The Writing Commitment: Query Letters

A query letter is a one-page letter to show your interest. You have 250, 300, at most 350 words; 400 is really pushing it. In that letter, you have to include the following:

A nice greeting

Your name

Some information about you

What your story is about

Why anyone cares

Story title

Story length

Story Genre

A nice closing

Doesn't sound so hard, does it? At least... until you try to write one.

I'll be blunt. I suck at query letters. I have at least forty drafts for one story's letter, and even the best is somewhere in the mediocre territory. So instead of giving you much of my own advice, I'll give you advice from other people.

Miss Snark was an anonymous literary agent and blogger. Her advice is old-- some of the things she says about electronic queries and e-books can be safely disregarded-- but most of it is still sound. I'd love to link you to the specific place she said this, but alas, only the quote remains in my 8-page file of query advice. “Give me six sentences of no more than ten words each of WHO is doing WHAT to WHOM and WHY I should give a rat's ass.”

Miss Snark is probably in one extreme on query letters; I'm physically incapable of writing that. I've tried. Try it yourself a few times. Here's the most important thing, though: you need to make them want to read it.

There are dozens upon dozens of formulas out there; there are millions of guidelines; there's advice. Try it. Follow it. If you know the rules, you can break them, but it's good to know how much agents hate receiving colored paper and necklaces in with their letters.

Why do you want a good query letter, though?

See, a lot of agents only want the letter. Some get the letter and 5-10 pages of the story; some get the letter and a short synopsis; but all get the letter.

Nelson Literary Agency-- with several New York Times bestselling authors as clients, and only two agents-- got about 32,000 of those letters last year. Between the two of them, they took 17 clients. (Their full stats for 2012 can be found here: http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/2012-year-end-stats.html )

What do you think your odds are?

Now.

Half of those query letters weren't even in the running, really; they were people who didn't read the guidelines. Every agent has standards. If you wrote an erotic mystery, and you send it to an agent who represents picture books, you'd deserve that rejection, and yes, that DOES happen. Other people included in those half didn't put enough effort in.

Remember, there are 31,999 other people trying for the same agent. If you can't spell, don't follow directions, or prove to be annoying, why should that agent accept you? There are enough others out there.

Step one: do more research than just me.

Step two: follow the directions.

Step three: make it interesting.

The rest is up to you. Good luck.

Happy Writing,

-Alaina