{"id":223,"date":"2012-03-21T19:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tamaragranthambooks.com\/2012\/03\/query-guts\/"},"modified":"2015-11-13T15:20:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T15:20:48","slug":"query-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/query-guts\/","title":{"rendered":"Query Guts"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIt takes guts to send out queries. No matter
\nhow thick your skin, rejection hurts. You\u2019ve put your time, your SOUL into
\nwriting, and now you get one, maybe two lines of \u201cnot right for us.\u201d <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nI\u2019ve decided to put my guts out there, so to
\nspeak. I\u2019ve started querying my first novel, FORBIDDEN, a young adult fantasy
\nabout a girl named Ivy Hines who has three days to find an ancient sword before
\na demon-man named Mr. White uses a magic ring to steal her soul.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nHere are my stats:<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n# of queries sent: 14<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n# of rejections: 4<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nRequest for pages: 1 (this amounted to a \u201cno\u201d)<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nI\u2019ll try to post updated stats every Wednesday.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nMy goal is not to run down agents. I\u2019d hate to
\nbe in their position to be honest. There are some great blogs out there to help
\nthe struggling author like myself.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nQuery shark is one. You can read her advice at
\nqueryshark.blogspot.com. Book Ends does workshop Wednesday\u2019s where they
\ncritique a query letter every Wednesday. You can find them at
\nbookendslitagency.blogspot.com.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAnd in keeping with the theme of spilling my
\nguts, I will take the plunge and post my query. Feel free to rip it to shreds. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nDear Ms.
\nAgent,<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>Ivy Hines doesn\u2019t regret stabbing
\nMr. White. Living in Texas in 1877, Ivy knows a knife in the heart isn\u2019t a
\ncustomary response to his marriage proposal. But if seventeen-year old Ivy had
\nknown Mr. White\u2019s engagement ring would leech away her soul to give him
\nimmortality, she would have stabbed him sooner. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe only way to remove the ring is to destroy
\nMr. White. Ivy has three days to find the one weapon that will defeat him, the
\nblade mentioned in Genesis to guard the Tree of Life: the flaming sword. Ivy
\ntrusts Christian, her closest friend, to help her find the blade. But Christian
\ntells her secrets about the sons of Adam and Eve, two brothers who found the
\nforbidden fruit and were reborn as immortals. Christian also tells her Mr.
\nWhite\u2019s true identity\u2014the world\u2019s first murderer. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n            <\/span>FORBIDDEN is a young-adult fantasy
\nof 85,000 words. It is the first of a three-book saga. My manuscript has been
\nprofessionally edited. I graduated with a Bachelor\u2019s degree in English and I
\nattended the writer\u2019s seminar taught by NEW YORK TIMES-bestselling author
\nWilliam Bernhardt. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nMy manuscript is available at your request.
\nThank you for your time and consideration. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It takes guts to send out queries. No matter how thick your skin, rejection hurts. You\u2019ve put your time, your SOUL into writing, and now you get one, maybe two lines of \u201cnot right for us.\u201d I\u2019ve decided to put my guts out there, so to speak. I\u2019ve started querying my first novel, FORBIDDEN, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamaragrantham.com\/StagingSite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}