Last week, I stumbled across one of my new favorite blogs: SlushPile Hell.
The entries are generally short, but do an excellent (and often humorous) job of pointing out mistakes that writers are making when they query. Any writer who’s working on a query letter should read through to help avoid typical errors.
From the agent’s perspective, what’s the most common error? Based on what I’ve read, it’s the use of rhetorical questions.
Other things to avoid:
- Being overly familiar (don’t call the agent “dear”, “honey”, or any other nickname)
- Creeping out the agent
- Thinking too highly of yourself
- Thinking too low of yourself
- Mentioning anything outside the scope of the query (brief intro to the author is okay)
Don’t make the same mistakes. Read SlushPile Hell or (your query will) die!
Tags: criticism, query letters, writing problems
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