Dear Miss Snark:
Please help me!!! I sent out 32 queries with a SASE but no sample pages!!! Worse yet, my query letter left alot to be desired (so does my synopsis and outline...but I'm working on them per your snarknicitious comments).
My only defense is that I did this long before I found out about the holy grail of snarkness. Never-the-less, I received almost all of them back with a form letter rejection, which was not a surprise after reading your blog.
What can I do to stop the blood loss? And does this mean I'm 32 steps closer to the 100 rejections that prove I'm a completely witless writer?
Also, I fear that I might sound like a nitwit asking this, but do I send the first five pages with the query or can I use five from another chapter?
P.S. By the way, a gin 'barrel' might be best for those long slush reading sessions. It's helped me through several bouts of nitwittery...cheers!
well, let's just say that "pail" doesn't start with P for petite, puny or pint. More like "Plentiful"
Now, to your query question.
You can rework and resend that query letter, and this time include the first five pages. Yes, they have to be from the first chapter..and if you have some sort of horrible prologue, forget sending that. Send 1-5 of chapter one.
None of those 32 got a chance to see your actual writing. They'll probably all say no again, but what the hell, why not. It's not against the law, it's not even nitwittery.