3/1/10

A Request for Brutal Honesty

As I stated in my last post, I entered a contest to receive either a request for more or some brutal honesty based on my query letter alone. Joanna Stampfel-Volpe evaluated as many queries as people could submit over an hour this past Saturday and responded by 5pm today.

I received my response shortly before 2pm today. No, Ms. Volpe did not request more material, but the feedback she provided was excellent. I'm here to tell you it wasn't brutal at all, but really helpful. In three brief sentences, she gave me some clear advice on target audience and on how to differentiate my book in a query.

This was the best rejection I ever received! I'm so glad I entered the contest. This was more helpful feedback than what I received from a paid agent critique at SCBWI a couple of years ago. If ever you have an opportunity to enter a similar contest, I highly recommend it!

2 comments:

Anastasia V. Pergakis said...

I'm so glad it was helpful to you Jay. I will definately pay more attention next time to see if I can catch another opportunity like that!

Jay said...

These are terrific opportunities, for sure. Whenever I see one, I try at at least tweet it.