This is from our Query Letter Boot Camp by Angie Hodapp.
Here are 8 Tips for writing a query letter:
- Shorter query letters tend to get better responses than long ones. This means “Just the facts, ma’am!” Keep it short & simple and you’ll get better results. You need a (very short) greeting, a 1-2 paragraph “hook” about the book (think back cover blurb), and a (very short) bio if you have writing experience. That’s it.
- Literary agents rarely read the entire letter. They’re going to skim through, looking mostly at the book blurb, so polish that middle section until it shines. This means you don’t need to worry as much about the bio, especially if you’re a new writer. Just write a short sentence like “I live in South Carolina in a little house full of books and photographs” and sign off.
- Mentioning “comp titles” in your query letter will encourage the agents to read more closely. If you know where your book fits in the marketplace and can name similar titles, an agent will take you more seriously. Don’t put down only best-sellers however — that shows you haven’t truly read anything similar and are just naming popular books.
- A really good title can catch an agent’s attention. This isn’t an area you should worry yourself into a migraine over, but if you have a catchy title, it can help.
- A terrific “hook” or concept won’t save a poorly-written query letter. This means you need to spend as much time polishing your letter as you do polishing the blurb, the synopsis, and the manuscript itself.
- If you need to defend your word count, you’re already behind. Agents and editors look at word count as a way to determine whether or not you’re a professional writer who can keep to the genre standards. If you’re way over or way under the typical word count for your genre, there’s something wrong somewhere. Fix that before you send out any query letters.
- A well-written pitch is “the gift that keeps on giving.” If you can polish that pitch until it’s perfect, not only can you utilize that in your query letters, but your agent can use it with editors. The editors use it with the marketing department, The marketing department can use it to craft the back cover blurb. And so on…
- Mediocre query letters are rarely supported by stellar manuscripts. If you’re having sincere trouble creating a good pitch and query letter, you might not have a polished manuscript that’s ready to sell. You should be able to distill your story down to 1-2 paragraphs without any trouble. If you can’t, you need to take a good, hard look at that plot and see where you went wrong. Maybe the plot’s just not strong enough alone, or maybe you’ve got too much going on. It might be a good idea to pay for a manuscript assessment if you can’t figure out how to fix things on your own.
We’ll look more at your query letter in the next post. Until then, stay safe and keep writing!