My query letter for See Jane Soar:

“Well-behaved women rarely make history,” said Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. 

That’s because well-behaved women don’t rescue men in the Wild West, discover Radium, or achieve Hollywood stardom after being fired from countless chorus-line jobs. Well-behaved women don’t speed 300 miles/hour around a race track, trek in the Egyptian desert in full Victorian garb – and they certainly don’t soar into the mysterious unknown.

This is just a quick e-mail query. Would you like to review a full book proposal with sample chapters? If so, I can ground mail or e-mail it right away.

See Jane Soar! 200 Women Who Weren’t Well-Behaved:

Following Their Hearts, Making History

Several biographies describe women who didn’t behave and made history – but few anthologies provide real-life applications for readers.

What can we learn from the divas, outlaws and entrepreneurs who pursued their passions? What do they have that many of us lack? Juice, life force, energy, passion, vision, and the ability to embrace change. We have juice but life drains it. We have dreams but our mothers, partners, kids, jobs, and our own personalities can override them. We get rejected, depressed, anxious and scared…and we stop living even though we’re still breathing. 

That’s why we need to see Jane soar.

See Jane Soar:

• Presents brief, accurate profiles of historical and contemporary women from all cultures and nationalities.
• Emphasizes personality traits, achievements, and struggles. Each profile includes quotes from the woman and direct life applications for the reader.
• Highlights 10 different categories: outlaws, divas, athletes, politicians, explorers, entrepreneurs, etc.. Readers can easily access subjects that interest them.

 This book offers more than a link to history. It inspires women to change and grow, to achieve their goals – whether that means earning a PhD, losing that last 10 pounds, or asking for a bank loan. Readers will see themselves in the lives of these women who courageously pursued their talents and dreams. They’ll learn that Annie Oakley didn’t shoot photographs and Annie Leibovitz didn’t shoot targets because they followed their own hearts, minds, and souls.

See Jane Soar! will encourage women to accept and nurture who they truly are.

Series potential

See Jane Soar! could morph into a calendar or daily journal for holiday or first-day-of-school gifts. A “soar” series is possible: 200 girls who didn’t behave and changed history – or 200 Canadians, seniors, athletes, teachers, people with disabilities, people with diseases, and so on.

About the author

My degrees in Education and Psychology give me a solid background with which to research and write this book. I lived and taught in Africa for three years and traveled worldwide – I know how exciting it is to soar!

And I write. My publications include articles for Woman’s Day, Flare, Reader’s Digest, Glow, alive, Esteem, Good Times, Today’s Health and Wellness, and cahoots. 

Let me know if you’d like to review a full book proposal. 

Yours truly,  

Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

Fellow scribes, if you have any questions or thoughts on this See Jane Soar query letter, please comment below! And, check out my Unveiling Vancouver Query Letter for another example

Participating in this project gives published authors the chance to help other writers, make themselves more real (and therefore liked!) to your fans, and take a break from their own projects.

This book idea springs from my own blunder. I was recently asked, “Do you always write the same article for different publications?” by a magazine editor, with whom I worked regularly.  I’d written two embarrassingly similar articles for two different publications — one for hers, and one for a major national website. When she caught this (and they always do), she tore a strip off me.

See the scar? It symbolizes what professional writers should never do, but also serves as a reminder that some bridges can be rebuilt. Despite my blunder, this editor is still giving me assignments! (phew)

If you’re a successful published author, will you contribute a similar experience to this book?  Author Blunders is currently at the pitch stage; I’m represented by Jon Sternfeld of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency.  Here are my four questions – you can answer generally at this stage, but when this book sells, I’ll follow up for more details:

1. What was your biggest writing “faux pas”? (anything from leaving the only copy of your manuscript in the back seat of a taxi to ostracizing a group of readers)

2. What steps did you take to fix your blunder? Were you successful – or does your mistake still haunt you?

3. What would surprise readers (who are new and pro writers, fans of published authors, starving artists, etc) to learn about your writing career — or writing in general?

4. How can I refer to you in this book? Please give me a 2-3 sentence bio, including your credentials, books published, and most recent title.

Email or comment below if you’re interested. I’d love to hear from you!

And, if you’re interested learning more about writing blunders, read 5 Ways to Salvage Writing Disasters.