www.inkthinkerblog.com — I need your collective opinion on a Query Challenge judicial issue:
If I submit a query with three articles ideas in it, does it count as one query or three queries since it would result in three separate assignments? I ask this because it happened to me yesterday, and I know it happened to another challenge participant with NINE QUERIES earlier this week. It never occurred to me to make a rule about multiples in one shot…
My first inclination is to say one query is one query regardless of how many ideas are in it. But I thought I’d better take this one to the streets! Leave your opinion in the comments.
__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest
Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King. All rights reserved.
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
Comments on this entry are closed.
Counts as three in my book…I’ve never done that before though.
For the query challenge, I’ve been counting each query letter as 1, even if it has 2 or 3 pitches. When i pitch FOBs, I generally send 2 or 3 ideas in one query letter. Now that I think about it, I think we should count each pitch. In my case, I’ll send 3 very fleshed out, researched ideas that I sweated over to get just right. They could each be their own query letter, but I find it’s best to send more than 1 pitch when you’re querying an editor for shorter pieces. You’ve got their attention, and more ideas mean more chances for acceptance. Still, I’m on the fence…how do others think we should count them??
One query.
I sent one to a travel editor. He said no, I immediately pitched back another tweaked idea. He said yes. I still counted that as one query. :-)
I’d say it’s a judgment call depending on how detailed each idea is. If you have multiple exchanges with an editor and pitch a new idea each time, I’d count that separately.
Plus, if we say 3 ideas counts as 3 queries, it might help those who are feeling like they can’t catch up at this point. I mean, the important thing is that your ideas get out there, right? We should reward those who are generating ideas and sending them to editors.