Q1: The query doesn't tell me anything and the synopsis focuses more on what they were going for than giving me a breakdown of the book. Unfortunately, I need to be able to see the pitch, overall story structure, as well as the writing to move forward. :(
Pass. #tenqueries

Q10: Nonfiction--doesn't really seem like it fits with my parameters, nor is the subject matter entirely clear. Pass. #tenqueries

Q9: Women's fiction. Opens with a passage from the novel. I hate this! I want a plot summary! And from what I gather it's pretty cliche. Pass. #tenqueries

Q8: Adult women's fiction. Really fun concept, but the way the letter is written is totally confusing. Pass. #tenqueries

Q7: Adult historical. Letter focuses on explaining the time period and not on the characters and their journey. Pass. #tenqueries

Q6:: Adult sci-fi. Poorly written letter. Pass. #tenqueries

Q5: Didn't even get through the whole letter. It began with rhetorical questions, no genre, no title, and a confusing summary. Pass. #tenqueries

Q4: Adult fantasy. I'm on the fence. Not sure I will connect with the morally ambiguous MC, but will read the first chapter. #tenqueries

Q3: YA paranormal. MC is too old for the genre. And ANGELS, which we all know I don't like. Pass. #tenqueries

Q2: Adult romance. Letter isn't even addressed to me. Can't understand the plot and the language is too flowery. Pass. #tenqueries

Q1: YA fantasy featuring magical pirates. Cool concept, but the world building is confusing! Pass. #tenqueries

OK, that's my #tenqueries. Time to leave Twitter behind and completely forget it exists for a while.

But before I go - I have responded to all queries through 5/1, not including partial full requests. Hope to get caught up a bit by Labor Day.

I get asked a fair amount how I decided which submissions to include in my #tenqueries, and the answer is simple: I sort of arbitrarily decide to do one, and the next 10 queries in my queue get critiqued. It's totally random.

Q10: This one hurts - nonfiction about a piece of history that I had no idea about and sounded fascinating, but the writing wasn't there. Very academic and textbooky. Too bad, as these are the history projects I love. Pass. #tenqueries

Q9: NF humor book about how to survive college as a guy in 2018. Not touching this one at all. Mouth shut, moving on. #tenqueries

Q8: I read the 1st 10 pages of a MG novel featuring an LGBTQ character, and couldn't quite shake the feeling that the character was only gay as some kind of plot device to help sell copies. Authors, don't do this. #tenqueries

Q7: I need to take a long, hard look at my online profile. I apparently give off the impression that I'm a great fit for the personal journals of long-deceased relatives and I'm not quite sure why. #tenqueries

Q6: Mystery. A little too similar to a novel I already have on my list. There's plenty of room for similar books out there, but having them both on my list doesn't do either author any good. Pass. #tenqueries

Q5: This author read that I love massive, slobbering dogs, and opened with a line about one of my clients. Good for her for doing her research, and her query was well-written, as were her opening pages. Will request. #tenqueries

Q4: Pass, for absolutely no reason other than I didn't get to the end and think to myself, 'I HAVE to keep reading this." That's what I'm looking for in these first 10 pages. This is a crazy subjective business. #tenqueries