Monday, November 29, 2010

What is a Query?

So you’ve written your novel, revised it, polished it, and feel it is ready for the world. Unless you have a relative in the publishing business, you’re going to need an agent. Most publishers won’t give you the time of day unless your manuscript is brought to them by an agent.

In order to snag an agent, you have to write a query. A query is a basic, one page letter that tells them what your work is about and who you are. You don’t want to fudge the query, or you’ll never get your foot in the door. Think about it, you just spent a year pouring your heart and soul into your work; you want to represent it in a way that expresses all the passion you feel. If you can’t convince an agent to view your work, you won’t convince a publisher to publish it.

Queries usually have three parts:
1) The hook – What makes your book awesome?
2) The synopsis – What is your book actually about?
3) Your bio – Why should anyone care that you wrote this book?

The rest of the week I’ll break the query down and give advice on writing each part.

3 comments:

  1. I couldn't figure out how to email you, so I will just comment here. I would be fine with you critiquing my query. Which one are you going to use?

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