Working on my query letter and wondering if something counts...

[nuxvomica]

..as writing experience. I was thinking I don't have any writing history -- no short stories or poems published -- just this single big fat novel I'm trying to get published (about which I've been practically spamming this group with posts lately). Then it dawned on me that during the 1980s I wrote the movie descriptions for the largest syndicator of TV listings in North America, including long periods when I wrote most of the network and syndicated programming copy as well. At the time, a survey revealed that one in three persons who read a newspaper had read our listings, so that tells you how big an audience I can sort of claim. Here is an example of the kind of writing I did, summarizing a plot in one sentence:

A writer of pulp Westerns searches for his boyhood friend in the dark, corrupt world of post-World War II Vienna.

Is this sort of writing worth mentioning in a query letter to agents?

[DavidDvorkin]

1. I would think it worth mentioning, but

you should ask that question on some agent blogs. Or perhaps in Nathan Bransford's discussion forum.

[sybylla]

2. Great advice.

I would think it's worth mentioning because it demonstrates that you made a living by writing at one point in your life. But the agent blogs are a great place to confirm that.

[nuxvomica]

4. It's still hard for me to believe that I actually got paid to write

I didn't think of myself as writer at the time.

[nuxvomica]

3. I've been perusing Bransford's site and it looks like a good resource

They have a whole forum on query letters and I plan on offering mine for critiques there. The forums also seem a little more professional than the one's I've been posting on. Thanks for the suggestion.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Not to mention that his blog is the most amusing agent blog out there.