Thoughts and Tips on Querying: Why Me?

I have completed a couple of novels, but I have yet to submit a query (this won’t be true for long, Lord willing).  Why, then, do I think I have anything useful to say about this?  Surely I have to be a seasoned and published writer, or a high-profile literary agent to have any kind of platform from which to speak on this topic?  The simple fact is that, while I am not the seasoned writer, nor am I J. K. Rowling’s literary agent (that’s Christopher Little, for those who care [UPDATE: Not anymore!]), I have a novel that is in the final round(s) of proof-reading/beta-test-reading and so I have been doing a *lot* of research on this topic.  So this is not an exercise in hubris, but my desire to help those in the same boat as me benefit from the things I have thus-far learned.  I strongly recommend you do your own research, and certainly check out the things I say, but hopefully some of the things I suggest in this blog series will make sense and be of benefit.

Of course, I encourage anyone who has been through the querying process and has lessons to share to participate in the discussion.  Comments to all posts on the topic are open (I do moderate the comments, however), so feel free to share from your own reading and experience.  And I will be sure to keep everyone updated on my own journey through this frightening–and exciting–world…