"Query letters are like a good strip tease. Reveal enough to stir up the reader emotionally and leave them wanting more."
(I hope I remember to give Julie Weathers credit for writing it.)
Friday, April 17, 2009
Why I read your blogs
I'm stealing this phrase and using it in every query letter workshop I present forevermore:
"Query letters are like a good strip tease. Reveal enough to stir up the reader emotionally and leave them wanting more."
"Query letters are like a good strip tease. Reveal enough to stir up the reader emotionally and leave them wanting more."
17 comments:
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That's the best query quip I've heard! I'd use it everywhere, if I were you.
ReplyDeleteLove it, love it, love it!
ReplyDeleteBest description of a query I've ever heard. :)
Lol, is a striptease really about stirring someone up emotionally? Methinks, perhaps, it is not... but I like the analogy anyway.
ReplyDeleteMy best,
Bryan Russell
And of course Julie said it. (g) She's made of brilliant!
ReplyDeleteGreat, now make them beg for more. LOL
ReplyDeleteDear Miss Julie,
ReplyDeleteThe last time I attended a strip show... I wanted to be that Brass pole the ladies danced with.
Haste yee back ;-)
Brilliant
ReplyDeleteThe last time I attended a strip show... I wanted to be that Brass pole the ladies danced with.--
ReplyDeleteYes, but it did stir up a desire for more, didn't it?
Tara, I actually can't take full credit or perhaps even partial credit for it. I think Beth Shope is the one who compared writing to a strip tease. Just not sure in what context.
ReplyDeleteIt would probably be more akin to a good belly dance as there is a lot left unrevealed, and I would venture it still leaves certain people wanting more.
It would probably be more akin to a good belly dance as there is a lot left unrevealed, and I would venture it still leaves certain people wanting more.Yeah, and it helps even more if you stuff a couple of those little finger-chimey things in the envelope.
ReplyDeleteThere's an Adam Ant song cycling through my head now. Am I dating myself?
ReplyDeleteDear Miss Julie, you wrote...
ReplyDelete"stir up a desire for more."
Darlin. There were three back-to-back half hour shows.... I ran outta dollar bills halfway through the first girl's dance. My friend, said to me, "slow down, dude, there's gonna be more!"
Guess I'm a, "premature payer!"
Haste yee back ;-)
Great, so now I need to learn to do the strip tease too? Sheesh, Janet, you don't want much, do you, lol!
ReplyDeleteI'm teasing, of course. It sounds like a good analogy. Leave them wanting more...
i know julie a bit from her blog, enjoy reading her posts :)
ReplyDeleteJES,
ReplyDeleteYes, I can just see #queryday now.
"Someone sent me zils with their query. What the heck?"
Haste,
Ah, but you had fun. That's the important thing.
Thank you, Miss Janet for reading and commenting.
Tony, you know me a bit? I thought you were a charter member of my fan club. sheesh.
ReplyDeleteMuch as I would dearly love to have thought of the original striptease quote, it was actually my friend Linda Grimes*, and it wasn't really query-related, but something about "the slow striptease of storytelling." I liked it so much I copied it down somewhere but now of course I can't find it. If I do, I'll come back here and post it.
ReplyDelete(*Linda writes very funny contemporary novels in the vein of Janet Evanovich, but doesn't really have a web presence. That's going to change once an agent snaps up her first novel.)