Tuesday TOOT: Three Manuscript Requests!

By Darvell Hunt

In my writing group, Authors Incognito, we have a practice of announcing writing successes on Tuesday in what we call "Tuesday TOOTS!" (And yes, we generally capitalize the letters in TOOT and add an exclamation point, because we are yelling it from the rooftops! Tooting your own horn should be LOUD!)

Since today is Tuesday, I've decided to share my own Tuesday TOOT! with my blogcking friends.

One week ago yesterday, I started querying for my middle-grade novel There's an Alien in My Head! This was after a break for a few months, because I felt I needed to rework my query. I was only getting form rejections and decided that I wasn't 100% confident with my query letter. So I spent a few months working on it.

Then, from last Monday to Saturday, I queried 18 literary agents by email with my new query letter. By yesterday afternoon, one full week later, I had received three manuscript requests--two full requests and one partial. I must say that I was rather pleased--heck, I'll be honest, I was elated!

Granted, manuscript requests are still a long way from selling my novel, but still, it's one step closer to my goal--a step that I've never taken before.

My story hasn't changed much since I queried last year, but my query certainly has--so I'm attributing the difference in results solely to my query letter. I've now gotten both rejections and requests for manuscripts--and I like requests better.

Next time I plan to blog about the method I used to refocus my query letter. You can also check back then for an update on my querying process.