You Tell Me: Does Angst Help You Write?

There is perhaps no archetype more persistent throughout the history of art and literature than that of the tortured artist. From the tragically real cases (like Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and David Foster Wallace), to self-conscious poseurs (who shall remain nameless), angst-filled writers in both fiction and real life are an enduring staple in culture.

Is there something to it? Is there a link between creativity and the darker sides of life? Does angst help you write?

For me, I can't get a lick done when I'm feeling down. But then again, my books involve corn dogs and space monkeys.

What about you?

Franzen, FREEDOM and the Era of the Blockbuster

You may have heard from, oh, I don't know, the Time Magazine cover or the Vogue profile or the rave reviews or the Picoult/Weiner spat or the author video where Franzen says he doesn't like author videos or the fact that the President of the United States was spotted with it..... anyway, you might have heard that Jonathan Franzen has a new novel out today, his first since THE CORRECTIONS, and it's a pretty big deal.

I haven't yet read FREEDOM, but from the early reviews this novel is everything that our Internet-manic, high concept craving, supposedly dumbed down culture is not. It "[deconstructs] a family’s history to give us a wide-angled portrait of the country as it rumbled into the materialistic 1990s." (NY Times) It explores "the unresolved tensions, the messiness of emotion, of love and longing, that possesses even the most willfully ordinary of lives." (LA Times).

You can't exactly Tweet a summary of what this book is about. Whether you like Franzen's books or not (as you can probably tell: I'm a big fan), it's a novel that punches a gaping hole through the remarkably persistent idea that the publishing industry, and the culture as a whole, is only interested in high concept schlock and the lowest common denominator.

On the other hand, FREEDOM, in its bigness, in its You Must Read This To Be a Thinking Person in America, is already a novel of the times - the big books getting steadily bigger, accumulating hype with gravitational pull, and then there's everything else fighting for attention.

We seem to be a culture that is simultaneously craving books that fit our exact specifications at the same time that we want the shared experience of reading something, loving it, and sharing that experience with our friends (virtual and real life). Culture seems to be moving two contradictory ways - fracturing into ever-smaller niches at the same time that it's coalescing around a few massively popular books and movies. We normally think of the blockbusters in terms of James Patterson, Suzanne Collins, and Stephenie Meyer, but even in literary fiction you have your FREEDOMs and OSCAR WAOs.

And in a still further sign of the time, even though Franzen once said of his disdain for novels in e-book form, "Am I fetishizing ink and paper? Sure, and I'm fetishizing truth and integrity too," FREEDOM is available for sale as an e-book simultaneously with the hardcover.

What do you think? Will you be reading FREEDOM?

What High Concept Means

High concept

Ah, high concept.

If high concept were a person it would be a teenager because it's often totally misunderstood. If high concept were a tool it would be a sledgehammer. If high concept were a okay I'll stop now.

So what does high concept mean?

High concept means that a novel/movie/TV show's plot can be described very succinctly in appealing fashion.

Kid wins a golden ticket to a mysterious candy factory? High concept.
Wizard school? High concept.
There's this guy who walks around Dublin for a day and thinks about a lot of things in chapters written in different styles and he goes to a funeral and does some other stuff but otherwise not much happens? Not high concept.

High concept is very often misunderstood because what it sounds like it means and what it actually means are basically completely opposite. It doesn't mean sophisticated (opposite), it doesn't mean cerebral (opposite), it doesn't mean difficult to describe (opposite). And it's very important to know what it means because although high concept is often a term used derogatorily, I am hearing from more and more editors that they want high concept novels, even for literary fiction.

Why? Well, my hunch is that the more media, the more Tweets, the more links we're constantly besieged with, the more readers are drawn to hooks that we can easily understand and digest.

So not only do you need to know what high concept means, you might also want to consider embracing it if you're thinking of a new project. But only if it's true to the story you want to tell.

