It's official. My inbox is back to 0. *sigh of relief* I sat down at 7:45 and read all of my queries, with only one quick twitter break.
Queries I answered today: 333
Requested: 16
Of those...
4 Paranormal YA (one where the main character and love interest don't have supernatural abilities!)
Paranormal Mystery YA (where the mystery is the focus)
Dystopian YA (ohmygod, the writing!)
YA Fantasy/Retelling (very unique)
Contemporary YA
2 Adult Urban Fantasy (one, a la Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)
3 Contemporary MG
Middle Grade Fantasy (even though it might be about 10K words too long)
Adult Historical Romance
Adult Paranormal Romance
Of the ones I passed on...
Referred to a colleague: 1
Too similar to a current project: 6
Writer was really looking for a publicist: 1
Not my genre: 6
Novella: 1
Short Story Collection: 1
Word count too high: 4
Word count too low: 6
Query was sent as an attachment (email was blank): 2
Um, I think this was a query...: 1
Liked the idea, but didn't connect to the voice in the pages: 19
Couldn't ascertain what the book was about: 19
Just not for me: all the rest
My 3 biggest pet peeves about queries today:
3. Don't tell me things about myself. I already know who I am...or you should hope I do. And, you could be wrong, and isn't that embarrassing!? And don't tell me what I'm looking for. I know that too - show me instead in your query that your manuscript has those things I'm looking for.
2. What is the point of using a super hard to read font? Too small, too elaborate (Eduardian Script, really?), too light (light gray?) all equals too hard to read.
1. Don't open your query with "Imagine...." or ask me a bunch of rhetorical questions - it's how my high school freshmen used to start the introduction of their first essay of the year. It makes me cringe.