Crafting a strong query letter

Hey, y’all. Hope everyone is doing well today.. 

Today, I want to talk about the dreaded query letter. Some writers seem so afraid of these things because they don’t know exactly how they work, how they’re used or what they mean. 

What they are is a document that gives an agent a glimpse at your manuscript, your writing style and YOU. 

Each letter should contain a brief introduction that introduces the work in a one-line summary, show the title, give the genre and explain why you think this agent is the agent to work with your book. 

And that last part, about why you chose an agent, is super important to add. The agent wants to know that you haven’t just Googled a list of agents and started sending your book to all of them. 

Please don’t do that. Agents all work in areas they like to work in. They don’t work across all genres, so they aren’t interested in every book. 

It is your job as an author to research agents and find the ones who like to work with books like the one you’ve written. They get up to 100 queries per week at times, so querying them with a book that doesn’t fit what they do is a waste of time for them and you. 

It also shows that you haven’t done the research on your book that you need to do. And it is vital that we as publishers and agents know that you’ve done your research and know what you’re getting into and what you want. We need to know you’re taking this seriously and putting in the work that needs to be done.

After you give them the logistics - title, genre, description, word count, etc. - then you give them THE HOOK. This is the very brief, elevator pitch of your book. That short description you’ve come up with that’s only two sentences long and gives us a great description of your work. 

For example, I once heard a pitch where an author told me his book was a combination of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Purple Rain.  Now, that’s a quick pitch. If you add one more sentence about the actual story, that’s nailing it. That gives me a great comp title mixed with something innovative. That’s a hook!

Also, the hook doesn’t reveal the ending in a query letter. You’ll do that in the synopsis, if they ask for one. 

Here are some questions to consider when developing your hook: 

1. Who is your main character (protagonist)?

2. What problems do they have?

3. What are the choices they must make? What tension drives the story forward?

4. What does your character want?

5. Why do they want it?

6. What keeps them from getting it?

But the query letter is a brief, very tightly done letter that offers an enticing glimpse at your work. 

The next part of the letter is your bio. This isn’t a resume. This is a short paragraph that tells the agent your background as it relates to writing. Only use the important stuff here. If you’re in your 40s, then listing a writing contest you won in high school isn’t going to hold a ton of water. What they’re looking for here is what agency you have to write this book and what platform you may have as it relates to that. Anything you’ve published, self-published, or any research you’ve done that is specific to this story is good info to add here. You can also list any organizations you work with that add credibility to your writing or to the topic you’re writing on. 

The last paragraph is a thank you and closing. Be professional, humble and courteous here. Don’t demand anything. If you have a series in mind, this is the place to mention it may be the first in a series. And if you’ve got this manuscript under consideration with another agent, it’s polite to let the next agent know this. 

Also, please resist the temptation to explain your work to them. You do not need to tell them the themes you’re working with or “what you’re trying to do” with the work. The writing will tell them that. And don’t ask them for an in-person meeting. If they like the book, that’ll happen soon enough. 

Something to note: Don’t feel like you need to talk an agent into representing you. It doesn’t exactly work that way. Agents like specific projects, so you aren’t going to talk them into representing something they aren’t comfortable working with. 

There are 1200 agents in the U.S. If one says no, you still have 1199 to go, 

You can personalize you query letter a little but be careful not to take it too far unless you have a spectacular marketing idea for it. Not an idea that is in your head but an idea you’ve workshopped with others that feels special. Otherwise, just keep it simple. 

Also, it is critical for you to stick to all the guidelines that each agent has and to keep everything as brief as possible. Your summary or hook shouldn’t be more than 200 words. 

They all have guidelines for how everything should be formatted, and you need to follow those to a T. Read their website and follow their directions. First, this helps them streamline the process of receiving hundreds of queries. Second, this tells us whether or not you can follow directions, which is something that shows us how easy you are to work with.

You can also search online for examples of great query letters and use those as templates for your own. 

But the thing you need to be working on is your HOOK and your credibility. Show them that you have done the work that is expected of you. 

Happy Writing!