This Week in Publishing 8/27/10

Thissssssssss Weeeeeeek... InPublishing

Page Critique Friday is alive and well!! It's happening over in the Forums. You do not need to register in the Forums to check out the Page Critique thread, but you will have to register if you'd like to leave a comment. To register, just click here and it should be quite self-explanatory. Other than that it's the same as before, so stop on by. UPDATE: My critique is posted here.

Lots and lots of news this week, so let's get started.

First up, the most comprehensive review I have ever seen about the relative environmental benefits of e-books vs. paper books was published by Slate's The Green Lantern. The winner? E-books on every count, provided you read more than 18 books on an iPad and 23 books on a Kindle. Even on chemicals/metals, often cited as a problem with e-readers, the Green Lantern judged the side-effects of producing ink more harmful than the metals that go into e-readers. Worth a read.

Random House and agent Andrew Wylie have settled their standoff over the rights to backlist e-book titles that Wylie had announced would be exclusively published by Amazon. In the end, Random House and Wylie came to terms, and the e-books will be published by Random House after all. Word this morning is that Wylie and Penguin are negotiating as well. Bloomsbury publisher Peter Ginna has a great analysis of some of the implications. While early reports tended to characterize this as a "win" for Random House, Ginna points out that it really depends on the deal that was struck (and the ones yet to be struck).

In further e-book news, PWxyz spotted a good explanation from Wired about the economics of e-book pricing, another e-book domino has fallen as Laura Lippman's brand new bestseller is selling more e-books than hardcovers, there's a color e-reader called the Literati coming, the Wall Street Journal took a look at the reading habits of e-book readers (hint: they read more), Seth Godin made some publishing waves as he said in an interview that he will no longer publish the traditional way (citing the frustration of the long wait and filters of traditional publishing), and oh yeah, the NY Times had an article about digital devices and learning and attention spans but I've already ohmigod how awesome was Project Runway last night????

And yeah yeah news news, what about e-books and author revenue? Well, Mike Shatzkin has a really great post explaining how the royalty math breaks down (with helpful charts!) based on different formats and models.

And finally in e-book news, the NYTimes' David Pogue reviewed the new Kindle and came away a fan, calling it "ingeniously designed to be everything the iPad will never be: small, light and inexpensive."

The Franzen/Picoult/Weiner, um, well, not sure what to call it, but anyway, that discussion has kept right on going this week. Writing on Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog, new Paris Review editor Lorin Stein defended literary fiction against "fake populism," and argues that formulas are death in literary fiction. In an interview in the Huffington Post, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner continued their broadside against what they see as a culture of snobbery and favoritism toward white male Brooklynites, and attacked Stein as well. Laura Lippman also tackled the question, bringing some facts to the table and noting that considering how much more women read fiction than men, "All fiction is women's fiction." And there you have it.

Meanwhile, Salon profiled author Tao Lin and wonders if he is the future of literary fiction, or at least whether he embodies the future role of the literary author. He trespasses in bookstores, is featured in Gawker, sells shares in his books, holds experimental contests, and writes books as well. Is this marketing, a side-effect of the Internet age, crass commercialism, literary performance art, all of the above? (via The Millions)

Eric at Pimp My Novel had some great posts this week, one that delves into the situation at Barnes & Noble, and another that gives some insight into some reasons why the practice of returnable books still persists in the modern book world.

With NaNoWriMo just a few months away, Ian T. Healy has some ideas on expanding it: agents should take on ten clients in November, (NaNoSignMo), publishers should acquire ten books in November (NaNoBuyMo), and readers should buy and read five books in November (NaNoReadMo). Great ideas, but I think I'm going to be taking a break during my Thanksgiving weekend and participating in NaNoSleepMo.

This week in the Forums, did I mention Page Critique Friday?, is "the call" really a call, how you choose a book, discussing MOCKINGJAY (with spoilers), teenagers writing, and don't forget about the feedback forums if you'd like some help with a query, synopsis, or excerpt. Just remember to give some feedback before you take some feedback.

