I’ve been making preparations for my next round of queries the past couple of weeks, including writing up another draft of the dreaded query letter. It is still my least favorite thing.

Maybe by this time part of the problem is that I’ve built it up in my head, but I’m still willing to bet that it’s only about 40% of the problem tops.

I’ve been tackling it, though, bit by bit. And as I’ve done that, I’ve been taking a harder look at my first chapter, experimenting with the order of events in it, what should be given greatest detail, and what I can afford to trim, trying to make sure the first 5 to 10 pages any agent might see are as as strong as possible. Depending on what I come up with, I may end up sending a couple of different versions to my beta readers to see if they have a preference.

And in the meantime, I’ll keep chipping away at that letter.