Query Hack is a critique platform launched by the iWriterly team where writers have the opportunity to submit their query letters, Twitter pitches, or first pages for FREE feedback. As part of iWriterly’s mission to give back to the writing community and help writers achieve their publication goals, blogs and videos will be published periodically, critiquing individual queries, Twitter pitches, or first pages and providing recommendations for areas of improvement.
Dear Query Hack, I was drawn to your love of plot twists and unique concepts, as well as diverse characters and mental health representation. CROSSING THE RUBICON is a 58,000-word YA magical realism novel. Crossing the Rubicon has been compared to CORALINE and A MONSTER CALLS meets THIRTEEN REASONS WHY. My first reaction was I … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #24 – YA Magical Realism
Dear Query Hack, FRACTURED MAGIC is an adult epic fantasy with a Victorian Gothic aesthetic like Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak and a style similar to Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes stories. It’s complete at 110,000 words. When Leandros Nochdvor, one of the book’s two main characters, witnesses a strange, unsettling creature use magic to … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #23 – Adult Fantasy
HEYA, BOOK NERDS! On Friday, February 15, 2019, I participated in Revise and Resub’s #10queries event on Twitter along with a fabulous team of freelance editors. Writers had the chance to submit their queries and first five pages into a drawing. Ten submissions were randomly selected for each editor, which were critiqued through the #10queries event on … Continue reading Twitter Event Recap: #RevPit #10queries, February 2019
Dear Query Hack, 16-year-old Nessa Cruz wants to disappear. Better that than dealing with the aftermath of becoming Tumblr’s viral meme ‘Horror Anime Girl.’ The best she can do is vanish with her squad of awkward friends during lunch to an empty classroom, which has become their HQ. But when new girl Thadir wilts under … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #22 – YA Contemporary with #LGBTQ + Fantasy Elements
Dear Query Hack, The world of historical fiction is filled with vibrant stories of female empowerment. However, there is a huge omission in this world: the rich, uplifting stories of Black women as a powerful force of change. The Booker T Washington Wives Club, will add to this world. My story features a powerful triad of … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #21 – Adult Historical Fiction
Dear Query Hack, In the land of everlasting sun, girls await the Matching and obey the godsdamned Rules, but Isa Morta is sick of walking on eggshells. She's got a guaranteed ticket out—the ability to make the crimson desert tremble with her rage. Very intriguing opening! Hiding behind a lifetime of pain, she finds herself … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #20 – YA Science Fiction
Dear Query Hack, UNRAVELED is an 85,000-word young adult fairytale retelling. Take Sleeping Beauty, drop her into a magical system where witches are weavers who use hooks and needles to create spells out of the auras of living things, add a blind weaver who is Aurora’s lady-in-waiting, a sweet romance, and a relatable mother-daughter conflict, … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #19 – YA Fantasy
Dear Query Hack, Sixteen-year-old high school track star Ember Meadows gives up on normal after her dad disappears into the river from their car wreck. Ember hopes to hide in the basement of her dad’s coffee shop. Instead, she uncovers a hidden door that opens to Espereva, a realm familiar to her from a childhood … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #18 – YA Fantasy
Dear Query Hack, SOUVENIR is an adult thriller complete at 101K words. A Jewish-American attorney in Atlanta, Hannah jumps at the chance to close a highly lucrative deal in Syria. It was supposed to be a seventy-two hour trip resulting in a promotion. But the allure of the Old City of Damascus, its ancient Souk … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #17 – Adult Thriller
Dear Query Hack, Lulu is the girl with all the answers. She has to be. It’s the only way to keep from being crushed by her parents’ wàng nǔ chéng féng—hope their daughter become a phoenix. You know, provided she were allowed to fall into any ashes in the first place. If only there was … Continue reading Query Hack: Critique #16 – YA Contemporary
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