QUERY DAY

It's Query Tuesday--gird your loins, for I'm on another rant!

• Three more "abused woman composers," my personal burr under the saddle.
• Several queries to "Kate," "Kay" and K. "Treinster." Does it really take that much time to get the agent's name spelled correctly?
• Oh, the bad grammar out there. It's even worse in some cases, than the spelling. Forgive me if I'm harsh, but if you're querying me you want to be a writer, correct? And, as a writer, you know the tools of your trade, correct? Then why or why do we continue to get queries that an 8th grade grammar teacher would throw out?
• I'm still getting "querries," "quaries" and "quares." Huh?
• "I have a fabulous fantasy about a wizard and dragons. Interested?" NO. Contemporary fantasy only.
• Guilt trips, oh, my heavens, do I hate guilt trips. "Dear Ms. Tienstra: I'm at the end of my rope; you my last hope. Please, please take my book."

OK. I'm done. I love queries, I really do. But what I really love is when y'all get it right!

RAISING YOUR PROFILE

I've blogged in the past about how important it is, especially for a nonfiction author, to develop a "platform." Publishers need to know that you are media-worthy, capable of doing interviews and able to present your ideas in a compelling fashion. If you have a popular website or blog which is read by many, that's even better. Why is this so important?

It's pretty simple. If you already have a following, those people are your potential readers. If people already know you and like what you say they will be very interested in reading your book when it's published. This, in a nutshell, is why books by celebrities are so popular. The publisher doesn't have to invest time and money to introduce the author--the author is famous and her fans will flock to the bookstore to buy her book when it's published. A celebrity is a ready-made publicity machine. But, if you're not Britney Spears or Laura Bush, a blog or website can help you raise your profile.

My longtime client, Paddy Welles, Ph.D., is a noted speaker with great credentials. She is a marriage and family therapist and the author of two books on the topic of intimate relationships. But when she and her co-author Rudolf Harmsen, Ph.D. decided to write a book on the topic of love and war, the playing field changed. Harmsen, an evolutionary biologist and Dr. Welles decided to create a book that would compare and contrast the evolutionary and psychological roots of humankind's need for love and war. It's never been done and it's fascinating.

But Paddy's experience is in the psychological field, not sociology, not in the study of warfare. She needs to do something now to reintroduce herself as an expert on the topics of love AND war. She will do that, in part, with her new blog http://paddy-loveandwar.blogspot.com/.

Take a look at how she's doing this and consider how you might use a blog to help in your quest for a publisher. But blogging is not for everyone. Don't do it if you don't have a strong point of view, a love of writing and the commitment and the time to write frequently. If these traits apply to you, blogging might be a good way to introduce yourself to a wide audience.