Writing the Fiction Query Letter: Part Five
If you’ve written a novel and are looking for representation, you will need to write a query letter. In part one of this series, I talked about how imporant researching prospective agents is, in part two, I gave the basic elements of a query letter, in part three, I shared information about the first two paragraphs (the intro and the high concept “pitch” sentence), and last week, I focused on the third paragaph (the blurb of your story).
For a refresher, or if you haven’t read the previous posts, here are the links to each of these parts:
To read Part One, go HERE
To read Part Two, go HERE
To read Part Three, go HERE
To read Part Four, go HERE
Today, I’m going to focus on the fourth and fifth paragraphs, which will bring this series of posts to an end. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you’ll have a better idea of how to go about writing your query letter. As a reminder, these final paragraphs are:
- 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.
We’re already done with the most difficult aspects of writing a query letter, and these last two paragraphs shouldn’t take you much time to put together. Up first is the short bio paragraph. Here is that paragraph from my original query letter for A TASTE OF MAGIC:
I am a member of several writing organizations, have served as Vice President for my local chapter of RWA, and attend at least two writing conferences every year. I work as a freelance writer and copywriter; therefore, I understand revisions, promotion, and how to write to a deadline. I have recently contracted to write a non-fiction book on wedding planning with a small publisher.
See? Nice and simple. Of course, working as a freelance writer made it rather easy for me to construct this paragraph. But what if your job has nothing to do with writing? There are several possiblities:
- Writing Organizations. Do you belong to any? If so, make mention of it.
- Writing Conferences. Do you attend them? One sentence stating so is all you need.
- Contests. Have you finaled or won in any writing contests? If so, this is the place for it.
- Relevance. Does you book cover a topic you have some type of expert knowledge of? Don’t go overboard, but mention it.
- Blogs. Do you have a blog that has a decent audience? Yep–mention it.
- Websites. Do you already have a writing website? If so, it is perfectly acceptable to share the web addy in this section.
- Publishing History. Are you already published? E-press, small press, magazines, non-fiction, etc? You definitely want to mention this, along with the name you’re published under (if you used a pseudonym). What doesn’t count? Self-published works, unless you have had exceptionally strong sales.
What if you aren’t published, don’t belong to any writing organizations, have never gone to a conference or entered a writing contest, your day job/expertise has nothing to do with your book, don’t have a blog, and have yet to put together a website? It’s okay! Don’t make things up just to fill this paragraph. In this case, I would probably just skip this paragraph entirely. However, there are some agents who request a bio to be included with any submissions. If this is the case, then you’ll need to put something together, but don’t freak out over it! I promise. Really and truly. Just write something short and sweet, but keep it professional. If your book is amazing, no one is going to care that you’ve never gone to a writing conference, and if your book isn’t so great–well, having gone to a zillion of them isn’t going to sell the book.
Now we’re to the final paragraph. This is the easiest of them all! Depending on the specific agent/editor and their specific submission guidelines, you might be submitting:
- A one page query letter and nothing else.
- A one page query letter and a synopsis.
- A one page query letter and the first “x” pages of the manuscript.
- A one page query letter, the first “x” pages of the manuscript, and a synopsis.
For the purposes of this example, let’s assume Ms. Agent requires a query letter and the first five pages of the novel (not attached). She accepts e-mail queries. Here’s how the final paragraph might look:
The first five pages of A Spoonful of Sugar…A Pinch of Magic are pasted below, per your submission guidelines. I am able to send the partial or the complete manuscript upon your request. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Tracy Madison
All you need to do is state what is attached/enclosed (remember, though, unless the submission guidelines say that you can attach a file to your e-query, don’t do it. Always copy/paste instead), and for snail mail queries, add on one more sentence that states “I have enclosed a SASE for your reply.”
That’s it. Truly. We’re done. Here is the complete query letter:
Dear Ms. Agent:
I am an avid reader of your blog, The Agent’s Side, and have learned a lot about the publishing industry through your posts. I am seeking representation for my completed 85,000 word novel, A Spoonful of Sugar…A Pinch of Magic. This light paranormal romance is both the humorous and emotional story of a woman’s path to finding happiness in her world.
