I know everyone tells you that you need a log line or an elevator pitch or some quick pithy way to talk about your book.
Here's a clue: you don't need it in the first line of a query letter. You have a whole paragraph at least, two even, to entice me to read on.
The limitation of those log lines are two fold: it simplies everthing to cliche: Jaws in the woods, Speed on a yacht, Jack Reacher becomes a Buddhist. Well, ok, maybe not the third one, but you get the idea.
The other limitation is that since I don't own a television, if you use a TV show I won't have a clue what you mean. Not all agents are as clueless about tv as I am, but there are a LOT of people in NYC who don't own a TV or don't watch TV at ALL. I used to be the only one in any given group who was weird that way. Now I'm just one of many.
A query letter is not a telegram.
6 comments:
I think this post will help many writers with that dreaded first line.
But Oy, the TV thing just leaves me shaking my head. Most of the people I know in Manhattan do own a TV...several TVs (one is an agent, too). But then I wouldn't bother to read anything those people posted on a blog, and I love your posts.
I can't recall if it was Jerry Rubin or Abbie Hoffman who once said that a revolutionary in America could not even begin to understand what it was they were up against unless they watched TV.
I'm tempted to query you with an idea I've stolen from the tube and see what happens.
Nah.......I wouldn't do that.
"Jack Reacher becomes a Buddhist"
This cracked me up. I just became a Buddhist, but I was kind of quiet and nice to begin with.
Jen in Dallas
I have been without TV for many years now. Leaves more time for reading!
No TV, eh? I'm impressed.
I own a small TV for watching DVDs while I exercise. I gave up watching networks shows in 1982. The only thing I regret missing was the final episode of MASH. I think that has been the only thing worth watching in the past 26 years.
If you own a TV in the UK, you have to buy a licence. The government, which assumes that every household owns at least one set, has the right to search any address that doesn’t have a licence. As if it were a crime to not watch TV!
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