#Queryday

April 17, 11:16 AMDenver Writing ExaminerMegan DiMaria

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 If you want to be published you need to pay attention to what’s going on in the industry. Part of that can be accomplished by cruising the Internet.

 A new event popped up on Twitter last Friday, it was called #Queryfail. Just yesterday the name was changed to the less offensive #Queryday.

#Queryday is the brainchild of literary agent Colleen Lindsay, who maintains a blog called The Swivet. Colleen is an agent with FinePrint Literary Management. Other agents are participating as well, among them Rachelle Gardner of WordServe Literary.

Today is the second #Queryday event. #Queryday is an educational opportunity for writers to get direct, real-time feedback from literary agents and editors. Be warned, it’s not always a warm, fuzzy conversation because sometimes the truth hurts, no matter how kindly it’s phrased.

Here’s a sample of what you will find on #Queryday. This is a tweet from literary agent Rachelle Gardner: Tip: A query that talks only about the THEME of your novel is rarely effective. You need to tell about the STORY.

To follow the live-streaming of the  #Queryday discussion, go to Search.Twitter.com or use Monitter.com, and type in #Queryday. You don't need a Twitter account to follow this discussion.

To participate by asking a question in the #Queryday dialog, you must have a Twitter account, which is free, and you’ll need to include the hashtag #Queryday tag in your tweet (Twitter post).

Want to join the discussion? Hop over to Twitter, open an account, and follow the action.

Don’t worry about being embarrassed if you’re an author who’s submitted to the agents who are contributing to #Queryday. They are abiding by some rules to maintain authors’ privacy.

• They will not post real author names
• They will not post actual titles of manuscripts
• They do not post the actual title, character names, exact plot details or place settings of manuscript.
• They intersperse positive with negative comments, and will Tweet the things they like and dislike.
• They will paraphrase where they can instead of actual quotes.
• They will try to explain why they’re passing without excessive snark.

On April 1st (no kidding) BookEnds literary agency decided turnabout was fair play, and gave folks an opportunity to participate in #Agentfail day. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that over 300 comments were posted.

Now, stop wasting time, and get over to the action! #Queryday is worth your time and attention.