Comment! of! the! Week! There were lots of really great and thoughtful comments this week, but I thought I'd choose two from the post about children's literature and violence. What's interesting about these comments is that they are both by people living in South African, and yet it illustrates how differently we humans cope with and react to violence. Fiona Ingram worries about the effects violent stories have on young people, while Misha notes that it's almost always hatred, not stories, that breed the worst violence and puts the onus on parents.

And finally, my client Lisa Brackmann, (who by the way had a really great post on how life-changing and disorienting it is to have a book come out coupled with the pressure of the second book), sent me this utterly mesmerizing video that I most definitely had to share.

I give you..... Bunny Show Jumping:



Have a great weekend!

Violence in Children's Literature: Is There a Line?

Today's Shelf Awareness includes a post by Sheryl Cotleur from the fantastic bookstore Book Passage about the uneasiness she felt when reading the final installment in the incredibly popular HUNGER GAMES series, MOCKINGJAY. From the post:

I am an adult book buyer, but our children's buyer convinced me to read the three Suzanne Collins books. I have just finished Mockingjay. I admit they are compelling and one reads steadily to learn what happens next. They are even inventive and the characters are fascinating people, yet the more I read, the more uneasy I became until I could barely get through to the end of the third book. Why, I wonder, is no one (that I am aware of) talking about how violent these books are? [Ed: emphasis mine. The post goes on to describe some of the violent scenes in MOCKINGJAY, which I won't quote out of spoiler concerns, but which you should click through to read if you're curious.]

Well, let's talk about it.

Some of my absolute favorite children's books of all time are violent -- beloved characters dying, murder committed, danger around every corner. And certainly going all the way back to Aesop's Fables and the Brothers Grimm, instilling morality in children by way of scaring the bejeezus out of them is a very old tradition.

But is there a line? If so, where's it at? How much is too much?

Speaking personally, ever since a high school classmate of mine was murdered I've tended to be more squeamish about violence in books and movies than the average American, but that's not to say I don't ever enjoy violent stories provided the violence is true to the story and not gratuitous. It's all case-by-case for me.

What about you?

You Tell Me: How Do You Feel About Websites Poking Fun At Queries?

As surely as the changing of the moon and the appearance of new seasons of Survivor, there always seems to be a website out there devoted to poking fun at bad queries. These come and go, with varying levels of humor and angst.

The most recent iteration has been the subject of some debate on various blogs in the past week, and I'm curious what people think. Do you find these sites rude, funny, educational, malicious, informative, privacy-invading, entertaining, possibly a combination?

And, just FYI, my personal policy that I will never ever make fun of a query that is sent to me, nor will I quote from one without your permission. Query freely.

The Package of Services Publishers Provide Authors and How This Is Changing

As you probably know if you have ever been asked to ponder the relative benefits of trim size and paper stock and e-book conversions, there is whole a lot more that goes into a book than just writing it.

Another way of thinking of publishers is not as companies that decide your fate as an author, but rather as companies that offer the authors they've chosen to work with a comprehensive package of services.

Here are the basic services traditional publishers provide for an author, why these services matter, and how this is (and isn't) changing:

Editing and Copyediting:

While the myth that editors don't edit is alive and well, the truth is that books are edited and copyedited at traditional publishers (please please please know the difference between editing and copyediting). This affords a certain degree of quality control. Now, sure, we've all spotted typos in books, which infect us temporarily with disproportionate outrage and a jolt of smugness. It happens. But all you have to do is read this blog on a regular basis to see the horrorshow of typos that results from text published without copyediting.

Editors and copyeditors (yes, still), provide professional editorial expertise that improve books. I'm sure you've heard they don't edit and copyedit anymore. It's not true.

Design:

Cover, trim size, interior design, illustrations/photographs, font choice, paper choice, etc. The best-designed books are works of art.

