Every time I read a writer's blog about queries, I think of Lisa Lutz's jacket copy for THE SPELLMAN FILES. The copy (with a few minor adjustments), would make the perfect query. It catches the tone of the book, the voice of the author (even though I'm not sure Lutz wrote the copy) and is just plain interesting. The first paragraph is below. If you want to read the other two, you'll have to 1. buy the book (it's pretty inexpensive), or 2. beg me to type out the rest.
P.S. I'll be recommending THE SPELLMAN FILES in an upcoming Gazette column, and will post an interview with the author at this blog next week.
Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors---but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail and wiretap a Spellman.
4 comments:
I rarely stoop to this level unless it will get me what I want. But I'm begging. You can't expect to put something that enticing out there and then leave us hanging. It reminds me of the old days when I used to date Brad Pitt. He'd always, well never mind. Just show us the money.
Great begging! Here's the rest of the jacket:
Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go---a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.
THE SPELLMAN FILES is the first novel in a winning and hilarious new series featuring the Spellman family in all its lovable chaos.
:) I am so glad someone beat me to the begging - thank you Debra - and thanks, Anita, for dishing up the remainder!
Jambuku:
Glad you liked the jacket copy. I recommend this book in my January 11 post and Lisa Lutz has a great webiste, if you want to learn even more.
Anita
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