Congratulations, you wrote a book!
Now you want to get published.
Where do you start?
Here.
What you'll learn:
- How to write a professional query letter
- What each sentence and each paragraph must convey
- Exactly how it should be conveyed
- You'll write your letter to prompts
- You'll complete it so you can read it aloud (if desired) to a top NYC literary agent at BWS' Pitch Party on 4/28
- You'll also find out how to identify additional, appropriate agents to send it to after the Pitch Party
- Learn from two kind, experienced instructors with a combined total of 33 years at Sarah Lawrence College! These instructors have shepherded dozens of writers through this process of publishing with the Big Five publishers as well as small presses. Come and write your query letter with them, and start your journey to becoming a traditionally-published author!
This course includes lifetime access to video replays
COURSE DESCRIPTION
When you want a book published by a legacy publisher, your only pathway is to find an agent to make that sale for you.
They know the editors, they make the deals, they work the contract, and are your liaison to the publisher through publication and beyond.
How do you get an agent? Sometimes through connections, but MOSTLY through the vehicle of a query letter.
The purpose of a query letter is to wow and seduce the agent (or editor if you’re reaching out to a smaller press) into reading your work.
This is a sales pitch that outlines the premise or hook of your story with enough detail that the agent can see how your story could fit into the current (and near future) publishing landscape.
In this four-week course, we will take you step by step, paragraph by paragraph, through the writing process by reading and analyzing successful letters, discussing the elements of a great hook and story synopsis, as well as ways to flesh out your author profile.
In addition, we’ll discuss ways to find the agent who is right for you, discuss the usefulness of comps, and the impact of genre in finding an agent.
WHEN
Time: 12 - 1 PM ET on the following Wednesdays:
March 29 (NO CLASS April 5 PASSOVER)
April 12
April 19
April 26, 2023
WHERE
On Zoom (recordings available/lifetime access)
ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN ADD-ON (ONLY 10 SPOTS SO DON'T DELAY! SIGN UP NOW)
PRIVATE COACHING: Write Your Query Letter for Your Book
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: https://bit.ly/3lY7fw7
Work with experts Patricia Dunn and Alexandra Soiseth to PERFECT YOUR LETTER.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Patricia Dunn
Photo credit: Christine Petrella
PATRICIA DUNN, aka T.M. DUNN, author of the young adult novel, Rebels by Accident (Sourcebooks Fire 2014). Of her first novel for adults, Last Stop on the 6 (Bordighera Press, November 2021), Kirkus Reviews says, "A novel that brings the Bronx to teeming life with a wry marriage of drama and humor." Her forthcoming novel, Her Father's Daughter, is a psychological thriller (Crooked Lane Books, 2023).
Her writing has appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, The Nation, LA Weekly, and The Christian Science Monitor. She has also been published in the New York Times best-selling anthology, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women (Soft Skull); and elsewhere. Dunn has served as Senior Director of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, where she holds an MFA in creative writing. Patricia coaches aspiring and established writers and teaches creative writing workshops.
Alexandra Soiseth
Credit: Jimin Han
ALEXANDRA SOISETH was the associate director of the MFA in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College for 15 years and has taught publishing workshops as well as fiction and memoir classes since 1998. She is the author of the memoir Choosing You, published by Seal Press, the recipient of a Canada Arts Council grant, and an Ontario Arts Council grant, and is the former managing editor of Global City Review, a New York City-based literary magazine. Her work has appeared in many places including babycenter.com, in McGill Street Magazine, The Ryersonian, and literarymama.com.