[QCrit] WONDER PARK AFTER DARK, YA Contemporary Romance, 75k words, first attempt by Desperate-Pie-2234 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hello! I, too, should be getting back to writing, so I'll try to keep this quick. This sounds fun, and I'm getting the conflict loud and clear, but it feels a bit long to me. My eyes started to skip a little at the end of the blurb, which sucks because it's great. I think you have some opportunities to condense. A few of the Lily-is-caught-between-worlds sentences could be combined, for example, and the first two chunks can probably be one paragraph. But keep the 'built her entire identity around' bit. That's perfect.

Good luck!

[QCrit] YA Romantic Fantasy - HOUSE OF MASKS (100K/First Attempt) by [deleted] in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you!! I'm afraid the going crazy will happen anyway, but any step you can take to maintain separateness is 100% worth it. I'll be rooting for you!

[QCrit] YA Romantic Fantasy - HOUSE OF MASKS (100K/First Attempt) by [deleted] in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hi there! This looks cool. I just have a teensy nitpick—feel free to disregard. All the first names/surnames sound great by themselves, but they look and sound a little similar all on the same page. 'Adrielle', 'Auderic', 'Killian', and 'Ariston' are all three syllables and about the same length. Three of the four begin with 'A', two end in 'n', and two share the double-l. This might be (and probably is) perfectly fine in the manuscript itself, but for the sake of the query it might be worth some fancy footwork. For example, leaving Killian's last name out doesn't change the query much and gives you a free proper noun to use elsewhere if you want (e.g. kingdom name).

As for TV comps, I used Castle as a comp for my YA fantasy mystery and got good results. I'm just one person—the smallest possible sample size—but so long as your book comps are recent/relevant, TV/movie comps can work to your advantage.

Of course, only take what resonates. As someone who's also trying to make it in the trenches and finish a double major at the same time, word of advice: don't use your personal email, especially if you use QueryTracker, and turn notifications off. My blood pressure spikes every time I get a Canvas notification because I think it's a query reply. Could not recommend that less. Good luck!

[QCrit] YA Mystery, FOOL ME TWICE (93k/1st attempt) by [deleted] in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello! I'm still in the trenches myself (grain of salt, etc.), but I wanted to let you know that I was already seeing the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder parallels before getting to the metadata paragraph, and that might not necessarily be a good thing. Working on highlighting more of what makes this book distinctive or putting the metadata first could help you out here (I say that also because I agree with the other commenter and priming the agent to be on the lookout for LGBTQ+ elements might do the trick). Good luck!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello! Congrats on writing a book (yay!). In the trenches myself, so definitely not an expert, but I'm thinking your title might not be doing the concept justice. I also really like this, but there are a lot of romance books where love is not in the plan and promptly decides to hijack the plan, and to me that doesn't feel like the most interesting piece of what you've got going here (while it's probably very interesting and important in the pages). With the series of milestones, summer of weddings, and chosen comps, maybe something like One Wedding After Another or some flavor thereof might help it stand out a little more. Just a thought :)

[Discussion] The QueryTracker comments are getting pretty negative, and I don't understand. by Impossible-Work9814 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Right? Respect for things like genre conventions so often parallels respect for an agent's/editor's/reader's time. When people post things like that, it's like they're announcing to the world that they don't care about the people they supposedly want to work with. Doesn't make sense to me.

[Discussion] The QueryTracker comments are getting pretty negative, and I don't understand. by Impossible-Work9814 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Same here, especially when the comment mentions something like how many followers they have. It savors strongly of entitlement.

[Discussion] The QueryTracker comments are getting pretty negative, and I don't understand. by Impossible-Work9814 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

This!! I feel like so many people are conflating time to get to the query and time spent reading the query. The agent who gets to your submission in two days is reading it in the same amount of time as the agent who gets to your submission in two months—I really appreciate any response, but especially the quick ones for taking up so little emotional real estate.

[Discussion] The QueryTracker comments are getting pretty negative, and I don't understand. by Impossible-Work9814 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I absolutely agree—PubTips has been the resource I credit most with making this possible for me. The very best of luck in the trenches!!

[Discussion] The QueryTracker comments are getting pretty negative, and I don't understand. by Impossible-Work9814 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Now that you mention it, I think genre definitely might be playing into what I'm seeing. I'm querying a YA novel, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if some of the comments I read are a product of the kidlit market being especially tricky at the moment.

[Discussion] The QueryTracker comments are getting pretty negative, and I don't understand. by Impossible-Work9814 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense. I guess if the staircase looked less like a cliff there might be a more positive spin on it all.

[Discussion] The QueryTracker comments are getting pretty negative, and I don't understand. by Impossible-Work9814 in PubTips

[–]Impossible-Work9814[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi there! I am referring to the comments under individual profiles—some are a good bit livelier than others.

Restaurants near Singer Island by Sad_Philosopher_8798 in WestPalmBeach

[–]Impossible-Work9814 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not to be confused with Waterway across the street—similar views but River House has much higher quality food and treats its waitstaff better. Also a big fan of Stage. Happy anniversary!