“A little magic can take you a long way.” That’s the “featured image” text today — a quote from Roald Dahl. It could also be the primary query-writing tip from Sisters in Crime for the evening, if given a slight twist:

A little specificity can take you a long way.

I’ve spent a year querying now, be it for novels or short stories. From the beginning, I understood that querying would take research. There’s agents to find, letters to format, and all sorts of advice to read about how to pitch your story. Research is something I’m comfortable with; I soaked up every bit of information about querying I could find. So when I signed up for Sisters in Crime’s 2021 Query Fest, which took place this evening, I figured I would be familiar with most of their advice.

And I was, in a sense. But at this webinar, the idea that so many agents talk about — “make it personal, make us care” — finally clicked!

Personalize it. Bring in the drama. Highlight the stakes. Detail is compelling. What’s nifty about your set up? The three agents at Query Fest said over and over, in many different ways, the one thing that always plagues me. My problem, especially as a fantasy writer amongst non-fantasy folks, is that I err on the side of including too much context. (I did this even when pitching a fantasy novel to fantasy agents, actually, so really I have no excuse.) I always feel like the stage needs to be set, or I haven’t set it well enough.

But finally, tonight, the agents’ advice got through to me: start with one interesting or sympathetic detail. One connection between characters. One event that sticks out in your story’s narrative. One unique idea. Then add the context from there — and don’t add too much of it, either, because chances are it’ll only be skimmed.

Oh, they also said to be brief. So, for tonight, I’m taking that advice. 🙂