Archetype Writing Blog

New Q&A: Domestic Violence: How would a psychological professional respond to a woman who goaded an ex-boyfriend into hitting her?

Query Letters: Ten Ways to Hook a Literary Agent by Lisa Silverman
Here are ten query letter tips--some dos, some don'ts--to get you on track toward the representation and publication of your manuscript.

Holly Lisle's Bring Your Novel to Life article series:
You've read through what you've written, and you've discovered that your words don't move you. They don't make you want to keep reading. They don't make you laugh or cry. This series will help you fix that.

• Bring Your Novel to Life: Does Your Novel Have A Heartbeat? (part 1)
• Bring Your Novel to Life: How To Find Your Novel's Pulse (part 2) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Burying Your Novel's Message (part 3) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Playing Chicken with Your Story (part 4)
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Dig Deeper With Your Novel's Subthemes (part 5) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Interweaving Your Novel's Themes And Subthemes (part 6) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Planning A Heart-Stopping Story (part 7)
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Life, Passion... Deadline (part 8) 

Query Letter Critiques

• Want to see an agent critique query letters? (You can learn a lot that way!) Read QueryShark regularly.
• Want someone to critique your query letter?  Want to practice critiquing others' query letters (because you can learn a lot that way, too)?  First, try the Query Review forum at QueryTracker.net Forum.  Then, once you've got it polished, consider sending your letter to QueryShark herself (who is actually Janet Reid at FinePrint, one of my favorite blogging agents).

• Editorial Anonymous and The Rejecter answer questions about submissions and the biz.

• On Monday, January 12th, Miss Snark's First Victim will be open for submissions to the latest Secret Agent -- Are you Hooked? contest.  Submissions are only open for 24 hours or until Authoress has received 50 entries, so plan ahead!  The contest is only open to people who have completed manuscripts, and this time the contest is for authors of children's literature.  More information via the link above.

New Article: How to Choose the Best Agent For You - by Sophfronia Scott, "The Book Sistah"
Summary: Recently I've had a few writers seek me out for consultation because they were dealing with the fortunate mishap of having more than one agent interested in their work. That may sound fantastic if you haven't been able to get anything other than single sheet rejections in your mailbox, but these writers found themselves feeling like the dog chasing cars who finally caught one! What to do now?

New Article: Literary Agents - 9 mistakes to avoid
Summary: These days literary agents and book publishers don't have the time to critique your query letter or manuscript. They won't even tell you why you got rejected to allow you to do better next time. Let me give you the inside scoop of the top 9 reasons a query letter submission gets rejected. Use the list to check your next submission BEFORE it goes out!