Basics of Query Letters
Writing good query letters can really make or break an aspiring author's success. No matter how good your manuscript is, you need to have somebody read it to see that. Without a good query letter, you likely will never reach that point.
The first step to writing a good query letter is knowing your piece, and the agent well. The reason for this is that different agents represent different types of books. Thus, you should know the genre of your novel before you try to send it out to anyone or else you likely will send it to disinterested agents. What's more, search through the agents at agentquery.com and see if you can find ones who represent that genre and are looking for new writers.
Now that you have an applicable agent in mind, the challenge is writing a good query letter. To do that, you should break your query letter into three paragraphs. The hook, the synopsis, and the bio. Keep it short, so the cover letter as a whole will only take up a single page.
The hook should only be a sentence or two, and it's purpose is to grab the agent's attention. What makes this book unique? The synopsis should be a quick overview of the book's plotline to help the agent identify if the book is something he or she would like to market. Lastly, the bio shows why you're someone that the agent should be interested in.
In the end, you might not like how this form works and may end up doing something a little different for your query letter. Regardless, it's good to start with the standard format, to help learn your technique and to get practice at it.
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