Alec Shane

Q4: Memoir. I do so little memoir, and it's almost exclusively of the military/pro athlete variety. Tales of overcoming illness, abuse, etc. are poignant and important - but not for me. #tenqueries

Q3: MG horror. Kid moves in next to a creepy cemetery bc mom got a job as the caretaker. Graveyard is haunted, kid is going to have to save the day. I like this premise - which is why I've already read most of the books that already have this plotline Pass. #tenqueries

Q2: Told in the 2nd person. In my opinion, in order for this POV to work, it has to be absolutely spectacular, and this one isn't. Pass. #tenqueries

Q1: Adult apocalyptic thriller about a plague. Gonna go out on a limb and say that nobody wants to read novels about plagues and a dystopian world right now. #tenqueries

OK, that's my #tenqueries. One request, nine passes.

I'm now getting off Twitter until January. My favorite Christmas Present to myself.

I have now responded to all queries through 8/31, not including partial/full requests. I hope to get through 9/15 before Thanksgiving.

Q10: MG sports mystery. Opens with the main character missing the free shot that would have won her team the championship. This is the MG sports mystery equivalent of opening a mystery novel with a dead woman and two detectives standing over the body. #tenqueries

Q9: Man... the number of times I get some version of "I know you said you have terrorist fatigue, but that's because you haven't met MY terrorists!"

No. Terrorists.

Please and Thank You. #tenqueries

Q8: Thriller, set inside a prison. Skeptical about originality - hope it doesn't become one guard who teams up with a badass con who is actually a good guy to take out the gang of inmates hell-bent on escaping and going on a murder spree - but will request and find out#tenqueries

Q7: Appealing to my Patriots fandom is always nice - a good way to show you've done some research and are querying me for a reason.

But in doing that research, you should also have learned that I'm beyond clueless when it comes to Picture Books. Pass.#tenqueries

Q6: Thriller. Prologue with girl getting chased through the woods by...something...then Ch. 1 is a detective fielding a phone call from a hysterical jogger who found a body. Sound familiar?

Pass. #tenqueries

Q5: Collection of essays. I've never had much luck selling essay collections. Pass. #tenqueries

Q4: This query represents what it hands down the most common reason I pass on a submission: it's good.

Writing is fine.

Nothing structurally wrong.

Not a bad concept.

Just didn't blow me away. #tenqueries

Q3: Doomed from the opening line! Used the wrong version of lose/loose AND breathe/breath in the same sentence. A pet peeve double whammy - and since it's the first line, doesn't speak well to attention to detail. #tenqueries

Q2: Proposal for 20K word NF about an obscure battle of WWI. Interesting, but would be a very tough sell, especially given how short it aims to be. Pass. #tenqueries

Q1. Horror, already published with small press, but rights can be reverted at any time and "I think there's a real market for it." With very few exceptions, once a book is published, it's extremely tough to get it re-published elsewhere. Pass. #tenqueries

Q10: 165K words. That's an easy pass. #tenqueries

Q9: MG fantasy. Really not my thing. I recently posted about wanting to get more into fantasy books, but I'm still having trouble garnering enthusiasm. Pass. #tenqueries

Q8: This author might be too talented for his own good. Read the first 10 pages, which were BEAUTIFULLY written...but I have absolutely no idea what I just read. Pass. #tenqueries

Q7: Mystery novel that's already out on Amazon, but author is able to pull the book at any time. Once a book is published, in any capacity it's published; not much else to be done there, with very, very few exceptions. #tenqueries

Q6: Too much dialogue in the opening pages, and way too many exclamation points. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I think exclamation points can, for the most part, get lost. #tenqueries