You’re here! Hooray!
You’d be amazed the number of people who blindly send out query letters and manuscripts without doing a lick of research. Crazy, I tell you. So treat yourself to some ice cream because you’re already way ahead of them.
You may even already know the query letter basics. If not, a quick refresher. The job of the query letter is to make the editor or agent want to read more.
Your query letter MUST have:
- Genre (Contemporary YA, Dystopian, Paranormal Romance, Thriller—you get it, right?)
- Word count
- A brief description of the book
- Whether you’ve published before (books, magazine articles, high school newspaper–well, ok maybe not so much unless you’re fresh out of high school–short stories, self-publication)
- Anything relevant about you personally in relation to writing (like, say, organizing a fabulous online conference attended by thousands of aspiring writers)
So that covers a lot. And even with just those basics, you’re pretty golden. But there are a few ways to go above and beyond that could (and I say could because everyone’s different) help you really stand out from the pack:
- Reference a book that editor/agent has worked on. It shows you’ve done your homework. It makes me feel like you really want me in particular to be your partner on your book. And who doesn’t want to feel special?
- Be aware of trends. If it’s a huge trend right now, chances are any editor or agent you’re submitting to has seen a bazillion queries on the same topic. So what do you do if you’ve got a teen dystopian vampire romance ready for submission when we’ve seen a gazillion vampires/werewolves/demons/angels or dystopian settings where one girl has to go up against a corrupt government?
- Make it different. Kiss of death in YA-land is feeling like you’ve read something before. Call it something that’s not a vampire. Can you angle away from the paranormal element so it feels more like a thriller? Take about 20 steps back—or get a critique partner you trust—to see how you can reshape your description of the novel. That’s what we call positioning. Dive back into the text to shift focus if you need to.
- Pretend you’re writing back cover copy. In the descriptive part of the query letter, keep it short, keep it punchy, make me want to know more. It’s exactly the mentality I have when writing descriptions for the back cover or jacket flap.
- Get connected. Having a Twitter account or a blog doesn’t make a whole lot of difference these days unless you have a seriously impressive following. But if you’re friends with other published authors—better yet, if one of them has given you a blurb—I definitely want to know about it.
You are now prepared to go forth and query!
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Leah Hultenschmidt is a Senior Editor at Sourcebooks, where she acquires young adult fiction for the Fire imprint and adult romance for the Casablanca imprint. You can read more about Leah here or find submission guidelines here.
Excellent suggestions for helping your query stand out! Thank you.
Yay, thanks for doing this! Great suggestions!
Great tips! *goes to get ice cream*
Great tips. Thanks.
Great tips!
Hi, Leah! Thank you for sharing these great tips.
These points can;t be stressed enough, Leah. Thank you for your time!
Thanks for this post! It’s always good to remember query basics.
Excellent post! Thank you!
What if you haven’t been published before. Do you say so or just leave that part out? Thanks for a rundown of the important pointss
I wasn’t sure before if mentioning their work was good or not – thanks for clearing that up!
Thanks, Leah. WriteOnCon is a great source of query info!
Thanks so much for this!!! It definitely helps!!
Great suggestions for helping ones query stand out!
Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to help make WriteOnCon one of the best conferences ever.
Thanks for helping steer me in the right direction. Sheri
This has helped me SO much. Your advice on position is invaluable. THANKS!
Wonderful advice, thanks so much for being here to help us!
Thanks for the great advice. Query letters, for me, are the scariest part of writing. You want to stand out from the other queries and be noticed. I’ll remember this the next time I write a query.
Thanks for the advice. I do my homework for each person I query. I don’t often write that I’m querying them because they rep authors who have enough in common with my write genre/style because I hope it’s a given that I’ve made sure the agent or editor should be a good match for my writing. Maybe I should mention it.
Thank you for sharing these tips! I’ll use this as I rewrite my current query letter.
I especially like the tip about positioning – when it comes to queries, we all need a bit of that Don Draper razzle dazzle. Thanks for the great advice!
Thank you, Leah!
Great tips for queries.
Oh, this was just what I needed to read. Thank you! You’ve answered some lingering questions I had about queries.
Great post! I’ve just drafted my first query and the forums have been really helpful.
Also, I’m so glad to see you’re a part of Write on Con. I just posted a link to my RWA chapter’s contest where you are the YA editor judge (along with Sara Megibow). I’m bummed I can’t enter it since I belong to the chapter, but hopefully you’ll get some great entries!
Thank you. Succinct and helpful.
Ah! Thanks for the tips. I have an awesome critique partner who wrote my query and it rocks. Now I just need to send it out.
Thank you for this great reference list!
Hi Leah ,you are doing well, I see you…on all the blogs . Recently I was contacted by Penny Ekkert to do a cover for a paranormal book “One bite per night” with pictures she gave me .(I do my own shootings) those pictures were …unusable. Who is the art director there? I did 3 versions With no result . I sent a bill for a rejection fee… I worked before with Greg Avila with good results, I guess he left. The best to you.Franco