Hatrack River Writers Workshop: It's #queryday on Twitter!

This is topic It's #queryday on Twitter! in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

Twitter is a micro-blogging site (140 character posts, in chronological order - newest on top.)

#queryday is a hashtag, used to mark posts on a certain topic (similar to threading here on Hatrack, but on Twitter it's like threading on steroids. And speed.)

#queryday on Twitter is a day where agents, editors, and writers get together to talk about what makes queries succeed or fail. The agents are answering questions and posting 140 character tweets about what works or doesn't work, some tongue-in-cheek, but some incredibly relevant. (For instance: One agent posted about liking witches and pirates but yet never seeing anything good come across her desk with either. Another agent posted that if you're proposing non-fiction, don't use the mega-hits like The Secret or anything by Malcolm Gladwell as your comparables.)

If you're interested, you can go to a site like monitter or tweetdeck (requires a downloaded app) or search.twitter.com and enter the hashtag #queryday to follow the action. Be warned, it moves fast, but there's some great info coming through! Rules and a bit of background from one of the participating (originating?) agent's blogs.

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

Good to know, Kayti. thanks!

I've just added the ability to follow LH blog posts via Twitter. Username LHWriters. Hope it works.

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

KayTi, I believe you believe their change of name indicates a real change but I'm not convinced.

I'll have to see them actually behave professionally instead of whining about how horrible writers are and mocking people who are in no position to defend themselves before I buy it.

Edit: However, since several of the agents taking part are people I have had respect for, I do hope that this time it will be a positive rather than a negative.

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited April 17, 2009).]

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

They used to call it queryfail and changed the name to queryday. Honestly I don't care which name it is. As an outsider looking in, I can learn a ton about the industry whether the agents are complaining/venting about bad pitches or trying to only present positive points of view. My belief is the reality is somewhere in the middle, like so many things.

It was interesting. Crazy, but interesting!

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

There was undoubtedly a lot of information. It's unfortunate that they chose to present it in a way that makes it almost impossible to follow.

If you couldn't spend all day following it--and most of us probably couldn't--it was difficult to unravel. It would have taken me at least an hour to sort out who was who--and who's opinion was worth listening to. And then you have to try to sort out which question is being answered in order to make sense of the answer.

To me, it was mostly just frustrating. Of course, that's probably why I never liked chats, either--too many conversations going on at once.

Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :

Care for a bit of the other side? a writer tracking the foibles of editors and publishers? Piers Anthony on Internet publishers, publishing and the Web, and POD. Novels and some shorts and poems. Some real gems, defunct or shady houses, editors from Hell, scams, horrors, warnings. Some stats on acceptances, royalties, sales track records. Updated regularly, most recently April 1, 2009.

http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html

[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited April 18, 2009).]

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

I've followed Piers Anthony's site/newsletter for a long time and it does indeed have a ton of information from a man who is in a position to say a lot of the stuff that would be career suicide for most of us.

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

Is Twitter history available somewhere?