Alec Shane

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

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

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

Q5: This query is like so many others I get; decent writing, not a bad story, and I have nothing critical to say about it. But I wasn't blown away by these pages, and I have to be blown away, or at least very intrigued, to request more. Just the way it works sometimes #tenqueries

Q4: Book of short horror stories. Think the writing is good, but short stories are all but impossible to sell as a debut. I'll likely write the author, pass, but ask if she has a novel that she's working on; would love to see that. #tenqueries

Q3: Memoir about time spent as an MLB umpire. I get these every once in a while; I just don't think the audience is there. Pass. #tenqueries

Q2: Russian spy thriller. I think I've ever heard the word 'Russia' more times over the past 10 months than my entire life combined. I'm very Russia-ed out. Pass #tenqueries

Q1: Military fiction. Super hard to sell, so unless I'm completely wild about it, I have to err on the side of passing. #tenqueries

Q10: Adult mystery. I'm on the fence about this one, which usually means I err on the side of requesting more. I can always pass at a later date. No harm in taking a shot. #tenqueries

Q9: Sports NF. Seems very encyclopedia/almanacky. Tough to place these with major publishers, and most of these kinds of books have been replaced with online databases and internet archives. Pass. #tenqueries