Printing and Distribution:

Once the books are actually produced, someone has to get them into bookstores and e-bookstores. Traditionally this has been the irreplaceable service offered by publishers. Not only would they make the books, they would draw upon their reputation, sales teams, and infrastructure to get print books into bookstores in large numbers.

Even in the e-book era distribution still matters. There are new e-book vendors cropping up every day, and publishers have the scale to sell their e-books in as many venues as possible while dealing with all of the accompanying electronic conversion headaches.

Publicity and Marketing:

At minimum publishers get their books sent out for review and do some basic advertising. When a publisher turns on the publicity and marketing fire hose for their biggest books, they will manage book tours, author appearances, giveaways, major advertising campaigns, co-op, and much more. Publicity and marketing aren't everything, but they can provide a major boost.

Patronage (i.e. an advance):

While debut novelists almost always have to figure out how to write a novel on their own time and dime, publishers nevertheless offer nonfiction authors and previously published novelists money in advance of writing the actual books, which both rewards authors before their book actually comes out and theoretically supports them as they're writing it. Obviously the degree of support this affords the author depends on the amount of the advance, but money up front that the author doesn't have to pay back even if the book tanks ain't nothin' to sneeze at.

Cachet:

Aside from all the tangible services publishers offer authors, there is one intangible element: cachet. There is something to be said for the selectivity and track record publishers have demonstrated and for the endorsement they still lend to traditionally published books. While the name of the publisher on the spine of a book doesn't matter to everyone, it does still matter to many bookstores and readers.


Now then. The key element in all of this that is changing is, of course, printing and distribution. In an e-book era, it is no longer be necessary to have extensive physical infrastructure in order to make a book available, and when it comes to e-book distribution publishers are no longer the only game in town. Authors can either deal directly with Amazon, Apple, etc. or work with third-party digital distribution services.

But that just covers one element of the book-making process. Every other basic element that goes into a successful book is still pretty much the same. Books may be edited on Microsoft Word instead of with colored pencil, but you still need editing. Your marketing may be more Twitter-based than newspaper-based, but you still need marketing.

Thus, an author dealing directly with an e-book distributor has to figure out how to handle patronage, editorial, quality control, design, marketing and publicity, and must possess (or build) cachet. They'll have to either tackle all of this themselves, or farm some or all of it out to contractors and must possess the financial and time-consumption wherewithal to do it.

For some authors (most recently Seth Godin), the flexibility, control, and greater back-end revenue afforded by self-publication is worth it. Other authors may feel that they don't want to be bothered with the nuts and bolts of figuring out their own copyediting, cover design, interior design, marketing, and may still want the imprimatur of a publisher.

Personally I think this is the reason why publishers aren't going to disappear even in an era where they no longer possess a virtual monopoly in distribution. Many authors don't want to be bothered with the nuts and bolts of book-making so they can focus on writing and marketing and their day jobs, and are willing to part with revenue on the back end in order to have these tasks handled by seasoned experts.

What is inevitably changing, though, is that authors will have a choice: handle it all themselves, contract some elements out, or go with a publisher offering a comprehensive package of services.

Programming Change

Hello! Nice to see you this Monday morning.

As much as I have been enjoying the Monday Page Critiques, I'm afraid there's been a noticeable downward tick in participation, comments, pageviews, etc., and I worry that it was getting a little stale as a regular blog topic. Ratings were too low, alien plotline didn't catch on with viewers, had to make room for new J.J. Abrams show, you know how it goes.

So rather than devote every Monday post to the page critiques, I shall be returning Monday to original topics.

BUT! Weekly Page Critiques will live on in the Forums, where I'll host weekly Friday Page Critique threads with the exact same idea. I'll link to them in This Week in Publishing to remind everyone to click over, and hopefully the Forums will be a better place for the critiques. Please continue to enter one page in this thread if you'd like to have your work critiqued.

