Thread: Fear of Making Mistakes When doing queries?

Unfortunately, I've allowed that fear(monster)thing get to me and have been frozen into inaction in some instances in my life. Now I'm facing the prospect of writing my first query letters and starting to send them out.

I was reading something about just doing it and letting my mistakes be my mistakes and learning from them. I think I'm afraid of criticism and taking it super personally which I hear in this line of work will cause people to falter and quit rather easily. So how do I grow a thick skin when I make mistakes? Anyone got any ways of thinking about it that would help me now when I am at the edge of attempting sale of my first book?

If you wish to post extracts of it here, it is unlikely that you will get any harsh criticism on this forum, in general contributors are far more gentle than is good for some writers - Occassionally we caould all do with a swift boot on the backside! You may get some mickey-taking if it is deserved, but laughing at yourself can be very valuable. The danger would be in taking yourself, or it, too seriously; criticism in this context is a form of advice, a way of pointing you in the right direction, so don't take it to heart, use it if you agree with it, ignore it if you don't. I never listen to a word I say, so you can start from there...

Which forum section would I put a query quote in?

If you want a piece of fiction critiqued put it in the fiction section...

I thought I was being offered to have a query letter critiqued somewhere, that's not the actual raw fiction.

I suspect you don't know what I'm even talking about.

In that case, put your letter here and I'm sure we can give it the once-over...