Query Letters
Jenna Petersen
This article comes from a Writing Question Wednesday question from my blog.
The Question: How do I write an effective
query letter without sounding like a desperate moron?
Query letters are a tough beast, definitely. And they seem to be becoming more
and more important with fewer houses accepting anything but a query from
unagented authors. So your query either has to catch the eye of an agent or an
editor enough that they ask for more material, where your writing will shine
through.
Okay, here is how I did my query letters. This is in no way the 'right' way.
It's just my way. It may work for you. It may not. I'll demonstrate through an
example of the query letter that ended up catching Miriam's (my agent) eye.
Dear Ms. Agent:
Obviously this will be directed toward whatever specific agent you're querying.
As with querying editors, always make sure you query a real person, not Dear
Madame or Dear Agent or whatever. The nice thing is that with more and more
agents putting up websites, it's easier to tell which agent from which agency
will take queries on your kind of romance. So do a little homework first. :)
Paragraph 1: Both Ginny Blanchard and Simon Webber have reasons to hide from
love, but once they meet they begin to find even more reasons to embrace it,
despite the terrible secret that threatens to destroy them. Now they must fight
the past and each other to keep their love alive in A Widow’s Kiss, my
95,000-word Regency-set historical.
In the first paragraph, I tried to have a eye-catching opening sentence. This
one is a little long, actually, in retrospect. Anyway, the first paragraph, I
tried to include a brief (VERY BRIEF) summary of the story, the word length and
the subgenre of romance. This way the editor or agent knows right off the bat
what mind set they should be in when moving forward.
Paragraph 2: Ginny has dark secrets. Ones she’s willing to hide away from the
world in order to keep. But when Simon arrives at her home as trustee of her
young son’s inheritance, his presence reminds her of everything she’s given up.
As he pushes ever closer to her, thwarting her every attempt to send him away
and taking over her senses with his touch, his kiss and his unexpected honor,
she realizes that she has even more to lose. Because if he finds out how far
she’s gone to protect her life and her child, all she’s fought for could be
forfeit. Including Simon’s love.
The second paragraph almost always involved a little bit about character. Most
of my work tends to be character driven. And the hero and heroine and their
internal struggles will almost always be the focal point of the book in a
romance. I want the editor or agent to have really strong grasp right off the
bat about what kind of characters I write.
Paragraph 3: Writing as Jess Michaels, I will be published in Secrets, Volume
11 from Red Sage Publishing in December 2004 with my novella “Ancient
Pleasures”. Arabella Magazine will also be publishing my short story “Dueling
the Debutante” in their April/May 2004 issue. I have been writing full-time
since 1999. In addition, I own and maintain The Passionate Pen, a popular
website for aspiring authors.
In the third paragraph I put stuff about myself. By this time in my journey, I
had some nice credits, which made it easier. However, you can put a lot of
different kinds of things for credits. Things like contest finals, how long
you've been a member of RWA, how many books you've written, if you've
volunteered for chapter or national service, if you have experience in life or
work that could pertain to your books, etc. Just a bit to let the agent or
editor know that you're serious about your writing career and that you're a real
live person. :)
Closing: Enclosed you will find a short synopsis and the first chapter for
your review. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Sincerely,
Make sure you include whatever kinds of materials the editor or agent wants. The
Irene Goodman Agency (which Miriam works for) wanted a chapter of work included
with the query/synopsis. Some might just want a synopsis. Some might wnat just
the query. Again, do homework and make sure you send what they want. No use
frustrating someone before they even get to your work.
So that's how I did my query letters. The nice thing was that once I had a
template, I could alter it for my stories, add credits when I got new ones, etc.
One more thing, if you've had contact with the editor or agent you're querying,
make sure you put that in paragraph 1! Then your opening would read something
like:
Dear Ms. Kriss,
We met at the New Jersey Romance Writers conference in early October. After my
pitch, you requested a partial of my 95,000 word historical romance, A Widow's
Kiss, which I am enclosing for your review. I also enjoyed our conversation
later over dinner (wasn't that chicken awful?).
Then you could launch into your regular query (quickly describing the book
again)... With that opening, the agent or editor would have their memory jogged
about who you were and that they requested your work. The thing is a lot of
these editors and agents go to conferences EVERY WEEKEND. They meet a lot of
authors. So you have to give their memory a little goose if you talked to them.
:)