Writing a Query Letter

Writing my first query letter has been transformative.

I have lived the life of a phoenix. Taken my beak to shell. Swelled with the glory of flight. Burned into ashes. And then, in a chorus of mystical chemistry, I remade myself.

Eh, in short, it was really effin’ hard.

Here’s my personal path from zero to my first query letter ever.

Stage 1. I Googled “query letter.” Terrifying. TOO MUCH advice. Too few examples.

@SafajarWrites saw me crumbling, and she pointed me to @LindsayWrites‘ tweet about her successful query: This is the first thing that made the query letter feel do-able.

Lindsay Lackey, author of All the Impossible Things, sent 25 query letters. She got 20 requests: 18 fulls, 2 partials. Hell yeah.

Lindsay’s thread was the first example of a query that had the stats to confirm it had been successful. It was also the first time somebody told me to use voice.

I broke her query down by word count. I read everything she said, and I dissected her query again. Here are my notes:

This all took ~3 days.

Stage 2. I shared my fragile draft with “safe” readers.

Four writer friends who do memoirs and children’s books read my query letter. These writers hadn’t read my novella yet, but they’d heard some excerpts. My husband also read it.

These readers were gentle but honest. With their help, I attacked the most clunky, tangled, boring phrases. My query letter improved.

That took 2 weeks.

Stage 3. I discovered Query Shark (@QueryShark)! I read everything.

The website is run by brutal (and brilliant) agent Janet Reid (@Janet_Reid). I cannot fathom how she has the time and energy to run this site in addition to managing all of the books she has repped and sold. But she’s critiqued, with hilarious flair, ~300 query letters.

At first, I thought “some of these queries suck, do I really need to read all the entries?” (A) Yes, I did. (B) I shouldn’t have been so uppity, because I was making some basic-ass mistakes.

Query Shark tightened the belt on my word count: my query went from 330 words to 250 words. I submitted to Query Shark. My letter wasn’t picked for critique, but clicking “send” forced me to work hard first.

Notably, Ms. Reid reaffirmed the importance of voice in her crits:

I also started following Mindy McGinnis (@MindyMcGinnis) via the Writer Writer Pants on Fire podcast. She’s the author of a pile of great friggin’ books. On her blog (by the same name as the podcast), she also crits query letters in a series called The Saturday Slash.

She has ~200 crits posted. A little burned out after my Query Shark dive, I read about 30. She’s also a sharp, astute crit-writer. Her preferences seemed to align with those on Query Shark.

Stage 3 took about 1 week.

Stage 4. I tweeted for more help, and BOOM, Twitter delivered.

@EliseIsWritinYA pulled me into my first DM group, one for query letter + synopsis swapping.

The group shared the following:

• Patrick Bohan’s “Query Letter ‘Mad Libs’ Formula” is brilliant. It aligns (roughly) with what @LindsayWrites says and with Query Shark. It can help you add layers of conflict complexity. The drawback is this formula relies on your book having a single, clear (or at least main) big baddie. (My book just doesn’t.)
• Writer’s Digest did a “Successful Queries” series, with 60 successful query letters plus explanations from agents. I read about 10 letters. This source got a little overwhelming, but seeing so much variety in the letters was encouraging. There is no one “right way” to get the query letter done, just key elements that it needs to possess (e.g., tension, stakes, conflict, voice).
• In 2008, Nathan Bransford, an agent, examined 180 queries submitted to him in a week to determine “The Best Length for a Query Letter.”
• Emma Lombard, an author, asked 14 literary agents to share their biggest tips and pet peeves for query letters.

This all happened in 1-2 days.

Stage 5. I found the courage to actually share my letter… with Internet strangers!

Internet strangers shredded it. The experience was awesome and brutal. Yes, I had a few beers. Yes, it was intimidating. But 100%, this step was critical.

I swapped with four people over several drafts.

Stage 5 took 1.5 weeks.

Stage 6. I arrived at a draft worthy of submission.

Deciding my query was ready (“ready?”) didn’t involve a choir of angels descending. No fireworks, no confetti. It was more that I noticed feedback diverging. Folks were still giving suggestions! But the feedback wasn’t overlapping anymore.

I’ll likely keep tweaking. This is the kind of document you could polish for years. BUT I do feel confident in saying “Yes, I have a query letter.”

Reflection. So, weird flex, I have an MA in 19th-Century Romantic Poetry. I wrote a dissertation. I’ve also been a technical editor for ~10 years. The query letter is still the most difficult document I’ve ever had to prepare. It took 14 drafts minimum + just over a month. I had to cut some very precious darlings. However, even though my “book” is just a humble novella (35,000 words), I’ve tried to take the process seriously. And because of that, I feel far more prepared to do it again next time.

On to the synopsis!

Update (as of 2022): I’ve shelved my novella. But as I prep my next query letter for my first full-length book, I’ve actually got some confidence. Because you know what? That first query letter got a request for a full from my top agent in my first round! For a sci-fi horror novella! And even though putting in the time and energy was exhausting, I can tell this process made me better: a better writer, a better editor, a better critique-giver and critique-taker.

On to the next!