Query Success Stories

Currently reading: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Currently listening to: Tulisa's "Young"
Current weather conditions: Rain.

Yesterday and today I've spent some time roaming the internet looking for other people's experience in getting interest in that first novel. It's like catching that major big fish for the first time, or winning a gold at the Olympics, or talking to a deceased relative directly: that feeling of all that hard work paying off, of connection.

And! In my travels, I have found these two very moving stories:

The story of Karen's success is in two parts here and here. Hers is quite an emotive experience, made automatically more difficult because she was limited to only equeries and only to agents who will accept submissions from outside the US and UK. (Karen lives in Turkey.)

The story of Abhijit Dasgupta's success is here. His is especially interesting because he sent out so many query letters, and "broke all the rules."

For those of you slush pile warriers reading this: it is important to keep your chin up, because these people did. The odds are not insurmountable. I can relate to how it feels to get rejection after rejection. A lot of people give up after that, but you shouldn't. And neither will I.

Let these stories inspire you, and, like Abhijit says, "Make querying an addiction."

Happy Sunday, all!