Gennifer Albin Shares Her Query That Worked

I'm lucky (or cunning) enough to have lured yet another successful writer over to my blog for an SAT - Successful Author Talk. SAT authors have conquered the query, slain the synopsis and attained the pinnacle of published. How'd they do it? Let's ask 'em!

So I've got a success story here that is going to make you soooo jealous.  But don't hate Genn because she's beautiful; hate her cause she gained her agent after querying for less than a week! :)  BUT - she's also the kind of success-awesome that spreads the love.  Genn has graciously agreed to share this Query of Rockin', which can be found at the bottom of the SAT.  But don't read ahead, cause there's lots of great advice crammed between here and there.

Gennfer had a misspent youth in theatre and the National Forensic League, where she developed a penchant for the dramatic. In college, she studied literature and vowed to write a book in grad school (and before she had kids). A couple years of teaching and two babies later, things clicked and writing became a way of life.

Are you a Planner or Pantster?

Both. I like to run with the first draft, but I'm more organized with revisions.

How long does it typically take you to write a novel, start to finish?

CREWEL is my first finished novel, and it took 6 months writing 3 hours a day 5 days a week. I'm hoping the sequels will come faster since I have a better sense of the world and characters. I'm aiming to have both sequels done by next May.

Do you work on one project at a time, or are you a multi tasker?

I may scribble ideas for a new project, but I need to stay focused so I can get the most out of my writing time. It can be hard when a new shiny idea comes along, but its worth it when you're looking at the finished draft.

Did you have to overcome any fears that first time you sat down to write?

I think I was scared I wouldn't finish or that the book would suck, but the excitement overcame any real fear I felt. Plus my husband had started teasing me about not finishing, and I'm super competitive.

How many trunked books (if any) did you have before you were agented?

None. I'd jotted down notes for several books and written a couple first chapters, but never finished another book.

Have you ever quit on an ms, and how did you know it was time?

Like I said I started a lot of books but was never serious enough to devote the time to writing they needed. I did have one book I really tried to write before I started CREWEL, and I just had no idea where it was going. I like to think of it as a warm-up project.

Who is your agent and how did you get that "Yes!" out of them?

I'm represented by Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary + Media. I nudged Mollie after I got an offer of representation. I had just started querying the week before, and I wanted to let my list know. Mollie got my email, found my query in her inbox, and called me based on the sample pages. She wanted to feel me out and ask to send the full. We spoke for a while. I sent her my full, and three hours later she asked for a phone call in the morning. We spoke for an hour and a half and then she asked to fly out and meet me. She came in to Kansas City and we spent the afternoon getting to know one another and talking about my book. I had six other enthusiastic offers, but Mollie's passion won me over.

How long did you query before landing your agent?

I queried for a little less than a week before my first offer. I tried to reach every agent when I got my offer, but I'm still getting responses asking for fulls or rejecting me.

Any advice to aspiring writers out there on conquering query hell?

Don't get caught up trying to summarize your whole book in your query. Stick to the first 30 pages or inciting incident. Read a lot of jacket copy. Write a query that makes people want to read more, even if it breaks some rules. And once you start querying, its a great time to exercise. It's hard to obsessively check your email while lifting weights.

How much input do you have on cover art?

One of the reasons I chose Mollie is because she's successfully fought for better covers, more PR, and just knows her stuff all around

How much of your own marketing do you? Do you have a blog / site / Twitter?

I am on Twitter and I have a website & blog that I built.

When do you build your platform? After an agent? Or should you be working before?

I started dabbling in blogging before my agent, but writing came first. Now that I have an agent, I plan to get my ass in gear and blog more.

Do you think social media helps build your readership?

Absolutely. Social media is modernized word-of-mouth. I think some of the most successful authors today built their readerships by being "available" to fans online.

Genn's Query That Worked (Big Time - Like, In a Week):

Incapable. Awkward. Artless.

That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.

Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

Complete at 78,000 words, CREWEL is a YA dystopian novel that follows Adelice's fight for autonomy and redemption in a world of femme fatales, steel looms, and towered compounds. It can be described as J.J. Abrams meets Mad Men.

I hold a Masters in English Literature from the University of Missouri. I also served as a student editor for Pleaides and The Missouri Review and did some time teaching literature to college students.

There's A Forum For That - Guest Post by AM Supinger

I'm madly writing the sequel to NOT A DROP TO DRINK, so some of my ultra-helpful talented e-friends over at AgentQuery took me up on an invitation to guest post here on the blog.  My guest today is Ashlee Supinger (A.M.Supinger to AQ'ers), who runs an adorable blog over at Inner Owlet and tweets from @AMSupinger.  You should follow her.  She RT's me. :)  Ashlee debated about topics for her guest post, and asked me what I thought.  I know I push AQ a LOT - I'm a veteran, plus a Mod over there.  So I asked her to write about being a "guppy" at AQ (a new fish in the pond), in the hopes that my readers will understand the awesome feeling of community over there extends to all.

