One more question, please...

[Emily]

I wanted to thank you for your reply to my question about query
letters, and for steering me in the right direction.

I recently attended an intensive fiction writer's workshop at my local
college. The instructor had advised all of the attendees to submit
their query letters immediately... even if they hadn't started writing
their novels. His reasoning was that if an agent was interested, they'd
wait for the novel to be completed. :(

This did NOT sit well with me! So I decided to write to you and ask for
your advice. What you told me not only made complete sense, it
validated my original thoughts about the query letter process. His
'expertise' only succeeded in confusing me.

I would love to have my work edited by Zebra as soon as I am finished
revising it. I know Zebra edits completed manuscripts, but do they also
offer help with query letters and summaries? I realize that I only have
one chance to make a good first impression, so I want to make sure I do
everything right.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this Google group, and the time
you so generously give to help us new authors. Being able to to
directly question an agency is absolutely priceless!

Thank you, again,
Emily

[su...@aboutwords.org]

You're welcome! Bobbie and I really enjoy helping writers. In fact,
Bobbie is giving seminars and talking to writers at the Georgia Writers
Spring Festival all day today, and I'll be doing the same this
afternoon. I am a co-founder, and she is a past president.

I'll let Bobbie tell you what she does for authors in more detail. One
thing I do want to make perfectly clear, though, is this: About Words
Agency does not require authors to use Bobbie and Zebra Communications
services. It's always better for the author to self-edit, and critique
groups are very helpful to an author. If you do feel you would benefit
from an independent editor, you should choose the one you feel most
comfortable with and who has the experience and background to best help
you.

There is a list of editors on the About Words for Writers website, that
will get you started finding the right editor for you:
(http://writers.aboutwords.org/tipseditors.html)

You will notice that Bobbie is on that list, of course. We do
enthusiastically recommend her services, because of her impressive list
of credentials (http://www.zebraeditor.com/mentor.shtml) and because of
our very positive experiences working with her. We have hired her to
edit some of our clients books.

Even though we recommend Bobbie highly, we do have to be careful about
conflict of interest and steering authors only to her, because we are
literary agents and naturally authors will pay more attention to our
recommendations. It's not fair to the authors to do that, so we have a
long list of editors and links to other lists. I hope you understand.

Keep those questions coming!

-Susan Graham
About Words Agency
http://agency.aboutwords.org
http://writers.aboutwords.org

[bze...@aol.com]

Emily wrote:

> I would love to have my work edited by Zebra as soon as I am finished
> revising it. I know Zebra edits completed manuscripts, but do they also
> offer help with query letters and summaries? I realize that I only have
> one chance to make a good first impression, so I want to make sure I do
> everything right.

Yes, Zebra Communications edits query letters, book proposals, and
synopses. If sent separately from the manuscript, the charge is more,
but if they are sent as part of a manuscript, the per-page fees apply
as shown on the Editing Request Form on our Website
(www.zebraeditor.com). We also write query letters and synopses for $75
apiece, if we have edited the book. If we haven't edited the
manuscript, we have to also charge for the time it takes to read the
book, and the price depends on the length of the manuscript.