The Query Letter

Your query letter is your foremost sales tool in the world of traditional publishing. Comprised of 250-300 well-considered words, it is your pitch to gain representation by a literary agent. It is a daunting task to summarize years of work in a single page, so you should hire Book Architecture to write your query for you. (Just kidding. Not.) In all seriousness: like any writing endeavor, there can be a structure-based method to writing your query.

Sorche Fairbank spoke about query letters at the Muse and the Marketplace this year. She, like many agents, warns against seeking a formula or template for writing queries. If your letter is too business-like, she warns, “you’ll just suck the life right out of it.” Your query letter is the first opportunity you have to show off your writing skills. Don’t pass up the chance by being overly formal; let your voice shine through.

Fairbank explained the information that most agents want to see in a query, and says these must be included for an agent to even consider requesting a partial:

• Give the agent an understanding of your genre and audience. Some sources say this information should come first, some say last, but most agree that it should definitely be in there somewhere, along with a rough word count of your manuscript.
• Include a short synopsis of your book. Whether it is one paragraph or three, it has to be in there. In a few sentences, include your protagonist, your antagonist (not necessarily a person, the force opposing your protagonist could be alcoholism, a repressive government, alien invaders), how the antagonist creates the conflict, and a resolution. You don’t have to give away the ending in your query, just offer a sense of a conclusion.
• A brief author bio. If you have been previously published, this is where your credentials go. If you haven’t, no problem—every author has a first book. State that fact, and then include a sentence or two about what inspired the work, or why you are the best person to write this book.

Two further points that Fairbank added:

Share your platform details. An agent wants to know how connected to your audience you already are, and whether you’re already set up to do a lot of the marketing and promotion.

Personalize the letter for each agent. Do you have a mutual acquaintance, or even better: has one of their clients recommended you? Have you read a book that he or she represented? Heard them speak at a conference? Mention it. Agents are people too, and appealing to their human nature might get you a closer read-through.

The goal of a query is to have an agent request pages from you. Write something that will get your book to stand out in the pile.

To take a line from our forthcoming book, “this isn’t easier said than done, or harder said than done. It is what it is.”