Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Portrait of a successful query

Some of you who've traveled to international SCBWI conferences may have met the lovely Sydney Salter. Here's how she caught the attention of agent Ted Malawer:

When I first started agenting, I was working as an assistant at Firebrand Literary, going through the slush—which, in our case, was electronic. With hundreds and hundreds of queries, it’s tough to stand out. Sydney, however, did just that. First, she had a great title that totally made me laugh. Second, she sets up her main character’s dilemma in a succinct and interesting way. In one simple paragraph, I had a great idea of who Jory was and what her life was about—the interesting tidbit about her mother help show the novel’s sense of humor, too.

Read the rest.

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