I ran this morning, the second day of the Couch to 5k. I might add a page here so I can track my progress without inundating you all with said progress. Today was somehow not as easy as Day 1, but not terrible. I fear for the next week, when I have to run for longer periods of time. Can’t I just do Week 1 forever?
When I got home and got to work, I found the news that Barnes and Noble has purchased Fictionwise for 15.7 million dollars. Congratulations to Fictionwise and the Pendergrasts (the founders of Fictionwise), that must feel amazing.
I also found that Colleen Lindsey had declared today QueryFail Day on Twitter and that she thought I should participate. I hadn’t really intended to read queries today (I was going to edit) but I’m all about joining in and playing along. So I did. All. Day. Long.
If you want to check it out:
Here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23queryfail
or here: http://tweetgrid.com/irc?r=rtt&q=%23Queryfail
And more on QueryFail day here at Colleen’s blog: http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2009/03/queryfail-day-on-twitter.html
I just want to say that while I did try to do some query wins as well, statistically speaking, the query fail is more likely in an agent/editor’s inbox. We just…get a lot of bad stuff. Especially in the query letter itself. And some of the queries, while not bad enough to fail, aren’t good either.
But QueryFail day was entertaining to both participate in and read, because some of the queries were…oh my. Well, you need to go read for yourself.
SO GLAD I FOUND ANOTHER FUN BLOG mommy plus editor equals great reading
You think I’d have enough self-preservation not to go reading queryfail when I’ve submitted to you in the last week myself. Apparantly not! ::flees twitter::
I can’t believe how many queries you (and everyone else in publishing, it seems) get that can’t even master the basics. Do you know what kind of proportions you get of not-worth-touching-the-partial/decently-written-query-but-rejection/acceptance?
OMG I thought query fail rocked. I was already following you, but I started following Colleen’s cause she was just as funny.
I mean if a writer does his/her research and follow the guidelines it’s pretty straightforward.
Can’t wait for the next #queryfail.
Queryfail is sort of making my head hurt because of the amount of WTF so I’m going to concentrate on the C25K.
There’s no reason why you can’t repeat a week if you don’t feel ready to move forward. Especially at the beginning when your body is adjusting there are just going to be times when you feel sort of crappy. It’s much better to repeat a week here & there than get either frustrated enough to quit or hurt enough not to be able to continue.
QueryFail sounds kinda frightening…
Just wait until you get to (I believe it was) week 6, where suddenly you’re doing 20 minutes! i didn’t think there was anyway in heck I could do it, but you are prepared for it by then. I’ve never been so proud of myself! Like even after surviving pitocin induced childbirth with no drugs I wasn’t that proud.
Queryfail made me laugh and cringe at the same time.
Some were so funny, in such a sad way. I mean, queries aren’t necessarily a cake walk, but they’re hardly rocket science either. Most of the queryfail mistakes were pretty obvious and avoidable.
The best thing about queryfail was it really did boil down to three points, do your homework and know what agent wants, follow instructions and be professional. The gems about what wins we very nice.
I think most writers should have come away feeling better because they knew the real competition is rare and there really are times a project just isn’t right for an agent or editor.