A thirty-five-year-old divorced woman discovers there’s a lot more to living than she thought when she inherits her great-great-great-grandmother’s Gypsy Magic, and using it, she curses her ex-husband and his mistress’s honeymoon, and then systematically attempts to change her life, and those around her, with one misfired magic spell after another.
Who knew magic was so difficult? Not Elizabeth Stevens, but here she is, baking everything from magical muffins to enchanted cupcakes to fix problems for her sister, her friends, and herself. Only none of the results are quite right. Add in visits from her ghostly great-great-great-grandmother, dating two hot men (is it because of the muffins?), her living but loony grandmother, and Elizabeth’s conflicted emotions about her ex, everything is definitely not coming up roses. Elizabeth has a choice to make, one that has little to do with magic. With the help of a Quija board, her ghost-grandma, a snake, and a decade old piece of frozen wedding cake, Elizabeth learns that her future is up to her, and she finally believes in love and in herself. At the end, she passes the magical gift to her single and pregnant sister, and kisses her old life goodbye–in more ways than one.
I am a member of several writing organizations, have served as Vice President for my local chapter of RWA, and attend at least two writing conferences every year. I work as a freelance writer and copywriter; therefore, I understand revisions, promotion, and how to write to a deadline. I have recently contracted to write a non-fiction book on wedding planning with a small publisher.
The first five pages of A Spoonful of Sugar…A Pinch of Magic are pasted below, per your submission guidelines. I am able to send the partial or the complete manuscript upon your request. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Tracy Madison
Okay, so I’m the first to admit that this letter isn’t the best ever, or even the best it could be. It isn’t…and um…no, it’s not. But this is the book I sold, so if anything, that should show you that you don’t have to write the best ever query letter to get requests. In fact, if you focus on being clear, concise, and showing off your voice while explaining your story, that’s more than enough. We’ve gone through the entire letter together, and it’s taken me a lot of words to explain what breaks down to a one page letter (though, I never said I was succinct–or that great of a teacher!), but I hope I’ve shed a little light on the process. Once you’ve written a few query letters, you’ll find the process a heck of a lot easier.
What happens once you send the query letter out? Well, that would take another series of posts, but don’t expect to get zero rejections. I received plenty of rejections. I also recieved plenty of requests. If you’re getting requests, then you’re doing something right. If you’ve sent out ten or more queries, though, with zero requests, then it’s probably time to take another look at your letter.
Here are some links that will give you more information on query letters:
- Agent Kristin Nelson’s Blog: If you look at her right sidebar and scroll down, you’ll find the heading “Agent Kristin’s Queries: An Inside Scoop,” and below that heading are links to the query letters some of her clients used.
- Bookends LLC Blog: Same thing! If you look at the right sidebar, you’ll find links to all sorts of interesting and relevant posts about submissions (including queries), and there are also links to query letters that some of Bookends clients used.
- Agent Nathan Bransford’s Blog: Take a peek at Nathan’s left sidebar and you’ll find the heading “THE ESSENTIALS (Please read before querying),” where you’ll find posts about publishing, query letters (including the basic format that Nathan prefers), and more.
- Query Shark Blog: Agent Janet Reid helps writers hone their query letters with honest feedback. If you have the courage, you can even submit your own letter for her to go over (if she chooses it)–just be aware that this isn’t the same as querying her for representation.
- The Novel Girls: Each of us at The Novel Girls took a stab at writing about query letters earlier in the year.
There is tons of information out there, and as I said in the beginning of this series, my format is just that–my format, so don’t be surprised to see a lot of differing information out there. Whichever format/style you choose to use, just be sure to keep your letter professional, clear, and concise.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask them!
Don’t Forget!
The Novel Girls are still talking about the holidays. Stop on over and celebrate the holidays with us!
Tags: A Taste of Magic, BookEnds LLC, Kristin Nelson, Nathan Bransford, Query Letters, Query Shark, The Novel Girls
