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	<title>Sam Downing &#187; Querying</title>
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		<title>Saturday morning LOLs</title>
		<link>http://www.samdowning.com/2009/11/14/saturday-morning-lols/</link>
		<comments>http://www.samdowning.com/2009/11/14/saturday-morning-lols/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:42:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sam Downing</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Querying]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coffee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genius]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LOLcats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LOLs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rejection letters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seinfeld]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vegemite]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[win!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.samdowning.com/?p=125</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[First up, two unrelated things: coffee is so good; Vegemite on toast is so good. The Rejectionist held a contest recently to write the most amazing form rejection letter in the history of the universe, and the winner is a truly astounding cavalcade of LOLs. A sampling: Please don&#8217;t be offended. Your query&#8217;s horrendous. We [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-126" title="LOLcat" src="http://www.samdowning.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lolcat.jpg" alt="LOLcat" width="450" height="278" /><br />
First up, two unrelated things: coffee is <em>so good</em>; Vegemite on toast is <em>so good</em>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.therejectionist.com/">The Rejectionist</a> held a contest recently to write the most amazing form rejection letter in the history of the universe, and the winner is a truly astounding cavalcade of LOLs. A sampling:</p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;">Please don&#8217;t be offended. Your query&#8217;s horrendous.<br />
We can&#8217;t understand why you&#8217;d bother to send us<br />
a missive so deeply in need of an edit<br />
we wanted to vomit as soon as we read it.<br />
Its hook was insipid, its grammar revolting,<br />
its font microscopic, its manner insulting,<br />
its lies unconvincing, its structure confusing,<br />
its efforts at comedy less than amusing.<br />
We think that on average the writing is better<br />
in comments on YouTube than inside your letter.</span></p></blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s gold, Jerry! The complete opus is <a href="http://www.therejectionist.com/2009/11/author-friends-we-have-winners.html">here</a>. I reckon most writers would be pretty chuffed with a rejection like this.</p>
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		<title>The vampire conundrum</title>
		<link>http://www.samdowning.com/2009/10/05/the-vampire-conundrum/</link>
		<comments>http://www.samdowning.com/2009/10/05/the-vampire-conundrum/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:07:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sam Downing</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Querying]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Count Chocula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vampires]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.samdowning.com/?p=18</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The main character in my book is a vampire. I started writing said book in around 2005 (from an idea that first came to me in the late &#8217;90s), back in the day when vampires weren&#8217;t totally off the cultural radar, but you probably had to be a Buffy fan to care much about them. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19" title="Count Chocula" src="http://www.samdowning.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/countchocula.jpg" alt="Count Chocula" width="450" height="279" /></p>
<p>The main character in my book is a vampire. I started writing said book in around 2005 (from an idea that first came to me in the late &#8217;90s), back <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2228717/">in the day when vampires weren&#8217;t totally off the cultural radar</a>, but you probably had to be a <em>Buffy</em> fan to care much about them.</p>
<p>Fast-forward to 2009, when my book is finally done, and <a href="http://www.yourmovies.com.au/news/?i=172827&amp;action=news">vampires are everywhere</a>.</p>
<p>I kinda thought this might pose a dilemma. Like, I&#8217;d submit my book to an agent who&#8217;d be all, &#8220;Oh, jeez, <em>another</em> bloody vampire novel. Pass me a form rejection letter.&#8221; I was so concerned about this that when I wrote my first query letter, I tried to write <em>around</em> the fact that my book included a vampire by not mentioning the vampirism at all.</p>
<p>Yeah, that didn&#8217;t turn out so great.</p>
<p>Eventually I just laid out the vampire-ness of it all in the query&#8217;s first paragraph. So what if it&#8217;s yet another book about a vampire? My protag isn&#8217;t anything like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Cullen">the vampers dominating pop culture right now</a>. Hopefully that&#8217;ll work in my favour when I&#8217;m ready to start querying.</p>
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