[stylist] bios and cover letters

[Chris Kuell]

Hi Atty,

I'm sure you will receive a plethora of opinions on this. Mine is that it 
depends on you. Personally, I want to be known for my writing, and not for 
my blindness, so I tend not to include anything about it. And I've had some 
success taking that route. With my first novel, I was querying agents and 
not mentioning my blindness. A friend of my mother's had a sister who was an 
editor in Manhattan, and offered to give me feedback on my query and first 3 
chapters. Of course, I took her up on it. Her primary comment about my query 
was--why aren't you mentioning that you're blind? So I added it, and kept 
sending out queries. In total, I sent out 110 query letters, and had 8 
'nibbles'. Four came from my letters which didn't mention my blindness, and 
four came from letters that did. So who knows.

If you are submitting to magazines and journals, the fact that you are blind 
probably plays well, makes your bio more interesting than the person who is 
just an average Joe. However, I tend to think that with societal 
misconceptions about blindness, you are probably better off not mentioning 
it for book queries. With a book, you will be expected to market, give 
readings, give interviews and so on, and the average agent/publisher thinks 
there's no way you can do those things. There are always exceptions, of 
course, and my feeling is that because I can do those things, people will 
find me more interesting... if I ever get the chance.

Good luck, and I'd be happy to share a query letter or two if you'd like.

chris