And now, since this could hardly thus far be considered a proper blog post, I will leave you with the most hilarious cat video I have seen on the Internet. Everything is better with hilarious cats:

This Week in Publishing 8/20/10

Lots of links! Let's get to them.

There were a few controversies this week in publishing. Firstly, if you have ever attended a conference with the fabulous YA Author Ellen Hopkins, you know that in addition to being a brilliant writer and storyteller she's also a terrific, honest, and inspiring speaker and devotes a huge amount of time to mentoring up-and-coming writers. So it was very distressing to hear that she was dis-invited from the Teen Lit Fest in Humble, Texas, due to a librarian's complaint. In the wake of the news about Hopkins, several additional writers subsequently withdrew from the event in protest.

Secondly, bestselling author Jody Picoult made some waves this week when she accused the NY Times Book Review of a white male literary fiction bias in the wake of Michiko Kakutani's rave about Jonathan Franzen's upcoming novel FREEDOM. While I leave it to you the reader to agree or disagree with this characterization of the NYTBR, PWxyz's Jonathan Segura recalled the Kakutani/Franzen spat of 2008: After Kakutani slammed Franzen's memoir THE DISCOMFORT ZONE, calling it, "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass: petulant, pompous, obsessive, selfish and overwhelmingly self-absorbed," Franzen shot back, calling Kakutani "The stupidest person in New York City."

And in further controversy (or is it?), industry sage Mike Shatzkin wrote a post that characterized print books, as "On a path to oblivion." The crucial takeaway: "Indeed, the insistence by some people that they will “never” give up the printed book — which leads to rather ludicrous glorification of the smell of the paper, ink, and glue and the nonsensical objections that the screen would be unsuitable for the beach (depends on the screen) or the bathtub (I can’t even imagine what the presumed advantage of the printed book is there) — must ignore the fundamental dynamic. Print books aren’t getting better. Ebooks are." No doubt there will be lots of reactions to this article, and we have already been discussing this in the Forums.

In further e-book news, Saundra Mitchell has a thoughtful take on a WSJ Journal article that speculates that ads and product placement could soon come to the e-book world, Apartment Therapy Unplggd surveyed the different e-reader apps on the iPad, and two new iPad-esque tablets seem to be on the horizon: one from Google (link via PubLunch) and one from HP.

Ever wonder if editors (or agents) have second thoughts after passing on projects? Well, of course we do. This week veteran editor Reagan Arthur wrote a very candid post about how she passed on Alexa Stevenson's memoir HALF BAKED, which was recently published by Running Press, but ultimately trusts that it found the right home. (via Dystel & Goderich)

In financial book news, Forbes released its list of the Top 10 Author Earnings in the last year (James Patterson coming in first with a cool $70 million), a new academic paper claims to be able to predict box office revenue through an analysis of the script (most important variables: the genre, how conflict builds, whether conflict is multidimensional), the Millions surveys Time Magazine's choice of authors on the covers from way back when, and B&N CEO Len Riggio bought a million more shares of the company.

And in writing advice news, my client Natalie Whipple has an awesome and inspiring post that uses the Japanese snack umeboshi as a metaphor, my client Jennifer Hubbard has a terrific take on the author/agent relationship, Tahereh has a hilarious interview with Eric from Pimp My Novel, and guest posting on PMN, Henriette Lazaridis Power surveys some great first lines and the different approaches the authors took.

This week in the Forums, the care and feeding of an introvert, does agenting need to evolve?, unagented author websites, just a few more days until MOCKINGJAY, and do you like or dislike thinking of titles?

Comment! Of! The! Week! Goes! To.... There were some really great ideas and responses to the post on what you would do if you were King/Queen of the publishing industry (some more practical than others), but I especially enjoyed Mark Terry's suggestion of publishers creating a rival to Amazon called DeNile.com. His comment is definitely worth reading in full because he has some very interesting ideas.

