Querying 101 - Initial Success Hints

News: Stephanie Kip Rostan's assistant, Monika, requested the first 50-100 pages of my mystery. Woo-Hoo!

Not that I haven't been down this road before - last year I queried a mystery around that featured two teachers who were reluctant sleuths. Those queries pulled in some requests for partials and for fulls, but none of them resulted in a contract. I submitted that manuscript to competitions exclusively for unpublished mystery novelists. Good idea, but my story never made it to the final rounds of any competitions. So I crawled back into my shell and decided that THAT mystery either needed lots of work, or it was, simply, not astounding. Meanwhile, I'd been working on this OTHER manuscript that sizzled in my brain, demanding more attention and giving me a greater sense of accomplishment as I polished off page after page. Heck, anything's better than a string of rejections after sending off partials and fulls. Time to shift gears. I polished up the manuscript and started amassing a list of potential agents.

But, as I said, THIS manuscript is different. This time I've got an unlikely protag: Busty Biggs. The name alone gets either laughs or scorn right up front. Me? I love her. She's not your average gal. She's a mix of Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Mae West and Dr. Ruth W. (sex proponent for good health and great marriages).

Heart of Gold meets Dauntless Entrepreneur meets Queen of Flirt. And then there's the murder.

And here's the kicker: Busty secretly participates in a Native American underground network where the most endangered victims of abuse can disappear entirely from the tracing techniques that powerful stalkers and rabid cops rely on. When a young woman turns up dead in Busty's safe room, Busty takes on the hunt for the killer. She must protect the Native underground from being discovered (especially by a police investigation), but she vows that nobody, but nobody will get away with murder on her turf.

That's a nutshell orientation. CLEARLY my protag isn't everybody's cuppa. Especially now, when the circus surrounding Don Imus is dominating the air waves. Busty's name isn't politically correct, so that doesn't make the querying job any easier. But don't even suggest that I change the name. Busty arrived in my head with her name implanted, so I'm sticking to it. In preparation for querying agents, I've compiled a list of agents who like off-base characters. I figured I had a decent chance with them. Ah, me! As the rejections came in, with no requests for partials, let alone fulls, my confidence headed downhill.

But, Monika's request for a partial has bolstered my hopes. Stephanie Kip Rostan is my idea of the best agent for Busty. Rostan represents a writer I met, Stephanie Lehmann, who wrote THE ART OF UNDRESSING. That's not a mystery, but her protag's mother is a retired exotic dancer and her cast of characters is delightful. I believe that link - from Stephanie Lehmann to Stephanie Kip Rostan, to Monika is what got the request for more pages. Wonder how I'll do trying to connect with Bubbles Yablonski's agent (Did I spell her name right? Gotta go check!)

Lots more to say about the art of hunting agents, especially for hard-to-place protags. I'm starting my second round of queries - like the last time, I'll be sending out 5 equeries and 5 snail mails. Remind me to talk about equeries next time!

I'll keep you posted on my query exploits. Would love to hear about yours!

Write On!
Nan