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Thursday, March 5, 2009

Books #queryfail Day

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 4:06 PM

Today was #queryfail day on Twitter, in which agents and editors post the worst queries they've ever received. You should go check it out.

"I hope you don't mind that I found your personal email address..."

"I read this to the high school English class that I teach and they all agreed it was wonderful." Really?

People I know in real life seriously suggest writing kid's books about their dogs. This happens way more then you would think.

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Comments (15) RSS

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Am I the only one that really could care less about anything twitter related and have no curiosity whatsoever to find out what it is, what it is about etc.? I don't understand it and I don't care.

Posted by I'm 85 years old on March 5, 2009 at 4:19 PM

@1: I'm 21 & I agree. Anything that requires me to think up short, clever things on a regular basis? I can't even bother to update my facebook status. I'll be sticking with the rambling blog post, thanks.

This post reminds of Miss Snark's blog - she's been gone for a year or so but all her fantastic tearing-to-pieces of crappy queries are still there.

Posted by SeattleExile on March 5, 2009 at 4:31 PM

Am I the only one that initially thought this post was about failed sql queries?

Posted by stinkbug on March 5, 2009 at 4:33 PM

I don't even know what a query is in this context, or why those three were considered failures. I'd ask someone to explain, but I'm not interested enough to come back and read the answer. Zzzzz.

Posted by snargent pepper on March 5, 2009 at 4:33 PM

Am I the only one who is sick of people commenting on how they don't care about Twitter on every post that has to do with Twitter?

@3 That was my first thought too. I'm not entirely sure what a query is in this context. People just submitting their books to publishing editors/agents?

Posted by N on March 5, 2009 at 4:41 PM

took some looking around, but it seems like a query is just an application to be represented by a literary agent.

Posted by devilsmoke on March 5, 2009 at 4:44 PM

@5 Wow, I guess I'm not the only one then!

Posted by I'm 85 years old on March 5, 2009 at 5:01 PM

In my experience, a query is just a short pitch for an article/book/whatever that doesn't include the actual text being pitched. Like: "Dear Editor, I am a judo master and also I have only one leg, would you be interested in reading a book I have written about my experiences?" It's to prevent writers from having to send, and editors from having to receive, tons of manuscripts that are crap anyway.

In some cases a query pitches a text that isn't written yet, in order to determine whether it should be written. "Dear Editor, I am an accomplished writer and might want to go watch some drag races and write about them from the point of view of a dog. Should I do this Y/N?"

(For "editor," read "editor or agent.")

Posted by bc on March 5, 2009 at 5:08 PM

I'm with @5. I mean, I just generally don't like the whole attitude, whether it's about science or just twitter. Do you really feel better for expressing a lack of knowledge and a total lack of inclination to learn about something? Well done you. Why is it not enough to just think "Oh, twitter. I don't care about that."

Personally, if there's something on slog that I don't care about, I a) don't read it and b) don't comment on it.

I certainly don't make a point of saying "Ew, technology? I can't be bothered with that nonsense, I'm better than that."

Posted by wench on March 5, 2009 at 5:08 PM

Argh! I've been taken in. I should have guessed from the bloody name.

Posted by wench on March 5, 2009 at 5:10 PM

If you're at a big conference or seminar that has attendee parties, twitter is a godsend for tracking down the best parties and vendor swag. It's the people that post literally every single solitary thing they do that make twitter suck - "eating a corn dog" "just took dog for walk in the rain" - that kind of thing. Oh, and the wingnuts who only post links to newsmax and worldnut daily and freak republic and things like that.

Posted by Geni on March 5, 2009 at 5:12 PM

There was one sort-of-friend of mine on twitter who quite literally posted everything he did at the gym every night. "on the elliptical for 20 minutes." "on the treadmill. have it up to level 4." I thought at first it was some sort of postmodern irony, but finally realized he really thought the world was a better place if we all knew he'd done 20 reps with the leg press than if we had to just wonder.

Posted by Geni on March 5, 2009 at 5:14 PM

Just flush the queues.

Oh, wait, sorry, were you guys talking about twitter? that is so over.

Posted by Will in Seattle on March 5, 2009 at 5:22 PM

twitter is for vain losers.

fuck twitter.

Posted by pooper on March 5, 2009 at 5:33 PM

I don't hate technology and yes, I usually skip stuff I don't care about. I have just heard so much about Twitter and it's only purpose seems to be to update people on every detail in their boring life. I just don't get it. It's like taking all the boring details of peoples everyday life from facebook or myspace but to the next level. Why? Self absorption 2.0. I might be wrong, I dunno.

Posted by I'm 85 years old on March 5, 2009 at 6:49 PM