And finally, this is one of the most hilarious and effective political ads I've ever seen, in support of a bill in the California state legislature that would do as San Francisco has already done and eliminate plastic bags in grocery stores and pharmacies. I give you: a nature video on the life cycle of a plastic bag, narrated by Jeremy Irons (via @TravelForGood):



Have a great weekend!

How to Write a Query Letter

Proper technique

Once you have followed the gentle suggestions in the How to Write a Novel post and done gone and written yourself a novel, (or if you've written a nonfiction book proposal), it is then time to see what the world thinks of it. The first step in this process if you are seeking traditional publication is to find an agent.

Please check out this post about how to find a literary agent, since a query letter is not the only way of going about it. But chances are you will at some point have to sit down and write one of these beastly missives. Here's how you do it.

What to Know Before You Start

A query letter is part business letter, part creative writing exercise, part introduction, part death defying leap through a flaming hoop. (Don't worry, you won't catch fire and die during the query process though it may feel precisely like that at times). In essence: it is a letter describing your project.

The first thing to know about writing query letters is that there are as many opinions out on the Internet about query letters as there are, well, opinions on the Internet. You will find lots of dos and don'ts and peeves and strategies and formulas. The important thing to remember about this is that everyone is wrong except for me. (Just kidding. The important thing to remember is that you will need to choose the ideas that work best for you).

As the immortal Douglas Adams said, don't panic! Write the best letter you can, be yourself, don't overthink it too much, don't sweat it if you realize the second after you sent it that you made a typo or accidentally called me Vicky. If an agent is going to get mad or reject you over something trivial like that they're probably not the type of person you'd want to work with anyway.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

(For Further Reading):
Get the Big Stuff Right
Can You Query If You Are An Unpublished Novelist and Your Novel Isn't Finished?
The Common Sense and Decency Rule
Why It's So Important to Learn to Summarize Your Work

Research and Personalization

The second thing to do before you write the query is to research. This is because you need to do your darndest to:

1) Figure out which agents would be the right fit for your work - Three basic things to figure out: a) does the agent represent your genre, b) do they represent something too similar to your project, c) do they seem like they would be a good fit for you. The answers should be a) yes, b) no, c) yes.
2) Figure out the agent's submission procedure - Submission guidelines are like snowflakes: no two are alike. Also they melt. (Not really.) You will need to Google the agent and/or the agency in order to figure out where to send the query (it may be through the mail or via e-mail or via an online form) and what the agent wants included with the query. Follow these guidelines!
3) Include a personalized tidbit about the agent in the query to show you did your research - Personalize the query! Show the agent that you put in the time and have targeted them in your search. Mention an interview or a book they've represented or that they seem inordinately attached to the color orange.
4) Make sure they're reputable. - There are tons of scam artists out there, so do your research. No agent should charge you a fee upfront. Know your rights as an author.

How do you research all of this? Firstly via The Google, but there are also online resources such as AgentQuery, Query Tracker, the AAR database, the Absolute Write message boards, Publishers Marketplace, and many other links on the left side of this page, which I recommend perusing.

And please please please PLEASE familiarize yourself with Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors, which help authors sort out the legitimate agents from the scammers. Check out Absolute Write if you're unsure about someone.

If you can't find info about an agent but know they are legit, do the best you can personalizing, and send a basic query letter through the mail with a SASE. Attitudes toward e-mailed queries are changing somewhat, but chances are if you can't find an agent's e-mail address easily online it means they don't want to be found.

(For Further Reading):
Personalizing vs. Kissing Up
Hoops vs. Hints
Don't Get Caught Up In The Rush
Make an Agent's Life Easier
Don't Fake a Personalized Query
The Batch Querying Theory
Taking a Chance on a Young Agent
When In Doubt, Query Me

Writing the Darn Thing

Ah, the fun part. Only not really.

