How to Write a Query Letter

AKA Please Read My Manuscript

A query letter is the first thing an agent wants to see from you, and one of the last things you want to write. It could be on paper, it could be an email. What it cannot be is more than one page.

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There are over two million Google results for the words “query letter”. Like most information on the Internet, you will find some of it to be contradictory. As always, check the two most important aspects of any online article – the date and the qualifications of who wrote it.

Personally, I don’t know the right number of paragraphs to have in a query letter. I do know what a query letter does and does not need to contain because I’ve read a lot of those web pages listed in those search results.

You should read a lot of those pages as well. Eventually they will all start to sound the same, which is when you know it’s time to stop reading and go write your own query letter.

To start you out, I’ve personally found these three resources to be better than others. Follow any links in these articles, and then follow those links too.

• How to Write a Query Letter by Simon Haynes – good overview
• How to Write a Query at the Agent Query website – detailed article, good examples, includes info about non-fiction queries
• Query Letter Mad Lib by Nathan Bransford, agent – the minimum requirements of a query letter, also check out his Anatomy of a Good Query Letter posts one, two, and three … actually, just read all of Nathan’s blog

Holden: They’re just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they’re written down for me. It’s a test, designed to provoke an emotional response… Shall we continue?
- Blade Runner

Aug 27, 2009

Tags: agent  |  query letter

Categories: agents & editors & publishing