Saturday, August 8, 2009

Query: Beauty Secrets

Okay my fellow writers out there - who loves writing query letters?!

Anyone?

Anyone?

If you're like me, you probably write several different drafts all of which seem awesome at first, but then quickly feel... what's the word... Lackluster.

Nevertheless, here's my recent attempt at my query for BEAUTY SECRETS:

Beauty Secret Representative Keira Diaz was out to sell lipstick, not solve a mystery. An early morning house call to client Marion Siebold changes that. Marion’s playboy husband is missing and unknowingly Keira is the first to arrive at the scene of the crime. The Beaufort Police Department quickly dismisses the case; their resources are already stretched investigating the kidnapping of a little girl. What they don’t realize is that one man is the key to solving both crimes.

Keira’s gossiping beauty clients hold the clues to the case, propelling her investigation forward. With these clues, Keira vows to find Marion's husband. What she wasn’t planning on was finding him dead—or befriending the murderer.

When you write genre fiction it’s important to bring something new to the table. Beauty Secrets accomplishes this by creating its own niche within the themed mystery novel market. The protagonist, Keira Diaz, is an independent beauty representative (think Avon or Mary Kay). Her profession gives her daily access to people’s homes, their private lives and the neighborhood gossip. Combine this with Keira’s natural curiosity and determination, and you end up with endless mystery-solving scenarios.

BEAUTY SECRETS is complete at 62,000 words. If interested, the full manuscript is available upon request. For more information about myself or my writing, please visit my blog at http://www.stephdamore.blogspot.com/.

2 comments:

Stephanie Damore said...

I'm thinking of deleting that whole "when you write genre fiction" paragraph. Agents already know that stuff. I think it's more marketing lingo - ya know?

I also have marketing ideas abut including recipes for lotions and body scrubs - products the protagonist makes throughout the novel - in the back of the book. But I guess I'll keep those thoughts to myself for now =)

Stephanie Damore said...

Oh, and for the record, I did delete that marketing/genre paragraph before sending the letter out.

I'm not papering the electronic world with queries either. I'm really doing my research and sending queries only out to agents that feel right. Not just the ones that represent mysteries, but the ones that make me think, "Huh, they seem pretty cool. I'd like to work with them."

Agent Gibbs has that famous gut on NCIS - let's see how mine works in the publishing biz.