Yesterday, thanks to spontaneously participating in #PitMad, I wrote a query.
What’s a query? It is a letter (email, these days) that you send to an agent, a publisher, or anyone who might help you along on your route to publication.
I hear you, devoted audience.
“But wait,” you are saying, “didn’t you already write a query to get ready for the Santa Barbara Writers Conference (SBWC)?”
Thank you for following along, for thinking so highly of me, that is so very kind of you…but no. A query is 200-400 words max. What I wrote in May was a book proposal and it was 19 pages long.
“Well, cutting that to a few paragraphs should be easy then,” you say, and again, I’m sorry, but you’re still wrong. It’s actually hard. So in case you are a writer-friend, as opposed to a friend with some other job, I’ve compiled the tips from my notes at SBWC on writing great queries:
Tip #1: Interest the reader with a hook written in the present tense. Make the reader care about the care-aracter. (I made that up just now…unless I didn’t. Feel free to tell me if you’ve heard of someone else saying such hokeyness first). Write your query so the reader will give a shit, a.k.a. want to read your book.
Tip#2: Show what is at stake. What are the interesting conflicts and driving forces within the book?
Tip#3: Build “the inverted pyramid.” On one side of the upside-down pyramid shape are your stakes and conflict. The other side is building tension or making choices. Imagine your query like a movie trailer. It covers: character –> situation/stakes –> choices the character has to make. At the tip of the pyramid, you have created a mini climax that doesn’t reveal too much.
“Damn! What’s gonna happen?!” should be the reaction from your reader that drives them to turn the page and read the first chapter of your work.
Tip#4: Be concise and write the query in the voice of the book. Use humor when applicable. This is a potential working relationship and everyone wants to work with someone who has a balanced idea of when to be serious and when to laugh.
Tip#5: Include brief information about why you are the best person to write this book and why they are the best choice to represent it. Research to be sure the reader handles the type of book you are writing and is open to submissions is the BEST way to ensure picking your book is a no-brainer!
STUFF TO AVOID:
Plot summaries
Length (Query is 200-400 words, max 1 page)
ONLINE RESOURCES:
https://queryshark.blogspot.com/
www.agentquery.com
https://www.janefriedman.com/query-letters/
What do you think?