If you’ve written a novel and are looking for represenation, you will need to write a query letter. In part one in this series, I talked about how important research is. If you didn’t read part one, or would like a refresher on what I went over, you can find that post here: Writing the Fiction Query Letter: Part One.

So, now we’re going to start to get into the nuts and bolts of the actual letter, but I want to preface again, that I’m writing this from my experience and that this should be taken as advice only.

I have a certain format to query letter writing that I’m comfortable with, but that doesn’t mean that this format is the only format that can/should be used. If you look around, you’ll find lots of opinions and advice on writing query letters from agents, editors, and other authors. While there are many similarities in the grand scheme of things, there are also many differences. Some of this is style, and some of this is personal preference.

What is a query letter, exactly? Basically, a query letter is nothing more than a mini-proposal that will give agents and editors a description of the project, a short biography of the author, where the project will fit in the marketplace (the genre of the manuscript), the hook of the story, and the author’s contact information. That’s it, and it sounds simple enough, but one of the general guidelines that seem to be fairly constant is that all of this information should be in a one page letter. If you go over a little, that’s not a big deal, but try to keep the full letter to one page.

And, of course, all of this information should be presented in a clear but compelling manner that shows off your voice. Yep, I know. This is a lot to accomplish in one page, but by breaking the letter into sections, it’s much easier to get a handle on. So, in part two, I’m going to give a quick breakdown of the basic format of a query letter, and then will do a more in-depth look at each section in upcoming posts.

You’ve done the work: you’ve written a manuscript, have edited it, polished it, and edited some more. You’ve done your research and have a handy list of agents (and/or editors) who you’re interested in submitting to, along with each respective agent’s preferred submission guidelines and contact information. Now what?

Well, you want to make a good first impression. After all, first impressions matter. Your initial contact with a literary agent will likely be your query letter (unless, of course, you’ve met the agent at a conference). The basics of the letter are fairly simple. A query letter should be:

• in standard business letter format,
• have one-inch margins all around,
• written in a readable 12-point font,
• single spaced, but double spaced between paragraphs, and
• professional in appearance, meaning there is no need to use pink paper or anything other than black ink. Seriously.

As I already mentioned, by thinking of your query letter in portions, you’ll likely find it easier to compose. At least, I do. What are those portions? I’m glad you asked! I consider there are five sections (paragraphs) to a query letter, along with your basic contact information and your signature line:

Contact Information: Put your snail mail address, e-mail address, and phone number(s) at the top left hand corner of the page (or center the info, if you prefer, just keep it clean and professional).

Double space, and left-justified, type in the date. Double space again, and write the agent’s name, agency, and address. Double space again, and type: “Dear Mr./Ms./etc. LastName.” If you are unsure of the agent’s gender, then simply write “Dear FirstName LastName:” Finally, you’ll double space again to begin the body of the query letter.

Note: I included the above information for folks who might not be knowledgeable of how a standard business letter is formatted. I figure too much information is better than not enough.

The body of the query letter is where the five sections come into play. I write query letters in a five paragraph format. Here is a brief description of what each of these paragraphs should contain:

• Paragraph One: A personalized explanation (a sentence or two) of why you’re querying this particular agent (you should know this because you did all that research, remember?), the title of your novel, the approximate word count, and the genre.
• Paragraph Two: This is your hook, which is a one to two sentence generalization of your novel. Think high concept, the blurb line that you might tell someone when they ask about your book.
• Paragraph Three: Here, you want to expand on your hook, giving a little more information about conflict, motivation, characters, and the purpose of the story.
• Paragraph Four: A short bio, including prior publishing history (if any), contest finals/wins, writing organizations you are a member of (including if you’ve held any offices within the organizations), and any other pertinent information that relates to you as a writer. This is also the place to put your web site or blog addy, if you have one or both.
• Paragraph Five: This is your concluding paragraph. State what material you’re enclosing, if any (i.e. synopsis, first three pages, first chapter, etc–but only if these items are part of this particular agent’s submission guidelines OR if they’ve requested this information from you through a previous query or a personal meeting), what materials you can forward on if requested (partial or full), and if this is a snail mail submission, that you’ve enclosed a SASE for reply.

Then, you’ll simply close the letter with “Sincerely,” your typed name, and then your signature.

Also, more and more agents and editors are now accepting e-mail queries as a preference over snail mail queries. This is another reason why researching possible agents is so important–you definitely want to follow their guidelines. So if they want e-mail, you’ll e-mail, and if they want snail mail, you’ll snail mail. However, regardless of how you send the query, the format should remain the same: standard business, professional, and clean.

This might seem like a lot of information to process if you’ve never attempted writing a query letter before, which is why I’m going stop here. In part three, we’ll tackle paragraph one and two. Part four will tackle paragraph three, part five will be the remaining two paragraphs, and then I’ll likely follow up with a couple of posts about query letter etiquette, what to expect, and whatever else I think of. If you have specific questions you’d like me to address at any portion, just leave them in the comments section and I will make note of them!

We’ll cover part three next Wednesday. But I’ll be back on Friday for a whatever-I-feel-like-posting type of post, so if you have any questions about part one or part two, let me know before then, and I’ll try to answer them then.

Have a great few days!

Don’t Forget!

I’m at IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) today with a guest blog. Huge thanks to historical romance author TJ Bennett for inviting me to play in her playground. Prizes are being given away, so hop on over and check it out.

Also, all week at The Novel Girls, we’re talking about what we love about our cities. Stop by and say hi!

Tags: IMHO, Query Letter, The Novel Girls, TJ Bennett

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Authors, Contests, The Business of Writing, The Novel Girls, Writing, Writing Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.