Las identidades: escenarios de transformación y construcción de lo social

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thrilled and anxious when i came upon Sonia’s query—thrilled to find something that sounded so right, and anxious that i had had the proposal for several weeks and she might already have approached another publisher. i immediately reached for my telephone and told Sonia how much i wanted to read her manuscript. Sonia tells me that the eagerness and interest expressed by that call made her feel that we were the right house for her novel.

What made Sonia’s letter so good? Let’s analyze it in detail. She began by addressing me by name. i later learned that Sonia got my name from Literary Market Place, choos-ing me because my name was far enough down the list that i might be fairly junior and therefore perhaps more receptive to works from unknown authors than some of my colleagues. it’s an interesting theory, but listings in LMP are often merely alphabetical.

Sonia was lucky because, as it happened, i do a lot of fiction. (Most editors who receive an intriguing query outside their own specialties are delighted to pass it on to the right editor in their house. We all hope for a similar favor next time.)

Make tHe editor read it

Once you have addressed an editor by name, how do you attract and keep that editor’s attention? Here’s what Sonia said in her letter to me:

I am enclosing a synopsis and the first two chapters of a novel I am completing. The Way to St. Ives is the story of Rosie Deane, of her progress from scrupulous spinster to autonomous woman in a small Catholic town on the prairies of western Minnesota. Rosie is an inno-cent, young woman kept within a narrow and sterile existence by the constraints of family, church, and a childhood illness. Her brother’s death as the novel opens and her friendship with a liberal though alcoholic young priest remove the most obvious of these barriers, and the attentions of Ray Bowen, an attractive and rather mysterious newcomer to the commu-nity, pull her fully into a world that includes sexuality, conflict, and moral choice.

this paragraph tells me what i need to know: The Way to St. Ives is a Catholic novel set in Minnesota with some interesting-sounding characters and some salable themes. But how will the novel fit into the overall market? Sonia tells me in her next paragraph:

The novel belongs to what one critic has called the rite-of-passage novel of the midlife woman, a category which has been highly popular in recent years, and includes such commercially successful novels as The Women’s Room, Fear of Flying, The Summer Before the Dark, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The Way to St. Ives has in common with all of these the theme of women searching for integrity and autonomy, but the novel takes its feminist stance in a very subtle manner, and would appeal to a wider audience than more stridently feminist fiction. The most obvious similarity in plot is to Mary Gordon’s Final Payments, though Rosie moves through a very different milieu and, unlike Isabel, has in-ternalized the most scrupulous aspects of Catholicism, particularly those concerning sex.

Her struggles are different from Isabel’s and her growth is more dramatic. The setting of the novel might be compared to Wright Morris’s recent Plains Song or to Larry Woiwode’s Beyond the Bedroom Wall.

now i have a marketing peg. the novel will appeal to some of the readers who liked The Women’s Room, Final Payments, and Beyond the Bedroom Wall. Because of Sonia’s themes, her novel will inevitably be called a “Mary gordon-type novel,” so Sonia is wise to ad-dress the similarities and differences head-on.

seLL yourseLf

Having introduced the project and its potential in the market, the query writer must be specific about what she is offering—and why she is qualified to write a book. Here’s how Sonia concluded her letter to me:

The manuscript of The Way to St. Ives is approximately 350 pages long and is at the stage of final revisions. May I send you the complete manuscript for consideration? I enclose an envelope for your reply: You need not return the chapters. I am an assistant professor in the English Department at the University of Notre Dame and have published quite widely as a poet in The New Republic, Sewanee Review, Southern Review, and many others. This is my first novel.

end WitH ooMPH

What else do i learn from Sonia’s concluding paragraphs? She seems professional and considerate—she encloses a self-addressed stamped envelope, and she does not ask that i return the chapters. She is also fortunate that her qualifications are impres-sive—she’s a published poet and a professor at a major university. What she doesn’t tell me, and what turned out to be of particular interest to the media, is that Sonia is a former nun who writes about Catholic themes with a special knowledge gained from years in the convent. Sonia could have used this background as an extra selling point, but she probably thought it was inappropriate to be so personally revealing in an initial query letter.

Be sure not to—or to ...

Sonia’s letter is a fine example of an ideal letter to an editor, but every query letter is neces-sarily unique. there are, however, some simple dos and don’ts that apply to all queries.

don’t:

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misspell words

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use bad syntax or grammar

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affect an overly informal or cute style (no “Hi, Susanne” or “good Morning, Su-sanne”—utterly repellent when the letter arrives late on a depressing afternoon)

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relate your whole plot (include a separate synopsis if you must)

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use more than one page, unless absolutely necessary

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send a full manuscript with a query; enclose a sample chapter or two if you wish (in accordance with the submission requirements of each publisher)

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send a hard-to-read, blurry photocopy; send only a freshly printed original (never send the only copy of your story, however!)

A query letter should make a compelling case for a book, show why you are the person to write it, and outline the market potential for your novel. Once you’ve got these elements, it’s time to prepare your submission. Here are some basic formatting tips for a novel query:

• Use standard business-letter format, with an easy-to-read typeface (black ink, 12-point Times New Roman font).

• Use a one-inch margin.

• Single-space the body of the letter; double-space between paragraphs.

• Use letterhead or type your personal information in the top right corner.

• Try to keep the query to one page.

• As with an article query, try to grab your reader’s attention with a strong lead making the case for your book.

Query forMatting tiPs do:

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address the editor by name (get it from LMP or Writer’s Market or Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market)

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research your potential publisher to make sure it produces your kind of books (look in the stores for books similar to yours and make a note of their publishers)

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^{be brief}

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explain how your project fits into the overall market

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tell why you are qualified to write the book

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type your letter neatly with no errors; use a letterhead (your university or business) if possible, especially if the letterhead is in any way related to your project

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use your best writing style (have somebody you respect edit your letter before you send it)

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remember that the query is your sales tool

After you send out the perfect query letter, your wait begins. it may go on for a week, a month, or even several months. When the response comes, i hope it’s a good one.

In document LA ACCIÓN COLECTIVA JUVENIL: ESCENARIO DE FORMACIÓN PARA EL EJERCICIO DE LA CIUDADANÍA (página 147-151)