Customer Reviews

The Writer's Digest Guide To Query Letters

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My copy of this book just arrived two days ago. It is so worth the few bucks I spent on it. In a very conversational, easy-to-follow fashion, the author takes readers through the querying process...for magazines, novels and non-fiction. I suppose I could've spent a million hours on the internet and found out some of this stuff myself, but it's much nicer having it all in front of me, with plenty of "in-the-know" examples. It's like I paid a really great researcher about a penny per hour to dig the info up and write an entertaining, useful report for me.

Five stars for sure.

If I had been looking for help with non-fiction queries, especially for free-lance articles, I'm sure this book would have been very helpful. But what I was looking for was examples and advice for queries to agents for fiction, for which their were few examples and not much help. This author appears to have written primarily from her own experiences (not to say she hasn't had great ones to draw from) and did not do much research in areas where she had little interest. I will need other sources before I can craft a decent agent query for my sci-fi.

I just finished my memoir and went to Barns and Nobel to find a book on how to write query letters. Wendy's book, "Guide to Query Letters," caught my attention immediately. I read part of the book at the bookstore and decided this was the book that I needed. I was right. It has many different types of sample letters that have sold books, including fiction, nonfiction, and short articles. In addition, it gives good advice on proposal writing and tips on publishing. I have marked 19 pages as "important pages" in the book. When I wrote my query letter, I simply went to visit those marked pages for advice.

In addition to the query letters, she also posted her own proposal. She also gives information on how to register copyright.

I found this book extremely helpful and would recommend it to a good friend.

How often have you laughed while preparing to send a query letter to an editor? For me the process is typically full of nail biting and M&M bribes with myself. That is why Guide to Query Letters by Wendy Burt-Thomas is my new favorite friend.
She tells me jokes while I unravel the mystery of preparing to expose my naked self to everyone who might....reject me. I don't like rejection, but Wendy makes it normal, part of the process and, best of all, something to laugh about.
I giggled my way through the pumpkin patch with her kids, helping me connect mother to mother with her. I chortled at mistakes other writers had made that I would never make. I humbly, took a look at myself in the mirror as I saw myself in letters I've mailed off.
But I kept laughing. And that is the reason I keep returning to "My Guide" as I now call it. She offers dozens of exact forms so I know just how to tackle the query I'm writing now. Is this the one where I should insert text from my copy? How do I offer a compliment without sounding like I'm kissing up?
I simply look it up, laugh a bit, and send off another query.
Guide to Query Letters is my new favorite writing manual.

One of the country's most in-demand non-fiction writers has shared her knowledge with the rest of us, and what a gem this book is. I read it in one sitting and found myself both informed and entertained. A non-writer friend picked it up from my coffee table and, after an hour's reading, commented how easy it was to understand, how clearly it was written (even for novices and non-writers), and how the humor made a potentially boring topic come alive. Now that friend wants to buy Wendy Burt's two chick-lit humor books, O Solo Mia and Work It, Girl! This Guide to Query Letters is a dynamite resource book that can help both inexperienced and established writers see where they've sometimes missed the boat, and more importantly, it will help them fix it so they make more sales.

The author's enthusaism for the query-writing process is contagious. Besides being very readable (and funny!), this book is packed with useful information that will help even beginning writers churn out successful queries FAST. It sure helped me. If your dragging your feet about pitching your ideas, this book is just what you need. Buy it, read it, and get writing!

And the reason is that most query-writing books are heavy and soooooo serious. But in "The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters" Wendy Burt-Thomas tackles query writing from all angles--for articles, for nonfiction books, for novels, and for agents--with a sense of humor that is not only refreshing, it's good medicine. TWDGTQL is a reference shelf must for writers of all levels of experience. You won't get half-way through the book before you are putting it down (nearby) so you can jot down that query letter you've been MEANING to write but just hadn't gotten around to. And if you are one of the many writers intimidated by query-writing, all I can say is, read this book first. Yes, Wendy Burt-Thomas has probably written a million queries by now and this may be your very first. But her attitude to just do it and have fun with it is contagious. So have a ball writing queries...I promise you will after you read this book.

This has helped me get a good idea of how to write a query letter, but it does focus on query letters for article writers in the beginning and stays in that general area for a while, I found myself skimming through to the part about how to write a novel query, it had a lot of good information. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get an idea of how to write their first query letter but I would also say to shop around first, I paid $16.00 at barnes and noble there are a lot of better deals for this book on amazon.

This book is entertaining and informative. It is a how to book for anyone interested in making a living as a writer. Great detail in letting the writer know what works and what doesn't work when sending out query letters. I have followed her examples and feel the product I have created as a result of this book is professional and gets right to the point. If you plan on writing for a living this is a must have book, I read it a year ago and still use it often for the information contained in it. And, just for good measure, Wendy has written a funny, well written book as well. Most of what I still remember is a result of how well she communicates with the reader. Thank you for all your help!

This book was so much more than I hoped it would be! It was not only empowering, enlightening and instructional but it was also inspiring! It has made the process of writing a query letter so much easier (and more exciting)than I thought it could be! If you are a writer, or want to be, you absolutely MUST get this book!