When querying your book, the query, itself, is one of the most important parts of your submission to agents. Why? Because certain keywords in your query can make an agent reject it straight away, even before they get to your first pages.
So, buckle in, 'cause this baby is going to be my COMPREHENSIVE guide to writing the best query letter of your life! Feel free to ask any questions and I'll not only answer them, but add them into this blog post later :)
General Query Advice: How to Rehaul Your Current Query
Before we get into the fine details of a query, you need to make sure you have a good basis to go off of. So, here are some of my best tips when looking at your overall query.
The First Draft of Your Query Can and Will Suck
My first rule of querying would be to try writing a query... then starting another from scratch... then another... and another. Like writing a book, writing a good query will take several revisions, so don't feel back if it doesn't feel great on the first try. It shouldn't!
But Always Get Other Eyes on It
And, just like a good book, your query will also need beta readers or critiques. While hiring a professional is always a great option, it's not in everyone's price range. Friends, beta readers, or critique partners, while not experts, can help you pinpoint confusing or overly-generic and vague points in your query that need to be tightened up!
A Query is Not (IS NOT!) a Book Blurb
One of the biggest mistakes I see in queries is writing it as a blurb you'd see on the back of a published book. A query is not a book blurb! Sure, both are trying to get the premise of the book across and keep the reader intrigued enough to want to read the book, but alas, a query and a book blurb are not the same.
Book blurbs may have things like questions, vague statements, and generalizations made to appeal to a wider audience. Queries, however, reject all of those things.
While you don't want to spoil your entire book in your query, you do want to spoil some of it! Make it as specific as possible! Really show this agent why your book isn't like the hundreds of others they receive a day!
Now for the Specifics
So, now that we're done with overall advice for queries, here are some specific pieces of advice on what to write (and not write) in your query as well as what to (and to not) include. After this, we'll move onto formatting, but here we go!
You're Not a Bestseller Yet, So Don't Convince Them You Will Be
Statements like: "This is the next NYT bestseller!", "This is the next Harry Potter!", and "Publishers will be fighting over this book!" have absolutely no place in your query.
Yes, queries are about selling your book, and I encourage you to dream and think big, but just don't let those dreams seep into your query. Queries are just as much about the impression you make as an author as they are about your book and the agent reading it.
Statements like the above can make you seem big-headed and, receiving a hundred queries a day, agents see statements like that as a major turn-off. They don't want to work with authors who feel they're already the best! So, try to show your accomplishments, your talent, and your confidence in a query, but be humble.
Agents Don't Want Questions, They Want Answers
As slightly touched on above, avoid questions in your query altogether. Things like "what if Cinderella was there to kill the prince instead of marry him?" can sound enticing, but is usually a coin toss.
Finding a cool way to state this same information instead of ask it can not only show your skill as a writer, but add more intrigue. Try something like “When Cinderella made the prince drop to his knees, it wasn’t due to a proposal. When Cinderella went to the ball, she slit the prince’s throat.”
Same information, more intrigue! And no questions included!
The questions you absolutely, positively, without a doubt want to avoid are those that pertain to stakes. Statements like "what does she have to lose?", "but is anything the way it seems?", and "will she make it out?" aren't looked upon kindly in the querying world.
Why? Because they're vague and not as interesting to read as you may think! Tell us what she has to lose. Tell us the lies that are discovered. Tell us why she will or won't make it out! Knowing is more enticing to a literary agent than guessing. Which leads us to our next piece of advice.
Be Specific! Be Specific! Be Specific!
Another one of the worst mistakes I see in queries is how generically they're written! Sure, nothing is wholly original, and most plots are classic ones at their core, but that's not what you should focus on.
Your book is original. Your book has only been written by you. The agent needs to see that.
If you're writing YA Fantasy, your query shouldn't be full of generic fantasy words with a plot about an enemy-to-lovers romance between a prince and a reluctant, badass princess, and ending with a question. None of these things are bad to have in your plot, but they're also common tropes that might make an agent write off your story as unoriginal.
Maybe the prince is secretly actually the princess who took her brother's identity on when he died? Maybe the princess is reluctant to marry because her kingdom's been cursed to fall to ruin after her first kiss? Focus less on the generic parts of your story and try to tell your plot using the things that make it unique!
That being said, make sure you include the plot. The entire plot. You need to have your main characters by name, the inciting incident, the stakes, and maybe even the resolution, all in your query. If your first paragraph is just the first five chapters and you have one paragraph for the rest of the book, it's unbalanced!
Your query should reflect your book. Advertise what you've written as it is, not as you feel it should be. Sometimes, writing queries can even make us realize our plots are unbalanced, so they're a great tool! If you feel like your plot is just a series of events, look over your book and see if maybe it needs another round of editing before it's query-ready.
All That Being Said, Don't Confuse the Agent
Your story should be easy to follow. Especially for fantasy authors or those writing culturally-inspired stories, pick and choose the uncommon words you need for your query to work and explain those terms so the reader will understand.
