Writing for a Living: Queries & Summaries

This course provides a comprehensive guide to crafting compelling pitches for your writing, whether it's for books, articles, or even promoting yourself professionally. Learn the essential strategies and skills to stand out in a competitive market and capture the attention of potential buyers.

At the heart of this course is the Query, a crucial element in any professional writing career. A query is a concise 1-2 page letter designed to pique an editor, producer, or agent's interest in your work, ultimately leading them to request the full project.

Led by author Stefan Petrucha, with two decades of experience in novels and graphic novels, this course features twelve video lectures (ranging from 2 to 12 minutes, totaling under two hours). The lessons are structured into three key sections:

• Story Basics: Master the art of pitching the core of your work. This section focuses on understanding the fundamental elements of storytelling and how to present them in a brief, captivating way. Learn what makes a story resonate and how to quickly identify what works and what doesn't.
• Query Basics: Delve into the history and essential components of a successful query letter. You'll define and explore the five key elements:
  • Content: Presenting the core of your story.
  • Market: Understanding your target audience.
  • Bio: Crafting a concise and relevant author biography.
  • Availability: Addressing rights and permissions.
  • Project Status: Demonstrating progress and readiness.
    This section emphasizes marketing principles to help you understand buyer needs and deliver what they're looking for.
• Creating Summaries: Explore the evolution of summaries across different media (film, TV, publishing) and how this context impacts writers. Discover specific strategies for condensing story ideas into compelling summaries – a process that can also be a powerful tool for generating new content. A final lecture tackles the common pitfall of redundancy and how to avoid it for clearer, more impactful writing.

As a bonus, you'll receive a free PDF copy of the book, Writing for a Living. This course is perfect for aspiring authors, experienced writers looking to refine their query letters, and anyone seeking to effectively communicate their ideas.