How To Write a Query Letter

No, really. This (is one way it) works.

Hi friends,

We’re going to embark on a series of newsletters about query letters. I know! They strike fear in the hearts of even the most confident writer. I have been right there with you, too. I have personally written a query letter for my own work and submitted it to agents. And it worked. (Paid subscribers will get to see that ACTUAL LETTER in a few days!)

As an agent, I’ve seen thousands and thousands of query letters. 500/mo x 12 years = 144,000, give or take. I know what works for me, in terms of providing the right information to make a decision about your work. (Notice I didn’t say guaranteed to make me say yes—that’s impossible.) YMMV on what works for your particular book, but the format I’ll be sharing in the next few weeks is a great jumping off point, and a great way to overcome the paralyzing anxiety of staring at a blank screen, at the very least.

If you’re not querying or not in the market for an agent or already have one, you can use this info to help you figure out how to better talk about yourself and your work. So when someone asks what are you working on? or what do you do?, you won’t just blink and stammer. Maybe you know someone who needs this info, too.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts stuff of, like, can I use an agent’s first name?, I want to talk about the purpose and goal of a query letter. Yeah, I know. It’s to get an agent, duh. That’s more your goal, not just the goal of the actual words on the page.

The purpose of a query letter, like I said above, is to give me enough (of the right) information to make a decision about representing your work. Any sample material included in your query is part of that decision, if requested by the agent. I know that feels like a lot of pressure, but this is your career you’re talking about. It should be on par with a cover letter for a job application.

So that’s the purpose. But what’s the goal? It’s to get me to fall in love with your book. What and how you tell me about your work, paired with sample pages (for me), is what makes me fall in love with your work. You’d think that means your query letter should be full of breathless praise and “in a world” style movie hyperbole. Nope. Just like with any advertising, the more you tell me THIS IS THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD AND IT IS GUARANTEED TO BE A BESTSELLER, the less I believe you. The opposite is also true. If you’re like, you probably don’t want to read this anyway, I just may agree with you.

Think about how you convince a friend to read a book you love. You probably start with the plot. This happens and then this happens and then I couldn’t believe it but THIS happened! You rarely, if ever, tell a friend it is a heartrending book about family, loss, love, passion, and horses. Avoid abstractions, focus on nouns and verbs.

It’s that old standby, show, don’t tell. SHOW me about your book. SHOW me what HAPPENS in your PLOT. Don’t just tell me it’s exciting or heartbreaking or new; SHOW ME by giving me facts and description about what happens on the pages of your book. What’s at stake and for whom? Where and when will you take us? What happens in the end?*

*Yep, I know some people say you shouldn’t tell agents the ending of your book so they’ll be forced to read until the end to find out what happens. Nope. Doesn’t work that way. Chances are, if I’m reading your whole manuscript and not just sample pages, I’m already invested in your story and prose style and whodunnit is not the only thing driving me to the end. I don’t have time to read things I don’t love just to find out what happens. *

If you’re writing non-fiction, tell me what the reader will learn at the end of the book, and how you plan to get them there. If you have a memoir or other narrative non-fiction idea, I bet that’s as much a story as a novel. Show me that way, too.

There is so much more to talk about here, and I’m excited to share it with you. We’ll be covering my recommended query format in the free version of this newsletter over the course of the next few weeks. If you’re a paid subscriber (upgrade here!), you’ll see MY ACTUAL QUERY LETTER, a bunch of samples—good and bad—and probably (a fictionalized version of) the worst query letter I’ve ever received. (I won’t publish real query letters here, unless given permission. That’s mean and rude.)

Thank you for coming on this query journey with me. I hope it helps you reach all your goals.

OXOX,

Kate