THE LAST “HOW TO WRITE A QUERY LETTER” ARTICLE YOU’LL EVER NEED
[Trigger Warning: This article contains practical insights that may alter your worldview on the art of the query letter. Those who find the state of disillusionment offensive may not wish to proceed.]
The overabundance of query writing hacks out there can feel dizzying — thank you, interweb. Chances are you’ve googled “how to write a query letter” or “how to get a literary agent” countless times before stumbling here. This is why I’ve built a durable, one-stop template for crafting a winning query letter: an author’s ticket to getting an agent. But first — what exactly is a query letter?
A query letter is the cover note you email to a literary agent asking them to consider representing your book — opening the door to your childhood dream of becoming an author. Prophecy fulfilling aside, your query letter is your book pitch. Its one and only goal is to inspire an agent to request your work.
To help make the query process a little less daunting for aspiring authors, here are my 10 query writing pillars. Some of them might surprise you…
[Spoiler Alert: Past this point, you’ll find a step-by-step template for constructing a query letter and sub-templates for crafting an elevator pitch, synopsis, author biography, and marketing pitch.]
1. Keep It Brief: Your letter should not exceed 300 words. Brevity may go against your primal nature. But chances are (instincts be damned!) you can build a convincing case for your book in fewer words than you think. Also, consider that surpassing the 300-word mark can come off to agents as unpolished. You wouldn’t want to give off that impression… All told, it’s in your best interest to abide by the Charmin mantra, less is more.
2. Start With Dear: Publishing is a literary industry, so BE LITERARY. As with any formal letter, your query should begin with “Dear” followed by a suffix (either “Mr.” or “Ms.”), the agent’s last name, and a comma. Your greeting will appear like so: “Dear Ms. Appletree,”. If this seems like common sense — then, good, you’re ahead of the curve. We’ve seen far too many authors begin their query with “Hi” or an agent’s first name or (heaven forbid!) “To whom it may concern.”
3. Personalize (If You Want): Many agents like to know why you see them as a good fit. You could go the extra mile to express this in a sentence, but I personally feel this pillar asks too much of authors. It is up to you whether you want to spend extraneous hours searching for a point of commonality or flattery to mention in each of your queries. In my opinion, this is not always a productive use of your time. If an agent is enthralled by your pitch, they’re not going to pass you over just because you didn’t compliment them or reference a totem from their past.
If you do personalize, avoid one-size-fits-all personalizations, like “your illustrious career drew my attention,” or “because of your interest in [blank], I thought you would be a good fit.” The former doesn’t show enough specificity and the latter states what the query in itself already implies — remember, you only have 300 words maximum to work with. Instead, get straight to the point. What book are you submitting? Begin your query with simple phrasing such as: “I’m delighted to share…”
4. Open With The Pitch: In keeping with the virtue of brevity, paragraph one is the best place to position your elevator pitch. This lets the agent know, right off the bat, what they’re getting into — otherwise you run the risk of burying the lead, thus losing an agent’s interest. The elevator pitch must include the following: 1) book title, 2) genre, 3) word count, followed by 4) a 1–2 sentence book description that highlights — in riveting, judicial word choice — the character, conflict, and catalyst. It may also include a title comparison. Here’s a rather silly example:
“…MUSTACHE BOY, a 50k-word MG novel in which a late-bloomer tricks his classmates into believing his glued-on mustache gives him superpowers, in a hilarious attempt to avoid getting bullied—envisioned as Captain Underpants meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
5. Understand The Summary: Here is where most authors go wrong. They over-explain the plot summary. When agents confront a big, bulky summary, they’re liable to skip right over to the next query letter. Long book descriptions are not only time-consuming but also they raise a yellow flag. Maybe the author could hone their plotting skills a bit more. How brief then does paragraph two, the summary, need to be?
Well, just look at the cover copy of some of the biggest hits of the 21st century: The Hunger Games (6 sentences), 13 Reasons Why (6 sentences), Looking For Alaska (6 sentences), and, for an adult fiction example, The Nightingale (7 sentences, minus the thematic flourish of paragraph three). What you’ll find are summaries that underscore the setup and catalyst, allude to the protagonist and journey, and hint at the stakes and the theme. Counterintuitively, the best book descriptions do not delve deep into the protagonist’s traits and backstory. They are concept-focused, characterizing the protagonist within the context of the story — how their circumstances lead them to act or feel. In summation, (pun intended) a plot summary should not be mistaken for a chain of events.
6. Craft The Summary: Let’s get down to business. Here’s a template (within the template) you can use to structure your plot summary:
Sentences 1–3 will cover the setup — the setting, protagonist, and context of the protagonist’s circumstances. Here, The Hunger Games introduces Panem and the concept of the hunger games before turning the spotlight on Katniss. Within the context of her circumstances, Katniss “regards it as a death sentence” when she volunteers for the games in place of her sister.
Sentence 3-4 will illustrate the catalyst — the turning point which launches the protagonist into action. In 13 Reasons Why, one might mistake the catalyst as Clay’s receipt of Hannah’s tapes (sentence one) or even the kicker, that Hannah is dead (sentence two). But the catalyst actually comes in sentence 4 when Hannah’s posthumous voice tells Clay that he is, in part, responsible for her death. This propels Clay into a nightlong roam around town as he listens to Hannah’s tapes.
