I want to report on a most enlightening presentation I attended yesterday in Prescott.  The speaker was Scot Egan, a dynamic speaker and friendly, helpful individual who answered all of our questions about writing for the romance an woman's market. He was sponsored by the Northern Arizona branch of Romance Writers of America.  He is the owner of Greyhaus Literary Agency out of Puyallupa, WA.    You can get his submission requirements at www.greyhaus.com.  He is particularly interested in acquiring Women's Fiction at this time.

He stressed the need for us to adhere strictly to guidelines.  For instance, he stressed that "a query letter is a business letter."  You open it with the first of three "B;s" The Basics: title, word count, (70,000 is a good target total), its category, (genre), and its state of of completion.  This is  followed by the Blurb  paragraph–about the concept and conflicts in the book, how it is different from others,   Third paragraph is a the Bio –a brief statement of your qualifications for writing this book,  including any  publishing credits. Accompany the business letter with the first three pages of your manuscript and a synopsis of "three to five pages, double-spaced."  "This is probably the most difficult writing you will ever do." 

Among other important bits of information:  Publishers no longer store manuscripts in a slush pile to be examined "when they get to it."  It is essential today to be represented by an agent.  He told of a day in an agent's life:  "We do not read manuscripts during the day.  That is the time for telephoning, e-mailing, negotiating contracts, etc.  In the evening we take your query home to read.  I am tired by that time so it takes a REAL GRABBER  title and query letter to interest me at all."   It is unlikely that he wil leven consider your book if you have already self-published–internet or POD.

All this is simmering on my own "back burner."  I am about ready to plunge into summaries for my three completed women's manuscripts.