3 Things to Know About Query Letters

By Rose Atkinson-Carter

An exciting world of possibility opens up when you’ve finished writing your manuscript. There are many steps you can take to get your story out into the world, and if you’re interested in going into traditional publishing your next step is clear: sending query letters to prospective literary agents. 

Writing query letters is a different game than writing a book. You’re trying to introduce yourself and your story to a literary agent and convince them that you’re worth taking on. There’s a lot of advice out there on how to write a query letter, but before you even start writing, you need to understand what it’s trying to do. That way you can craft a succinct query letter that will help you stand out. With that in mind, here are three things you should know about query letters.

1. A query letter is a test of your pitching abilities

As excited as you might be about your story, a literary agent doesn’t know anything about it. They receive too many inquiries to read every single manuscript that comes into their inbox, and they won’t pick something up if they have no idea what it’s about, or if figuring out what it’s about seems unusually difficult. Before they even crack your book open, an agent wants to know whether it fits their criteria and if they find it interesting. That’s where your query letter comes in. It introduces you and your story to a literary agent and convinces them that there’s something in your manuscript they might enjoy. 

Business people often talk about creating an elevator pitch for yourself, selling your abilities in the two minutes it takes for an elevator to reach its destination. In some ways, this is what you’re trying to do with a query letter: sell your story (and yourself) in one page. So it’s important to brush up on your persuasive writing skills because that’s what you need the most as you craft a query letter.

Remember, the emphasis here is on the story itself, not the story of how you wrote it. The inspiration behind your book might be interesting, but it doesn’t always say much about the actual experience of reading it. Most of your query letter should be dedicated to introducing an agent to your book and convincing them that what you’re offering is worth their time.

The idea is to find a way to differentiate yourself from all the other writers out there, showing why your story is unique and fit to be published. One of the best ways to show that is through your knowledge of the market.

2. Query letters demand that you show some understanding of the literary market

Publishing is a business and it’s important to remember that when you’re pitching. A literary agent is concerned with both the quality of your work and how salable it is. Your manuscript is where you show them the quality, but the query letter is the place to convince them that what you have is marketable. 

To do that, you’ll have to do a little research into the literary market, specifically in the genre or category your book falls under. Does your book use certain tropes that are popular right now? Are you writing in a hot sub-genre? These are just some of the questions an agent might expect to see answered in your query letter. It’s okay if you’re not necessarily writing something that is tailor made for the current market, but providing some idea about who might read your book will let agents know that you’ve thought about how to sell it and get it published.

You might also want to identify who your target audience is and some relevant comp titles. These are often used by agents and marketing departments at publishers to craft the actual marketing plan for a book, so when you have something already thought out, it shows your book’s sales potential. For example, you could say your book is for fans of foodie cozy mysteries like Mia P. Manansala’s Arsenic and Adobo and Vivien Chien’s Death by Dumpling.

You don’t need to have an advanced degree in business to pitch your book. Showing that you’ve done the work and understand the market enough to argue your case can be enough to get an agent interested.

3. A good query letter is tailored to each recipient

An agent might read dozens of queries per day, so finding a way to stand out from the crowd is important. If your letter is too generic, it might get lost in the slush pile. This isn’t to say that you need to write each query letter from scratch. Keep your main information the same throughout, but add a section that you can personalize for each agent you reach out to. 

A personalized letter is memorable, even if it’s just a few lines about how you liked the last book they worked on or how you believe your book is in a similar vein to a previous client’s. Of course, you’ll have to do a little extra homework to get this information. Look at their previous clients and any books they’ve represented, especially if they overlap with the genre you’re writing in. Even something as small as sharing a common interest can spark an agent’s interest. If you learned about them from a mutual friend or a previous client, you can mention that connection. In general, people remember when someone took the time to learn about them and it can be incredibly helpful in establishing a business relationship. 

Query letter writing is an art all on its own, and every author approaches it differently. But keeping these ideas in mind will help you create a letter that meets any agent’s standards while still standing out.

Rose Atkinson-Carter is a writer with Reedsy, advising authors on all things publishing, from explaining how one can find ghostwriters to how you can make your own audiobook. She lives in London.