Be choosy and pick only the important terms. For example, my book has brujas (the Spanish term for our cultural witches), so I feel like that word is important to the cultural aspect of the book. If I said witches, it wouldn't have the same effect. So, I use the word, and I either explain or indicate that it means having magic.
On the other hand, I have a made-up religion in my book as well. The women of the clergy are called vestals instead of nuns. Is it important for the worldbuilding of the book? Yes. Is it something the agent needs to know to understand the book? No. If I needed to include the word vestal in my query, I would simply say nun.
Queries are short and that's what makes them even harder. Don't use up words explaining terms you can easily exchange for others. Pick and choose what you need.
But, all that being said, make sure you're not too generic. What I mean by this is that, say, instead of just calling it "the kingdom", introduce this kingdom with its name. For example: the Kingdom of Andalasia. That way, throughout the query, you can simply say Andalasia.
A small change like this can make your query feel a lot more specific to your book, even by just changing one word!
All in all, if you use a word, stick to it. Consistency is the key to not confusing an agent when they’re reading.
The Importance of Comp Titles
Comp titles are important for every query. While they're not technically a necessity, I would consider them one. Good comp titles help an agent know right away if they could sell a book like this, where on a shelf it would be, and if they'd reach for it.
Generally, comp titles should be a mixture of well-known books (try to avoid mega-hits when possible) and lesser-known books. However, in my personal opinion, it's always best to pick and choose things to compare your books to within those comp titles.
For example:
THE TIGER AT MIDNIGHT meets TO ALL THE BOYS I‘VE LOVED BEFORE and BLADE RUNNER can look a bit confusing.
The Tiger at Midnight is a YA fantasy, TATBILB is a YA contemporary romance, and Blade Runner is an adult sci fi movie based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? Comping all of these books together can sound intriguing, but the agent is unsure how they fit together. Try to avoid comping movies altogether, but what works, works.
What I prefer is something along the lines of:
The Hindu-mythology-based magic system of THE TIGER AT MIDNIGHT meets the letter-hunt and romance of TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE and the futuristic bounty hunters of BLADE RUNNER.
In the examples above, getting more specific about why you've chosen your comp titles can really give an agent a picture of what your book is like and whether they'd want to represent that or not. This is especially true for genre blending books.
You can choose comps for tone, writing style, atmosphere… pretty much anything you want! Just specify.
As a general rule, comp titles should be at most five years old, but this can be tweaked a little. Just make sure that you have 2-3 comp titles (no more), and that most are recent. Agents want to see that books like yours can fit into the current market.
Get Your Salutations Right!
Always check your agent's preferred pronouns and address the letter directly to them. If you want to avoid any pronoun mishaps, most agents don't mind you simply using their full name.
Always always always make sure you have an agent's name and pronouns correct before sending off a query.
The Dreaded Query Structure
A query has a few main parts: Salutation, personalization, meta data, bio, and what I call "the meat" or the actual premise of your book (which is usually 2-3 paragraphs).
All queries should be between 250 and 500 words altogether, though I prefer keeping them between 300-400 when possible. My own queries have broken this rule so, as long as you don't break the 250-500 rule, you should be fine as long as it's worth it!
Salutation goes at the very top (obviously) but what then? Well, some agents have preferences on where the meta data should go and it's a grand debate among agents, but if the agent doesn't state a preference, here are my general rules.
Look at your query. If your opening lines and premise of your premise paragraphs are incredibly strong, start there. Draw the agent in with your premise, characters, and hook!
If your meta data paragraph (which contains: comp titles, title of your book, word count, genre, and age category) is super intriguing and just screams to everyone that the book is a must read, put it right under the salutation.
I would say: play around with it. Ask some people to read both versions. Try to see what works best for your query!
The bio should include any relevant writing experience you have. This doesn't just limit itself to contests or published works, but also perhaps a book blog you've started or otherwise?
If you don't have any writing experience, don't fret! Briefly talk about yourself (briefly!) and never apologize for not having experience. Apologizing will draw the agent to your inexperience, so simply own what you do have and ignore what you don't!
A bio should go right before your friendly sign off.
Whenever Possible: Personalize
Before querying, you should do your research on which agents would be an absolutely perfect fit for your book. This can come from MSWL, personal websites, etc. Either way, there should be a reason you're querying that agent, so tell them!
Putting in a line or two before or after your meta data about why you've chosen said agent not only shows them you put in your hours of research, but that your book might be a good fit! Personalizing queries isn't guaranteed a response, but generally have more responses than a general query.
That's It
So, that's it. That's my comprehensive list of what to do with your query. If you have any questions about what I've said or something I haven't covered, feel free to ask!
And always always remember that querying is difficult and competitive. Many authors shelve books. Nearly all if not all published authors have gotten more rejections than requests.
This business is incredibly subjective and requires a thick skin. That being said, please do not be disrespectful towards agents that reject you. At the end of the day, they're only doing their job. Just keep moving forward and you'll find that perfect fit!
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