You had a great idea for a story. You typed, edited, worked through the book with your critique group. Your group encourages you to find an agent. The first step to publication is the query letter. But what should it say? How long should it be? And importantly, how do you write a query that will stand out and catch the attention of an agent or publisher?
Irene Zabytko, guest speaker at the Fremont Area Writers Zoom meeting on Sept. 27, can help answer these questions. Zabytko is a writer, filmmaker, educator and pre-reader for a publisher who sees loads of queries. She knows what it takes to concisely describe a book in a way that will catch the attention of a publisher.
Her tips and advice can help move an unsolicited manuscript up the chain of evaluators to reach a reputable agent or publisher. To explain what it takes to get out of the slush pile, Zabytko has promised to share samples of queries that work and those that don’t.
Zabytko’s first book, The Sky Unwashed (Algonquin Books) is a novel about Chornobyl and the evacuees who returned to their irradiated villages. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Book. Her latest book, The Days Of Miracle And Wonder: Stories, a short story collection set in post-Soviet Ukraine, will be published next April. Zabytko is also the author of The Fiction Prescription: How To Write And Improve Your Fiction Like The Great Literary Masters.
Free General Meeting
Saturday, Sept. 27
2 – 4pm
Request Zoom link from sc**************@***oo.com