I’m a guppy. If you’ve never been to the site AgentQuery Connect that probably doesn’t mean anything to you, but it’s a title I claim proudly.

It takes courage to write. I’ve never been lion-hearted, but I accepted the NaNoWriMo challenge last year and ended up with a 50,000 word manuscript and no idea what to do next. My attempts at editing were well-intentioned and heartfelt, but my first draft was a disaster. Still, I hoped to polish my novel and get published – and I recognized that I needed help.

I searched for weeks and found several cut-throat forums for writers, but I always left them feeling like a naïve idiot. Every critique was a stab at my talent, a crushing blow to my inky ego. In despair, on the brink of tossing out everything I’d ever written, I went back to the NaNoWriMo website. I browsed and felt my hopeful heart sink when I found a page devoted to published WriMos. That will never be me, I thought.

That depressing thought led to a dumb idea and one of those lucky instances when a dumb idea turns out to be inspired. I arbitrarily picked a name and emailed the former WriMo (I really did! Me, an unrepentant chicken!). Against all odds, a day later I actually got an email back. In that email, bless this woman’s kind heart, were links to Miss Snark, Query Shark, and AgentQuery Connect. My sheer good fortune is almost unbelievable in retrospect.

I spent a whole night – from three in the afternoon until five the next morning – on Miss Snark’s blog. It was funny, scary, and completely overwhelming. Query Shark was the same. It was AgentQuery Connect that kept me from falling to pieces. I went to the site and peered into the forums, looking for a hint of the mean-spiritedness found on other websites…but nothing punched me, bit me, or asked for a credit card number. I created a free account, made up a username, and (figuratively) dove in.

I’m a lucky guppy. Not only is AQC a nice place for newbies like me, but they have agented writers willing to answer questions, critique groups for all genres, and forums that I’ve yet to fully explore. Oh, and weekly chats discussing everything an inexperienced guppy needs to know about the business side of writing.

It sounded too good to be true at first. My novel had almost been garbage-fodder and because of this one website I had hope again. I may have wept ink; I know I did cry. After a week of no hidden charges and no rude, snide, or degrading comments, I settled in. With my natural optimism bubbling, I found critique partners for my novel, wrote several terrible queries, and entered the forums with my humble opinions.

To be honest, the only problem I had with AQC was that I felt so welcomed I didn’t write for a week. I just lurked in forums and chatted. Fortunately, AQC moderators are omniscient. ‘The Odometer’ is a new forum where daily, weekly, or long-term writing goals are posted – a place where your word count is scrutinized by friendly AQCers.

I’m not agented or published – I may never be – but I am a writer. AgentQuery Connect helped me recognize the value of my words, and, in honor of their awesomeness, the tattoo GUPPY is forever emblazoned on my forehead (ha, ha-ha. Not really, but I dreamed about doing it).
THANK YOU AQC!

Some YA Romance - 80's Paperback Style

My family grew up without air conditioning. (What? Call children's services!!) We also lived in a brick house, which kind of doubled as a gigantic oven for humans during the dog days of summer. My sister and I found relief in the basement. No, not like we climbed down into a dirty hole and hid from the sun - although I have days where that sounds kinda attractive. We had a finished basement, and it was our sanctuary for July and August afternoons, to which we usually retreated with books in our hands.

There was a stretch of time in the 80's when a line of romance books from Scholastic - called the Sunfire series - was wildly popular in our household. Each book was written by a different author, focused on a historic event in US history, was titled with the female MC's first name, and inevitably the cover featured our MC and the two dashing young men she would have to choose between. Yes, there was always a triangle. Every. Single. Book. It's not exactly fresh material.

In any case, Sister and I blew through the series, checking off the little boxes in those handy order forms they printed in the back showing you which titles you didn't have. Together, we completed the series. When we each got married and moved out neither one of us wanted to bust up the series, but we didn't want to part with our own books either.  So industrious me got on Ebay and bought up Sunfire books like mad, managing to put together two complete series.

Yes, they're that addictive. To this day I can look at the covers and tell you which guy she picked.

Recently my college roommate came over to hang out (and boy, have we got some stories). She tripped over My Little Ponies in the upstairs hallway, brainstormed the names of the JEM dolls with me, then went to the bathroom to find a Rub A Dub Doggy hanging out in the tub. She said, "Mindy, the '80s aren't over; they're at your house."

Did you love the Sunfire series? Do you remember it? Am I delusional to think someone else out there might care? If you DO care tell me which was your favorite - I'm partial to SABRINA, the Revolutionary War title.