I’m guest blogging over at the Third Story Writers Guild. They are a fabulous group of writers who live in the Butternut/Park Falls area of Wisconsin. They hosted me for an author talk when I visited Butternut last summer.
I’m sharing the Four Things A Good Query Does. If you’ve ever wanted to pick my brain on what I learned from 7 years of querying, stop by and ask a question. I’ll be answering them all day.
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Quick reminder:
Upcoming Author Event
If anyone in the Boston area wants to meet me, I’ll be at Arisia 2014 on January 19th at 11:30 am on a panel about fortune telling methods. I’m happy to sign books before and after.
Great article, Kourtney. I left a comment, but it vanished. Probably in moderation. 🙂
Thanks Carrie! Hopefully. LOL. Blogger tends to be very unfriendly to wordpress commenters. 😉 I
Thank you for this beneficial guide, Kourtney!
Glad to help. It took me years to really get what each paragraph should do. And then it was a huge light bulb moment. 🙂
We appreciate you sharing your knowledge. 🙂
Aw thanks. It’s good to pay it forward. 🙂 So many people helped me along the way.
Excellent post, Kourtney. It takes some doing, but I did get my comment published over on Blogger. 🙂
Thanks JM! I think it’s that the page makes you think it posted your comment, but if you scroll down there is a prove you aren’t a troll box that you have to fill out. *Shaking my fist at Blogger.
Yep, and after you prove that fact, you still have to resubmit the page that had come before it. The unwillingness of Blogger, WordPress et al. to play nice is frustrating!
Seriously user unfriendly. It’s like the Hatfields and the McCoys. 🙂
Great tip. I’ll be saving these for when my time comes 🙂 Thanks Kourtney!
Thanks! Hope they help. 🙂 And you can always run your query by me when the time comes if you’d like. 🙂
Thanks Kourtney! It might be a while but that would be awesome!! 🙂
No expiration date on my offer. 🙂 Can be this year or 5 years from now. 🙂
Great advice! Now if you could tell us exactly how to do a synopsis….:) I’m horrible at those. That’s great that you’ll be in Boston! I don’t get over the bridge often but I’m tempted. I’ll let you know if I end up anywhere around there.
LOL. I could try my hand at that next. 😉 Took me years to get a decent one written. I’m excited! Aw if you do let me know. I’d love to do something in Cape Cod this spring/summer. Any ideas on places that are open to indie authors doing workshops/author talks?
If you make it over that bridge, then I’ll definitely have to find you. For bookstores, Eight Cousins in Falmouth and Books by the Sea in Osterville are great ones. The libraries around here also host talks like that and Coffee Obsession sells books by indie authors. If you wanted to join the Cape Cod Writers Center, they’ll host talks and I’ve seen lots of books sold at those afterwards. You might not even have to be a member to do a talk. Let me know where you’ll be! 🙂
Cool! I was thinking to try for something this spring/summer. It’s a 3-4 drive from where I live, but quite doable. 🙂 I’ll reach out to these bookstores and the CCWC and see if they have anything I can join in or do as an individual author.
Great article, Kourtney. I usually have trouble with Blogger, but all systems were a go for me. 😉
Thanks Kathryn! Me too. This one just required you scroll down and input those #s or letters. 🙂 Usually Blogger hates WordPress commenters.
There seems to be a common theme about our struggles with Blogger!
Great guest post and good prompting for when we need to think about a query letter. Thanks for sharing 🙂
LOL. And my Blogger friends swear they have the same issues with WordPress. 🙁
Thanks Pete! Happy to share what I’ve learned over the years of query mishaps. 🙂
More good advice for us, thank you for sharing your hard-won wisdom Kourtney!
So many people shared their knowledge and insight so I could get to this point, I’m happy to pass on any insights I’ve had along the way! 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Kourtney! It’s always good to see an experienced author’s bits and bobs when it comes to something so amorphous and puzzling as querying. 🙂
Good luck with your author visit, too!
Happy to help! Queries took me years to truly grasp and then it was really simple. Before that it was confounding and frustrating and impossible. 🙂 Thanks! I’m excited for Arisia first fantasy convention. 🙂