.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Your questions:
The first person viewpoint character of my novel is blind but the story is not about her blindness. It’s just something she happens to be. I know it’s a selling point, but it’s not a plot point.
Originally, I had it as a logline (A blind girl and her best friend…) Now, I’m having trouble fitting it back in earlier in the query. Is it too far down?
No. You handle it very deftly. Since the book is NOT about her blindness, you don't lead with that.
At the end I talk mention the blurb Brandon Sanderson promised-- is that worth including? It’s not a lie, but I’m worried it’s not relevant or I’m jumping the gun.
It's worth a mention because he's OFFERED the blurb. Where you'd run into trouble is if he'd already blurbed it. You can't ask an author twice and often books are revised and reshaped in the acquisition and editorial process such that the book read before sending out to agents is much different than the book now on its way to bookstores. There's a longer blog post about that here.
There's essentially no plot on the page here, and even in a rom-com, you must have a plot, or what's at stake for the characters. You've got the wit; now we need some substance.
Queries can have frothy whipped cream but it's got to be on top of the hot chocolate, not in place of it.
Revise, resend.
My thought is that the first line has an extraneous 'and' rather than a missing verb. Only because it's more likely that a stray word remained after an edit.
ReplyDelete"When something from space lands in the parking lot..."
The stakes are missing here. It sounds promising and interesting but without the stakes nothing is really certain.
ReplyDeleteOkay, aside from her blindness is there anything new or different here?
ReplyDeleteThere probably is in the book, but I didn't get any impression of it in the query
Are you holding something back that should be in the query?
OTOH, I'm glad to read a story where the MC is blind, ESPECIALLY if the story is not about her blindness
>her boy-crazy, best friend, June
I don't think you need the commas there
>Comparables are “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” meets “Steelheart.”
Steelheart was about a small band of rebels fighting a tyrant w/ powers comparable to Superman. It was a great book, but not "lighthearted". From your query I see no similarities at all, except that both are YA sci-fi.
The blindness is a huge hook and should really be up there in the first line -- 'blind [something interesting] [age] Meg', eg 'blind synchronised swimmer 14-year-old Meg', '17-year-old blind podcaster Meg knows she’s in trouble', '13-year-old blind origami expert Meg', '17-year-old talent scout Meg'.
ReplyDeleteYou might have to skip the fun descriptor if it's not plot relevant and just go with 'blind AGE Meg', but I'd avoid 'blind girl' because it easily reads as condescending. You definitely want to slot an age in there, though, as it's a standard way to indicate if a YA manuscript is upper YA or lower YA.