Maria Vicente

A good time to send everyone confused by magical realism to this old blog post of mine: mariavicente.com/post/982996726… #100Queries

53. Magical Realism. Sounds more like fantasy to me! #100Queries

52. MG Realistic. Query is great (short, easy to understand, creates mystery), but the topic isn't something I'm interested in. #100Queries

51. YA Fantasy. The pitch sounded great until I read the twist… and then it sounded like too many other books. #100Queries

50. Graphic Novel. The pitch is well done, but I’ve read series very similar. Also not totally in love with the art style. #100Queries

49. YA Contemporary. Unnecessarily (it seems) set in the recent past. Write for teens today, not for teenage you. #100Queries

48. Picture Book. The concept doesn’t sound all that new to me, so I’ll have to pass. #100Queries

47. YA Contemporary. There are a lot of grammar errors. I always take this as a sign that the manuscript is also not polished. #100Queries

46. Crime Fiction. Also not a genre I represent. #100Queries

45. Adult Fantasy. Not a thing I’m looking for right now! #100Queries

44. MG Realistic. The query letter is all about the author’s bio and nothing about the manuscript. #100Queries

I think there’s too much going on in one story. A good reminder to save some of your ideas for your next book! #100Queries

43. YA Horror. The pitch is really difficult to follow. I’m too confused to request pages. #100Queries

To be clear: don't write your query from the POV of a character. Agents want to meet YOU, the writer. #100Queries

42. Middle Grade. Another query written from the POV of the character. This has been a not-so-great trend this week. #100Queries

41. MG Horror. The query is great, but the concept doesn’t sound like it’s for me. Not nearly scary enough! ;) #100Queries

That describes probably 50% of the queries I receive. #100Queries

Never give away the ending in a query! Your query creates intrigue so I want to read the story. #100Queries

It's usually when the plot sounds like something a middle schooler would do rather than a high schooler. #100Queries

You can always tell if someone took the time to google "how to write a query letter" or not haha. #100Queries