Writing, promotion, tips, and opinion. Pour a cuppa your favorite poison and join in.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Queries That Worked - The Charge

How to get your iPhone application approved by App Store


After a year of querying and re-writing and querying again, I finally got a full request and ultimately a publishing contract from Curiosity Quills Press using the query below.

THE CHARGE will be released later this year! I am happy to answer any questions about my query.

----

Dear Curiosity Quills Editor,

Eighteen-year-old Warren King has been protecting his brother, Isaac, from bullies ever since Isaac decided to wear a top hat to the third grade.  So when Isaac is kidnapped, Warren heads out to bust some faces.  But Warren didn’t expect the bully to be the King of the Texas Empire.  Warren’s mother confesses that Warren and his brother are some of the last members of the Texas royal family.  The new King is hunting down his relatives before the true heir decides to say, “Hey man, you’re in my seat.”

Warren must save his brother and avoid capture himself armed with nothing more than a fifteen year old Camry and MapQuest directions to Texas.  He gets help from a spirited Texan named Lena who is first girl that ever made him want to do things like iron creases in his pants.  She’s ready to help him take on the King, but since she’s an anti-monarchy activist dating the son of the President of the United States, he’s not sure if she’s going to kiss him or shoot him.  Gone are the days when choosing a major was a big deal.  Now he must embark into a West that stayed wild and choose to be King, follow a King, or die before he can retire his fake ID.

THE CHARGE is an 80,000 word New Adult science fiction adventure set on an alternate timeline where a dictator took over the Republic of Texas in 1836 and built his own empire in the West.  It can stand alone, but I have outlined it to be the first book in a five part series.

Sincerely,

Sharon Bayliss

11 comments:

Angela Brown said...

It's great seeing examples of queries that worked. It can help make comparisons to the one(s) being worked on and to help tweak them a bit.

Thank you for sharing, Sharon.

mshatch said...

I'm interested :)

Sherry Ellis said...

That's a great query. It summarizes the story nicely and piques the reader's interest. Thanks for sharing.

Ink in the Book said...

Yep, I love that query. It obviously worked:) Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

After re-reading it, I can confirm my initial conclusion: this is one of the better queries I've seen. It's no surprise to me that you found a home at CQ!

Heather M. Gardner said...

Wow. Fantastic job.

I have just caught up on the entire week's worth of class. Just wonderful amounts of information and advice.
Great job you guys are doing. Thank you so much.
Heather

Huntress said...

Oh, man, Great Voice!! No wonder you are soon-to-be published.

LD Masterson said...

Great letter. I can see why it worked.

Sharon Bayliss said...

Thank you all!

Jaycee DeLorenzo said...

Awesome query!

Stobby said...

Awesome! Great job and thanks for sharing.