Once you have determined who you are querying, then it is time to write it. As I mentioned, there are tons and tons of ways of going about this, but you are in luck as I have a handy dandy mad lib to get you started. Just plug in the details of your novel into this formula and it will give you a basic query to start with. From there expand on it, personalize, and make it your own.

You are trying to accomplish two important tasks with the query:

1) You are trying to make the plot/subject of your book sound awesome
2) You are trying to show the agent that you write well

Especially for fiction I highly recommend that you try as much as possible to write the query so that it embodies the spirit of your project. If your book is funny, write a funny a query. If your book is written with beautiful lyrical prose, write your query accordingly. An agent is looking at your query to determine whether they want to read more and whether they think you can write professionally.

For nonfiction, it's very important to give a sense of your level of expertise, your platform, and how much publicity you could bring to bear in the promotion of your work.

Other things I would suggest:
- Don't go crazy with the formatting.
- Keep your query between 250-350 words.
- Keep the focus on the project you are querying about, even if you're a previously published author
- Be as specific as possible about plot details without overwhelming the agent with unnecessary detail (tricky balance, I know)
- Always include a sample of your work (5 pages is a good rule of thumb), even if the agent doesn't ask for it. No one is going to reject you for this, so this is the one place where I think it's permissible to break with submission guidelines. If you are e-mailing your query, be sure and paste this in the body of an e-mail. No attachments.

(For Further Reading):
Query Letter Mad Lib
Examples of Good Queries
The One Sentence, One Paragraph, and Two Paragraph Pitch
How to Format a Query Letter
Query Letter Subject Lines
The Secret Strength of Killer Queries: Specificity
Comparing Your Book to Other Books in the Query
Themes Schmemes
The Importance of the Pitch
Things Agents Don't Need to Know
How and Whether to Mention Blurbs and Referrals
How and Whether to Mention Your Publishing Credits
How to Mention a Series in a Query

What Happens Next

After you've sent that bad boy off, you sit back and wait for the agent to consider it. And wait. And wait some more.

Here's what's happening on an agent's end: First we print out all the queries and stack them up. Then we spread them around the room until they're a few inches deep. Next we lie down, wave our arms and legs, and make query angels.

Actually it works kind of like this.

What you want is a request for a partial or a full manuscript, in which case your query has done its job and you have moved on to the next step. If you've sent out a dozen or so queries and haven't gotten so much as a nibble, there might be something wrong with your query and you may wish to tweak it a little and give it a second look.

Bear in mind that many/most agents have a no-response-means-no policy, so if you do not hear back after a couple of months you have your answer. It is not customary to follow-up if you haven't heard back on a query. I personally try to respond to all e-mailed queries within 24-48 hours unless I'm out of the office, so if you haven't heard from me in a couple of weeks please contact me again, mention that you didn't hear from me, and include your original query.

Also please remember that agents are positively besieged with queries - you have one query you are worrying about, we have 15,000 or more to answer in a year. Keep your cool, stay calm, and be professional throughout the process.

(For Further Reading):
The Query Deluge
How to Respond to a Request for a Partial
The Five Stages of Query Grief
All About Re-querying
Why Agents Aren't More Specific About What We're Looking For
Why I Can't Answer Follow-up Question After Queries or Provide Referrals
How to Understand a Rejection Letter
It's Not You, It's the Odds
Don't Forget That Every Writer Gets Rejected At Some Point

And that's it! Query letter writing doesn't have to be a horribly frightening experience. Just remember to be professional, do your research, and keep writing in the meantime. Don't forget the 10 Commandments of the Happy Writer.

If you need feedback on your query or if you have further questions, there is a Query Feedback section in the discussion forums, and I am always happy to answer your questions in the Ask Nathan thread.

Also, there are many great resources regarding query letters out on the Internet. Writer Beware actually had a great post yesterday, and I highly recommend Janet Reid's indispensable query critique blog Query Shark. Please also share your favorite links and resources in the comments section.

Happy Querying!