The Complete Guide to Query Letters That Get Manuscript Requests
"The stand-alone query letter has one purpose, and one purpose only:
To seduce the agent or editor into reading or requesting your work.
The query is so much of a sales piece that you should be able to write it without having written a single word of the manuscript. For some writers, it represents a completely different way of thinking about your book—it means thinking about your work as a marketable commodity. To think of your book as a product, you need to have some distance to see its salable qualities."
So as a first time novelist I have no experience with queries...much less selling myself. Ask my about my story and I can talk for hours; ask me about myself and I'll be done in a few sentences. I don't think I'm alone on that, authors can be a very introverted bunch and self-aggrandizing usually isn't one of those traits!
As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be participating in Pitch Wars a competition for newbie writers to receive professional help for their manuscripts. The first part of course, is the query letter which needs to be interesting enough for them to consider. Only then can the full manuscript be sent, and then the winners will be chosen from that group. I REALLY want to get my book off the ground! This is a wonderful opportunity. However I have NO experience in queries so I spent the last day researching it to get myself ready. Which makes it the perfect topic for my next Article post.
What is a query letter?
This is the first contact the author makes to a publisher/agent to make them interested in you and your work. It is crucial and unlike any other form of communication. Sure, I could send an email saying "Hey, this is my book. It's cool. Check it yo." And will probably be waiting for the rest of my life. Query letters are precise, specific, and organized statements designed to prove to the publishers/agents that you are worth their time. To emphasize the above quote: -it means thinking about your work as a marketable commodity. You may love your story, but that doesn't mean they will unless you can prove to them that other people will love it...more specifically they'll love it enough to buy the damn thing.
About the article
I think this post is incredibly helpful, it breaks down the parts of the query letter format and explains the whys and hows. It gives a few examples but most importantly it tells you (without sugarcoating) what NOT to include. It also tells you how to go about sending the letters...which is super important if you want to come off as professional...and if you don't, that's its own problem.
So if you are currently working on (or plan to work on) your queries, then this should be a wonderful resource. If you still have more questions, the end of the article lists more resources about the topic so it's a great place to start!
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