Thinking of writing a letter to an agent or a publisher?
Although I'm positioning myself for self-publishing I am of course pursuing all avenues. Here's the letter I've put together (4th draft) for publishers and agents at this point.
Have any thoughts? Please let me know and I'll make the appropriate changes!
...
...
Although I'm positioning myself for self-publishing I am of course pursuing all avenues. Here's the letter I've put together (4th draft) for publishers and agents at this point.
Have any thoughts? Please let me know and I'll make the appropriate changes!
...
...
New York, NY 10003
December
8, 2012
Re:
Submissions
Dear Ms ...,
My name is Alistair
Vogan. I am a Canadian fiction writer, currently based in the United Arab
Emirates. I am writing to you because I would like to submit the first fifteen
pages of my novel How To Lose Your Voice Without Screaming. It is, I believe, both off-beat and commercial. In fact, I'm
certain it will make you laugh. As a writer and story editor, both here and in
North America, I have had the pleasure of working with such creative types as
the film director Bruce McCulloch, Saturday Night Live’s Adam Mackay
and the cult comedy troupe The Kids In The Hall. I have also
been a script consultant for a number of films produced by Lorne Michael’s
Broadway Video and Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment.
How To Lose Your
Voice Without Screaming explores, with both
humor and sensitivity, what can happen when you repress a big, terrible secret.
...Kingsley Kuchner is a single private business owner living quietly in the
Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1960’s. His life is an empty routine and,
though his thoughts are often occupied with Martha, the spirited and exotic
woman who lives next door, he is very much alone. Also, he’s haunted by a disembodied voice. Each day this voice tells him the same story.
The voice begins its story, then finishes it and begins again. This has been going on for 20 years, and
now the voice is growing louder...
At
the suggestion of a neighbor, Kingsley meets with a psychiatrist of
questionable repute who advises him to write this story out and, "however seemingly impossible,"
attempt to have it published. Only by doing this, Kingsley is led to believe,
will he lose the voice and find true happiness, perhaps even love. Kingsley
writes out the story and at the insistence of a publisher finds himself reading
it on a popular prime-time broadcast. It is at this moment that he realizes
there is something very very special about his cryptic little story. Within
minutes of unleashing it upon the American public, the course of his life, the
lives of four others and, indeed,
American culture are altered irrevocably. As his life spins out of control
Kingsley begins to suspect that what he has shared with the world might not be
as whimsical or innocuous as he had thought. Finally, with the help of the
former society darling, the disgraced Doctor Flees, Kingsley begins a journey
of discovery that uncovers a series of truths that are more beautiful and
terrifying, and much more dangerous, than he could have ever
imagined.
I
hope you find it compelling.
Yours
sincerely,
Alistair
Vogan
971-55-753-....
Pinecrestpictures@gmail.com
To begin to learn How To Lose Your Voice Without Screaming, see the link below:
Prologue - The Push
To begin to learn How To Lose Your Voice Without Screaming, see the link below:
Prologue - The Push
For more information, please contact:
We would like to gratefully acknowledge assistance provided by:
Ms Susan Watson
Lee Ivan Vogan
Rose Street
P.S. Winn
Simona
Helena
Ben Culhane
Kingsley Vogan
Ken McDavitt
Paddy
Ocope515
DonkeyJacket
Safia Adam
Sport68
Robert Bodrog
Bob Studholme
Brian Borgford
Craig Lauzon
Patreshia Tkach
Chi Diep
Colin Rivers
Anum Siddiqui
Sara Ryan
Hannah Taha
Shaikha Alain
Ayesha Sayed
Leanne Wherret
Bruce McCullouch
Susan Cavan
Tanya Nguyen
Margaret Lambert
Peggy Vogan
Mahmood Farra
Barbara Vogan
ZeBeDee
Paul Marlow
Alison Belsham
Brian L
Melyat
Jagermeister8
and
Sir William Newman
editors and story consultants at The Ivan Von Noshrilgram Foundation, Antarctica.)
Copyright 2000 (Alistair Avery Vogan / the Von Noshrilgram Foundation)
3 comments:
Not sure about the quotes around off-beat and commercial. It looks as though you don't really mean them. There's also italics on a 'this' that looks unintentional.
don't think you need to include the note about 'of questionable repute' here, as you do describe Flees later. Similarly with the 'however seemingly impossible'. It doesn't move the story forward and raises a question you don't answer. Other than that, I think this works.
Yes. The quotes around "off-beat" and "commercial" were written for a particular agent who mentioned that she believed these two qualities could exist in fiction. Sent to another agent this could confuse. Good eye. I might have sent it out again without noticing that.
Thanks Bob! Appreciated.
Yes. The quotes around "off-beat" and "commercial" were written for a particular agent who mentioned that she believed these two qualities could exist in fiction. Sent to another agent this could confuse. Good eye. I might have sent it out again without noticing that.
Thanks Bob! Appreciated.
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