How I wrote my Query Letter

Of course, after you write your novel, most of you know that if you want to pursue traditional publishing you need to find an agent to represent you and the first step to doing that is to write a Query Letter.

When I drafted my first query letter, I googled query letter and read around twenty articles on how to write successful query letters.  I then drafted mine in accordance with their varied instructions.

Query Shark

I then found the web-page Query Shark.  I followed her instructions (one of which is to read every entry to her blog), I learned a lot, and I revised my query letter.  I did submit my query letter to Query Shark, but she admits that because of the large amount of submissions, if she accepted the query letter to post on her site, it might take 3-6 months.



This Query Shark revised Query Letter is what I sent to the first 9 agents to seek representation.  On a side not, most agents require 30 pages or 2-3 chapters with the query letter, and most require that you send all of this in the body of an email, which requires you to copy and paste and reformat everything, so be aware.

From these original 9 agents I emailed 2 months ago, I have received 2 negative replies.  Most of the agent web-pages stated that if I received no contact after six weeks, then I should assume that they do not want to represent me.

Rachael Herron

Moving on, I paid a professional to look at my query letter and suggest improvements.  I paid $100 to Rachael Herron, self-proclaimed query letter whisperer.  I heard about her service on her podcast, How Do You Write?, and received her suggestions within 48 hours.  I rewrote my query letter and plan on sending them out as soon as I receive my manuscript back from the structure editor that I hired.





Here are reprints of my 1st draft, the draft after I read Query Shark, and the draft after I had Rachael Herron look at it:
Query Letter - 1st Draft
Query Letter - After Query Shark
Query Letter - After Rachael Herron

In future blog entries, I'll let you know about my success with my new query letter and let you know if I change them any more and why.

RR

Resources

Specific Web-pages for Query Letter assistance:
Query Shark Web-Page
Rachael Herron Web-Page

Query Letter Articles:
https://nybookeditors.com/2015/12/how-to-write-a-darn-good-query-letter/
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-write-the-perfect-query-letter
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/successful-queries