You should find your regional Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI.org) and go to their mingles. Tons of information there, and the mingles are free.
It makes sense for PB queries to be short, as the books themselves usually are, too.A PB author needs to be able to boil things down so concisely. Not simply in the book, but also in the query!
I had to do some googling, but I was able to find a structure for PB queries here by author, Jo Hart.
She suggests:
"Keep it short (this is a point universally agreed upon by agents—picture book queries should be short and simple). Try to aim for three sentences for the pitch. Five sentences at the very maximum!........Here’s a helpful template to help boil down your plot: When [catalyst of your story happens], [main character] [takes this action], however [these things happen to prevent character reaching their goal]. In the end [this happens/main character discovers this]."
As for critiquing, you can certainly post it for critique, but be aware that a majority of writers on this site will have traditional queries in mind when commenting so you may see more than one critique wondering about it being too short for [MG/YA/A] industry standards.
You should find your regional Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI.org) and go to their mingles. Tons of information there, and the mingles are free.
It makes sense for PB queries to be short, as the books themselves usually are, too. A PB author needs to be able to boil things down so concisely. Not simply in the book, but also in the query!
Hi Jarmila,
I had to do some googling, but I was able to find a structure for PB queries here by author, Jo Hart.
She suggests:
"Keep it short (this is a point universally agreed upon by agents—picture book queries should be short and simple). Try to aim for three sentences for the pitch. Five sentences at the very maximum!........Here’s a helpful template to help boil down your plot: When [catalyst of your story happens], [main character] [takes this action], however [these things happen to prevent character reaching their goal]. In the end [this happens/main character discovers this]."
As for critiquing, you can certainly post it for critique, but be aware that a majority of writers on this site will have traditional queries in mind when commenting so you may see more than one critique wondering about it being too short for [MG/YA/A] industry standards.
I hope this helps,
Cas