The Query Letter

Last night our company arrived and I gave them a copy of the rough draft of my query letter. They were here to pick up some furniture and they had two other stops to make so we didn’t get a chance to talk about the letter. I’ll see them Thursday night and get their comments. I’ve been thinking of posting the letter here and finally came to the conclusion that if this post is about my journey to getting my book published then I needed to include the query letter in the post. So here goes.

I contracted infantile paralysis, or more commonly referred to as polio, at the age of 20 months. When I was released from the hospital after three weeks in isolation I couldn’t move my legs, sit up, or move my head. My parents elected to take me to therapy three days a week and do my exercises at home the other four days rather than house me in a facility where I would receive therapy and schooling. After twelve years of physical therapy I walked with crutches, had a full leg brace on my right leg, and my left leg was just barely strong enough to no longer need the brace. I have never understood the words “I can’t.” It’s not in my vocabulary. If I had to tell you my philosophy of life, I would say that you live life by doing “Whatever it Takes.”

I attended public schools, I was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout, I graduated from college, and I have a wonderful wife and two grown daughters who share my philosophy. I have been an automotive machinist, a draftsman, a teacher in four public high schools, an instructor in a high tech computer company, a technical writer and trainer for a high tech oilfield down hole services company, the manager of a documentation department, and a national sales manager. My wife and I have lived in four states and I’ve traveled throughout the United States and in Europe training computer service engineers and customers. I’ve had an exciting life and if I wasn’t being challenged I changed it.

If that wasn’t enough, in the midst of the 56 years since polio I have become a Type 1 diabetic, I have arthritis, I’ve had two heart attacks, bypass surgery, and a heart stent. Does life get any easier? No, if it did I’d be dead. I'm going to write three books that chronicle my life from polio to diabetes, diabetes and arthritis to bypass surgery, and bypass surgery to the present. Each stage of my life has given me new and escalating challenges physically and emotionally.

There’s more to add to this letter but that’s the body of it. The question is, if you were a literary agent, would the letter cause you to pick up the phone and offer to represent me. If it would, then you think the book will sell and you will get paid for your efforts. If you have any comments about changes that would improve the query letter, let me know. I can use all the help I can get. One last thought. I forgot to mention that I started on a diet yesterday; a new blog and a diet all in one day. I was 130 pounds nine months after my bypass surgery and now I’m nearly 160 pounds. I looked like death warmed over at 130 pounds so I’m looking to get down to 140 lbs. At 130 pounds I was the same size I was in college; 29 inch waist and a size 40 jacket. It’s funny that I didn’t look like death warmed over then. I wonder what changed.

Hello World

This is my first post. My reasons for blogging are many but I have decided to focus on the process of getting my book published. I am writing an inspirational autobiography. I have been fortunate to have had a very full life even though I walk with crutches and have Type 1 diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease. I was brought up to never view my handicap as a disability so I’ve never imagined that I couldn’t accomplish any goal. That’s not to say that I haven’t experienced difficult challenges. Every day is filled with challenges and as I get older it doesn’t get any easier. I make it look easy and I’m not one to complain so most people have no idea what it’s like to get through life with crutches under my arms, an insulin pump clipped to my belt, arthritis in my limbs, and the reality of heart disease.

This blog will be a chronicle of my efforts to get my book published but I will also write about what I’m dealing with on a daily basis. I must admit that I’m a little nervous because I’ve looked at other blogs where the blogger posted day after day without any comments and then there would be a few days missed followed by a few days of posts again without comment. Finally, weeks and months would pass without a post. I have a lot to learn about blogging, the first of which will be about finding an audience. Well, enough about what I’m going to do. It’s time to start doing it.

The process of getting a nonfiction book published when you’re as obscure as I am is to find a literary agent who is willing to sell your idea to a publisher. In the case of nonfiction, as I understand it, it’s not important to have written the book. What’s important is to have a very clear idea of what the book will be about and sell your idea to a literary agent. The agent gets a cut of my part of the book profits. That’s how they generate an income. The vehicle used to sell my idea is a query letter. The query letter is for the most part a one to one and a half page description of the book. It’s also a good idea to include who would be interested in reading the book. If a literary agent thinks I’m right, they will contact me and we’re off and running looking for a publisher who agrees with me and the agent. Today I will finish my first draft of the query letter. We have company coming tonight and I want to show them the query letter to get their opinion; more about the query letter later.