How to Write a Killer Query Letter
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Querying a book is both a lot simpler and a lot harder than it may appear. Simple, because there are very specific things you need to include, and there is a very simple outline you can follow to make sure those elements are present. Hard, because holy cow – creating a compelling short synopsis of your book in one or two paragraphs is a major challenge!
The first thing to understand is what a query does: Sell your book! That is its purpose. Think of it as your cover letter, and the 1-10 pages of your manuscript as your resume. Therefore, the job of your query letter is to get the agent to read your first pages. The job of those first pages is to wow the agent into asking for more pages – even your full manuscript.
Your query letter needs to pop. Agents receive hundreds of queries per week. Three hundred or more is not unusual. As you can imagine, agents are skimming a lot. Something needs to grab them right away. It does you no good to have a fantastic story but a dull, pedestrian cover letter that fails to convey anything compelling.
Some logistics to get out of the way:
Your query should be no longer than one page
It must be addressed to a specific person, and the query itself should be personalized (i.e., you need to give a reason why you are querying that specific agent: you met them at a conference, they represent other books you love, their wishlist includes ideas like those featured in your story, etc.)
Use 12-point font, single-spaced. Don’t get fancy.
Be sure to spell the person’s name right. And their pronouns. If they are a woman, “Ms.” is an acceptable address. You will find all this out in your research.
The components of a query letter
First of all, use your Logline. If you need a refresher on this, please see my post How to Create Compelling Pitches and Loglines. This introduces your main characters, main conflict(s), and stakes/consequences if the conflicts aren’t resolved. Your Pitch may be your Hook, or the elements of the Pitch may be woven into the Mini-Synopsis to create a compelling reason for the agent to read your first page(s).
Your Hook: This is usually the same as, or based on, your logline. You can find many examples at the AgentQuery link below. It must be a catchy introduction that grabs attention immediately.
Mini-synopsis: This expands upon your Hook. It needs to capture the essence of your story, not just your plot. You aren’t going to be able to tell us in one paragraph everything that happens in the story. You need to capture what it means to the protagonist. In other words, conveying the protagonist’s Arc of Change is important.
Homeschooled her whole life by her very conservative family, sixteen-year-old Cecily Davis is excited when she’s awarded a special scholarship to a private high school – and her parents actually allow her to go. But when she arrives, she finds the other kids even stranger than she imagined. They all seem to be super-fast, super-strong, and super-intelligent. Some of them swig what seems to be blood from their water bottles. The lunchroom talk is not just of parties but battles, from which some students never return.
Cecily soon learns that all the demonology stuff her parents made her memorize is real, and she is part of an experimental group of young humans who will be paired with vampires to fight demons who make their way into our world. But when all hells breaks loose – literally – and a full-scale demonic invasion ensues, Cecily has to figure out not only how to stop them, but also how to get Joshua, the cutest vampire in school and her reluctant partner, to ask her to prom. All before the dreaded Final Exam, which will mean Cecily will either graduate with flying colors, or die.
These paragraphs should also be in the same tone as your story, whether that’s humorous, quirky, horror, or drama. This of this as “back jacket copy” for your book, or what a potential reader who picks up your book in a store would read to see if they want to buy the book or not.
Handle: This is your book’s genre and length, as well as any comparative titles you can think of. For example, “DEMON HIGH is a YA romantic-comedy-horror story, in the vein of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Shadowspell Academy. It is complete at 80,000 words.” And yes, your novel must be complete before you query. Only certain types of nonfiction books are sold on the basis of a book proposal and a few sample chapters.
Word count should follow the usual guidelines for your genre (and age group if writing for children). Too low or too high, and you risk being rejected.
These days most agents want your comp titles to be popular books published within the last 5 years (occasionally comps to other media are okay, as long as they are relevant). See How to Find Compelling Comps for Your Book on Jane Friedman’s blog.
Your personalization, or reason for contacting that agent in particular: Were you referred by someone else? Is you’re your book similar to other books represented by that agent? Does your story seem like a particular fit for that agent’s wishlist? Note that if it’s a personal referral, or a request from an agent you met at a conference, this paragraph should come first!
Your bio: This should include your previous publishing credits (if any), plus any other relevant information such as having your MFA, or special expertise on the subject. Not a full autobiography!
Thank you for your consideration, and that you are looking forward to hearing from them soon.
Take your time with it. Don’t be in a rush to get it out the door. Have someone else look at it, preferably a fellow writer, and even better if they don’t already know your story. Get their overall impression, and also any questions they have. Do they understand what it’s about? (Get them to tell you in their own words.) Are they confused? Do they want to read the book?
Agents will have very specific submission guidelines, and you must pay attention to every detail, and give them exactly what they want. You will only have one shot to get their attention. You can’t resubmit to that agent unless it’s a major revision, and even then, it’s dicey. You definitely can’t submit and then resubmit a week later because you just thought of a better opening paragraph. Too late! Save it for the next agent.
Many agents now use Query Manager for submissions. This is an online form that asks for specific information, most of which should already be part of your query letter. It may ask you to paste in your actual query letter as well. This may seem silly, but agents ask this because a) many people still don’t know how to write a good query letter, or understand what it should include; and b) they can quickly scan for certain components to see if it’s a good fit.
The other component you may find in Query Manager are random questions like, “If your book had a playlist, what would it be?” or “What was your main character’s favorite book as a child?” Or any number of other things. This may help the agent to get a better feel of the overall tone of your book, or to get to know you; or it may simply be another hoop to jump through to discourage non-serious queries. You may find these questions fun, or you may find them annoying, but don’t leave them blank!
Create a general query template, and then personalize it according to each agent. Keep track of everything in your spreadsheet. If you haven’t prepared one yet, now is definitely the time. For more on preparing your submission spreadsheet, see How to Find the Best Agent for Your Book (and Survive the Process). Or, you can track your queries through QueryTracker, although it’s less personalized. Send your query to no more than 4-5 agents at a time, as you’ll continue to tweak it as you go.
There is a ton of advice out there on querying – blog posts, books, mini ebooks, etc. But you don’t need to tie yourself in knots reading every possible piece on the topic. A few of the best are:
How to Write a Great Query Letter – written by agent Noah Lukeman; available as a free download from amazon.com.
The Query Shark is a fantastic blog written by an agent, where she edits query letters submitted to her, and explains why she’s making the changes. Everything here is gold.
AgentQuery.com has many great examples of hooks, and advice on how to construct a query letter (this site is also fantastic for agent research).
Next time, we’ll go over how to write a synopsis - a necessary evil in the writer’s life, but if done well, an essential piece of selling your story.
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