Sentence 4-5 will state the journey — how the protagonist spends their time dealing with their circumstances. In The Nightingale, when her house is commandeered by a Nazi, Vianne is thrust into making “one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.” And when Isabelle is betrayed by her lover, she “joins the Resistance…risking her life time and again to save others.” These insights highlight, with superb brevity, how Vianne and Isabelle will spend the breadth of their time within the story.
Sentence 6-7 will hint at the stakes and theme. What peril faces the protagonist? What discovery, choice, or adventure does the story boil down to? What universal struggle does the story embody? In 13 Reasons Why, what Clay discovers in Hannah’s tapes “changes his life forever.” In The Hunger Games, Katniss must “weigh survival against humanity and life against love.” And in The Nightingale, Vianne and Isabelle brave their own “path toward survival, love, and freedom….”
While hopefully this summary template can be helpful, it is not an exact science, so feel free to take liberties where you see fit — especially in the case of nonfiction proposals or multi-POV narratives, like The Nightingale.
7. Package The Book: Paragraph three is the sales pitch, where you present the case for your book’s “positioning” — in other words, how it fits into the marketplace. What type of audience will the book appeal to? What universal nerve(s) will it tap into? What themes make the book relevant today? Does it add, or bring anything new, to a social discussion? These are the questions you should be asking yourself. Don’t rely on an agent to do the packaging for you. Oftentimes, if a sales pitch is absent from a query, the letter won’t make it past the “slush pile” — the endearing term used to characterize an agent’s overflowing submissions inbox.
In terms of length, the sales paragraph should be smaller than the synopsis but pack a punch — like a shot of your favorite liquor. You might use phrasing along the lines of: “for readers of…” or “appealing to a reader’s…” or “taps into a universal nerve of…” or “gets to the heart of…” and so forth. If you open to a book’s flap copy and skip down to the final paragraph, you’ll likely find good language for summing up your book’s emotional resonance. The best sales pitches feature three criteria: a thematic flourish (as mentioned), a writing style description (“written with grace and acute perception…”), and comparable titles (2–3 similar but different books published in the last 3 years). Make sure your “comp titles” are books that are successful. They have sold well, won awards, received high praise, or have a screen adaptation in the works. Best case, your comps will show a combination of these criteria. Shoot for two each.
8. Add Your Bio: Authors tend to lose their footing here, too. As much as agents appreciate an author’s charisma, you could dial it back until the phone call, after you’ve hooked the agent on your book. Hobbies, aspirations, and anecdotes are better left out of an official author bio. Your bio should be professional-facing. Cite only what qualifies you to write your type of book — education, credentials, publications, accolades, personal experice, etc. Even if you’re a first time author, never say you’re new to the process or that you just started writing. That is a quick way to ruin your chances of getting an agent. Just say this is your debut. If you don’t have a lot to write about your background, that is fine—just express, in a sentence, what you do and what you write.
Agents want to work with serious writers who are devoted to their craft. If you don’t feel like you’re qualified yet, publish articles or short stories, start a blog, join a writing community, enroll in writing courses, develop a social media following. If you’re a nonfiction author, it’s essential that you present your platform information in your bio: social numbers, newsletter subscribers, marketing network, speaking history, affiliations, etc. If you don’t have a social following upwards of 10k, it will may be harder for you to catch the attention of an agent. In that case, it may be smart to build up your platform first. And if that doesn’t appeal to you, then you should present a strong case as to how your book will activate a big community of readers who don’t know you. Platform isn’t as crucial for novelists. (To avoid any misconceptions, a novelist is an author specifically of fiction books. So try not to classify your book as a fiction novel. That’s a misnomer.)
Do your best not to digress in the bio. For example, if you’re a lawyer writing a crime thriller, naturally you’re well-positioned, yet an agent doesn’t need to know about the cases you’ve won. Or if, say, you’re a software engineer penning historical fiction, you may be better off crafting a brief bio than spinning a web of how your career ties into your writing pursuits. A good rule of thumb: if it’s not essential, don’t include it. The good news, if your elevator pitch, summary, and packaging are air tight and compelling, you don’t necessarily need a strong bio. Paragraph four, the bio, can be short. Most agents tend to weight the book idea more than the author bio. Success typically boils down to those first three paragraphs, as outlined above.
9. Close With Gratitude: As a final paragraph or at the end of the author bio, you can close out your query letter by thanking the agent for their consideration. “Thank you for your consideration,” will get the job done. And then sign off with a traditional closing (“My best,” “Best regards,” “With gratitude,” etc.) followed by your full name.
10. Perfect Your Grammar: It goes without saying, but I should say it anyway. There can be no grammatical errors, lazy typos, or formatting inconsistencies in your query letter. Agents are literary people, remember. If you’re not confident in your grammar, enrich yourself in any of the style guides out there. My favorite place to start is The Elements of Style. Always, always get a separate pair of eyes on your letter.
So there you have it, 10 pillars for crafting a foolproof query letter. As a final piece of advice, treat your query letter like you would your manuscript. Seek feedback and revise, revise, revise! Best of luck — cheers!
And query responsibly : )