An excellent question letter will help you make a long-lasting impression with literary brokers and transfer nearer to reaching your publishing goals. You’ve put months and even years into revising your novel, so ensure you put the identical care and analysis into the querying course of.
As a contract editor, I typically hear purchasers lamenting about “losing” queries. Earlier than doing their analysis, they throw collectively a fast question and ship it off to their dream agent, solely to get rejected. Now they’ve misplaced the prospect to land that specific agent. Now, in actuality, there are 1,000,000 explanation why the agent might need handed. Perhaps the e-book wasn’t a very good match for his or her pursuits, or they merely didn’t love the idea sufficient to request extra pages. However now this consumer will all the time marvel: What if I had labored tougher to craft a question letter that really represented my work?
That can assist you keep away from querying regret, I’ve put collectively three ideas for crafting a stronger question. You’ve poured a lot time into your novel, you owe it to your self to current the very best question letter doable.
The objective of the question letter is easy, to entice brokers to learn your full manuscript. The opening, hook, comparative titles, and creator bio are all devoted to reaching this objective. Brokers need to know: Why this story? Why now? Why are you the very best particular person to inform this story?
So it might sound pure to launch immediately into promoting mode with dramatic claims about your e-book.
My Superb Novel tackles the theme of recent consumerism with a unusual forged and humor so dry you’ll assume you’ve spent a day trekking throughout the Sahara.
Keep away from the urge to wax poetic about your work. Depart such a evaluation to future critics who receives a commission to dissect your deeper themes and remark oh-so-poetically in your writing model and prose. Keep in mind, you need to inform your story, fairly than telling brokers about your story.
You will get away with loads whenever you’re eighty-seven and the spitting picture of Betty White — waltzing by means of Saks Fifth Avenue in a stolen pair of Jimmy Choos, canoodling with each pool boy on the block — however Vangie Jacobs attracts the road at homicide. A minimum of she did, till her highschool rival and Blanche Devereaux impersonator, Lucille Clifton, sweeps into city, threatening to take every thing Vangie has labored so laborious to steal.
(By the way in which, I 100% need to write this e-book now!)
Think about these two examples are describing the identical e-book. The primary is so imprecise it might be speaking about nearly something. The second introduces a delightfully devious foremost character, a compelling story drawback, a touch at extra drama to return, and it does all of it by telling us the story, fairly than telling us concerning the story. We see the humor and quirky characters in motion, and this serves as proof that we will ship the e-book we’re pitching to brokers.
As authors, we’re each creatives and enterprise folks, even when we select to go the standard publishing route. The question letter is the right mixture of those two sides of our creator persona. We have to assume strategically and be skilled, however we need to make use of our core expertise, our creativity, when pitching the e-book. Tales promote, not imprecise claims of greatness, so put these storytelling expertise to work.
Your hook, also called the e-book description or pitch, is the core of any question letter. That is the place you persuade brokers that your novel is value studying. Nevertheless it’s not straightforward. How are you going to boil down a whole e-book right into a compelling pitch that clocks in round 300 phrases? If you wish to keep away from confusion and pointless particulars, use a mixture of those questions as your information:
- What does my foremost character need and why?
- What are they keen to do to get it?
- What’s going to occur in the event that they fail (the stakes)?
- What robust selections will they make alongside the way in which?
For those who can reply these questions whereas infusing your distinctive voice, even higher. Primarily, brokers must know who your story is about, what occurs, and why they need to care.
This query of “why” comes up loads when crafting queries. There’s the particular query of why an agent ought to put money into your characters and plot, and the broader query: Okay, however why this story? Why now? That “why” might focus on a singular perspective, an sudden plot twist, a compelling character journey, or any issue that makes your story really feel recent. This isn’t your time to show advertising knowledgeable and begin spouting numbers about why your e-book will promote. As a substitute, deal with one distinctive factor, whether or not huge or small, that makes your story stand out.
It could be one thing so simple as an uncommon setting that hasn’t been seen earlier than in your style. If that’s the case, carry that setting to life within the question. This was the case for my pal Ginny Myers Sain when she was pitching her debut YA thriller, Darkish and Shallow Lies.
Although La Cachette, Louisiana, is the “Psychic Capital of the World,” no one there has a clue what occurred to Elora Pellerin.
Discover how she introduces the primary story hook together with a nod on the uncommon setting, one thing she touches on once more later within the question. This twist on the standard YA thriller is a part of what made her e-book stand out to brokers.
Perhaps your story occurs in a traditional setting, nevertheless it has not often or by no means been instructed out of your chosen viewpoint. If that’s the case, spotlight why this angle issues and why you’re the very best particular person to jot down it.
Your “why” doesn’t should be big or groundbreaking. As talked about, it may be an sudden plot twist, an particularly robust character journey, or a narrative that hasn’t been instructed in your viewers earlier than. In pitching her center grade novel, Oddity, creator Sarah Cannon described it as Welcome to Night time Vale for center grade. In the identical manner, your “why” may deal with marrying two ideas which have by no means been paired earlier than.
For my part, no question letter is ever actually wasted. We’re all doing our greatest to achieve this inventive journey utilizing the data we now have on the time. However once we know higher, we do higher. So when you’ve lamented over “wasted” queries prior to now, give your self permission to cease fretting. Chances are you’ll not have landed your dream agent on the primary spherical, however there are all the time extra alternatives.
Transfer ahead utilizing these three ideas and take a look at once more. And once more. We’ve heard it earlier than, nevertheless it’s so true: Skilled writers aren’t those who by no means fail. They’re those who fail and cease making an attempt.
