With Over the Edge done, I’ve started putting together query materials.

So far, I have managed to write (what I consider to be) a competent query letter, devise a single page synopsis of the novel, and sequester samples of the manuscript to include with the query – all pretty standard stuff.

But it really wasn’t easy.

Writing novels is difficult, but I have as many words as I need to tell my story. A query, however, is something altogether different. With it, I have to be able to make a complete stranger (one who has read through thousands of similar letters) interested in what I’ve written with a page of text. It’s a business letter, but one that has to communicate what I’ve written and who I am clearly enough that an agent will take a personal and professional interest in me as a writer.

I started the query process by doing research. I read a bunch of websites detailing how to write a query letter, took notes on how it is supposed to be done, and even read sample query letters resulting in representation. After that, I wrote. Over the Edge is around 68,000 words long, but the difficulty of getting each of those words on the page paled in comparison to producing a polished query letter that communicated everything I wanted it to about my novel (and myself) in less than a page. Each time I sat down to write the query letter, I had a hard time coming up with a synopsis that flowed well and sounded interesting. Each time, I would read back through the letter and wonder why anyone would want to continue reading what I had just described. Regardless, I continued writing and eventually came up with something I considered to be marginally interesting. At that point, I took it to a forum that I frequent to see what others thought of it.

A quick thought: Even though I’m a relatively new writer, it has become abundantly clear that writing in a vacuum is something that most can’t do effectively. Having objective eyes on your work (specifically, eyes that don’t belong to friends, relatives, or partners) is imperative. I can definitely say that my work has improved with feedback and I would greatly suggest finding a place where such critiquing can be done on a regular basis. I found plenty of people who said similar things when I was conducting research, but I believe it bears repeating.

The feedback I got helped me mold and shape the synopsis of the story into something I’m happy with:

When JULIEN CHILDERS, an architect from New York, jumps to his death, he leaves behind a half-eaten breakfast hastily abandoned at his log cabin in the hills nearby. This clue drives ETHAN CARNEGIE, a Detective in the Pine Falls police department, to start an investigation behind the backs of his partner and the police chief. The investigation takes Ethan to New York, where he interviews Julien Childers’ colleagues and lover. A few days after returning to Pine Falls, one of Julien’s colleagues is found dead – from a fall – at the abandoned sawmill east of town. That’s when Ethan seeks out Julien’s former lover, KAYLEE SHAW, for help. What she gives him is a file containing a plan to develop real estate in Pine Falls. With a third death quickly following this revelation – from another fatal fall – Ethan must discover who the killer is before another victim is pushed over the edge.

Next, I turned to figuring out what to say about myself. I have a few writing credits, but none that would be applicable to a mystery novel query – after all, I doubt an agent would like to hear about any of the scientific papers I’ve published. This, too, was a struggle for me and it took a while to settle on something that seemed informative, yet interesting.

With that finished, I focused on distilling the essence of my story to a single page. After some additional research, I set out to write a synopsis. Though just as difficult as the query letter, I managed to tweak the selection until I was happy with what I had. Either way, it was an eye-opening experience to condense everything that happened in the novel down to a single page.

All that, however, was just the prep work.

The actual query process is a bit more involved. The first order of business is finding an agent you’d like to send your work to. Most likely, they’re listed on a number of websites, but there are multiple avenues that can be taken to find them. Once an agent is found, a visit to their website, blog, twitter, agency site, etc. is in order. It is imperative that the agent in question represents the genre of the written work AND that they are interested in the subgenre of the work, as well.

Now, most agents have completely different requirements when it comes to queries. Every agent wants a letter, but what is included with that letter tends to vary widely. I’ve seen requirements as light as wanting just the letter, all the way up to a letter, the first fifty pages of the manuscript, and a synopsis. One agency I submitted a previous work to required that you fill out an additional questionnaire with creative questions on it so that the agency could get a better idea of who I was as a person. It was a little bit different, but I really enjoyed doing it – it gave me a better chance of showing the agency who I was past the meager publishing credits in my query letter.

Above is what happens on my side of the computer screen – I use every ounce of my craft to produce the very best query letter I can. I’m happy with what I’ve produced every time I press the “send” button, but I always wonder what happens on the other side.

Agents get hundreds of submissions per week, each one from a different author peddling their trade. The agents read the queries (many times with included writing samples) and make decisions based on what they read. Personally, I’ve always wondered what an agent sees when they read through my query. What do they feel (if anything) when consuming the words I’ve put to paper? Are they interested in the story, or do they roll their eyes and think “not again”?

I don’t think I’m a bad writer, but when rejection after rejection hits the inbox of my email address dedicated to writing, I can’t help but feel downtrodden. I know that the rejections aren’t personal, but they eventually starts to make you wonder what you’ve done wrong. This is compounded by the fact that pretty much every single rejection letter is standardized – done out of necessity because of the large amount of queries received on a daily basis by the agent. They’re gentle rejections, at least (with the exception of one letter I got where it just said “Not for us, thanks.”).

Hearing “No” over and over can be a very interesting thing. On one hand, it does make you wonder whether your writing is good enough, but on the other, it whips up a storm of defiance. As a writer, I scream into the winds of rejection and send out another, better, letter. It also makes me revisit the manuscript and mull over what I can do better. How can the earlier chapters be more interesting? What can be taken out that detracts from the story moving forward? How can I make my novel the best novel it can be?

So far, I’ve sent out 12 queries for Over the Edge. Of those queries, I’ve heard back from six agents. Each response was a rejection.

On a mental level, I try to expect rejection. I keep telling myself that if I don’t expect a positive response, I won’t be as disappointed when a negative one comes in. It never works out that way, however. When I send a query letter to an agent, I’m doing so because I genuinely believe that the agent getting my work will be genuinely interested. Obviously, it makes me sad when they aren’t. Of course, I’m writing because it is my passion, but it is a passion that I want to share with other people.

When all is said and done, I just hope that I can find an agent that can be excited about my writing as I am. Until then, I’ll continue to query, and weather the storm of rejection, seeking that single island of peace in an otherwise turbulent sea.