While researching query letters for my free Tuesday Topic educational teleseminar, A Writer's Guide to Query Letters, I'm presenting tomorrow at 4:00 PM EST, I ran across a very strong
book about query letters.
Not exact matches
I floated out a
query about chapter
books for boys on Twitter and received a wonderful response (thank you people of Twitter)!
We will contact you if you send us a
query about your membership, order, screening the film Tigers, volunteering,
booking a speaker or similar issues.
The
book is written in a question - and - answer format and features a central character, Angus the Answer Dog, who addresses basic
queries about starting school, including what a teacher does and what you can find in a preschool classroom.
Investigative reporter Brian Deer (left) answers a reader's
query about the bargain - basement
book value of government bullion
If you have a
query about something specific when your
book arrives, feel free to sing out and we'll be happy to help.
If you have any
queries about this event please contact us at enquiries @ or call our telephone
bookings hotline on 0845 862 1448 (9am - 5 pm).
A «
query» is a question or an inquiry, and a «letter» is a written or printed communication addressed to a person or organization; therefore, if you're an author, a «
query letter» is a written or printed communication addressed to a person or organization, asking a question
about your
book or
book idea.
This article is part of a free 15 - part tutorial
about How to Write a
Query Letter, written by Mark Malatesta, a former literary agent and former Marketing & Licensing Manager of a well - known
book publisher.
It's part of a free 15 - part training guide
about How to Write an Effective
Query Letter by Mark Malatesta, a former publishing agent and former Marketing & Licensing Manager of a well - known
book publisher.
In other words, if all you do in your
query letter is explain what your
book is
about, and include a short bio, the highest point score you can get is 50.
The success stories below
about query letters that worked were provided by authors of all
book genres (fiction, nonfiction, and children's
books).
Take a quick look at the sample
query letter one more time and see if you can figure out what her
book is actually
about.
These author case studies are part of our free training
about How to Write a Successful
Query Letter and
Query Letter Blog written by a former literary agent, former AAR member, and former Marketing & Licensing Manager for a well - known
book publisher.
Writing a
query letter isn't just
about seeing your
books clearly and describing them effectively — it's
about seeing yourself clearly and selling yourself effectively.
It's part of a free 15 - part training guide
about How to Write a
Query Letter by Mark Malatesta, a former literary agent and former Marketing & Licensing Manager of a well - known
book publisher.
That's because there's a lot of conflicting information
about query letters: in
books; on the Internet; and taught by publishing professionals at seminars, workshops, and writer events.
This article explains, and it's part of our free 15 - part guidelines
about How to Write a Compelling
Query Letter by Mark Malatesta, a former publishing agent and former Marketing & Licensing Manager of a well - known
book publisher.
As I mentioned during an earlier portion of this training on
Query Letter Examples, most of the information you'll find published
about queries, in
books and online, is lacking.
You'll also get my proprietary
Query Letter Critique Questionnaire, with a detailed list of important questions
about you and your
book.
You can ask Mark anything
about book publishing, including questions
about writing agent
queries.
As you suggest, the point of a good
query is to get at the heart of what the
book is
about, so I'd think in the long run, better, more focused
queries would help agents see more quickly whether this is the kind of story likely to interest them.
It really frustrates me to get
queries about books I list as specifically not accepting.
Jill: I like
query letters where the first two paragraphs describe the project and then the next paragraph is
about the author and any author bio that is relevant to the
book / project.
Queries are not
about making writers fill a bogus requirement for representation — it's
about making your
book stand out among the hundreds we are reading
about every week.
Check out successful
query letters and learn
about marketing your
book after it's published.
There are plenty of sites and forums with other
querying writers (AbsoluteWrite is one) to help you summarize your novel in a way that helps an agent see exactly what your
book is
about without new confusions or questions arising.
Writers who are self - publishing their
books don't have to worry
about writing a
query letter... but they still have to write the summary for the back cover of their
books — and that can be just as hard!
When I finished my first
book and after writing
about 30
Query Letters with no successsful response, I just happened to be in the right place and the right time to meet my Independent Publisher.
Many writers have no qualms
about jumping right in to polish up and finish their
book manuscripts, and then
querying agents for representation.
Oh, I should also tell you that no question
about writing
query letters is too big or too small — and there's no such thing as a stupid question in my
book.
Home» How to Write a Literary Agent
Query — How to Write A
Query for
Book Agents»
Query Letter for Literary Agents — Warning
About Bad Advice
A
query letter hook can be
about anything: you, your
book, your target market, or a relevant quote or statistic.
There are five types of people in the world giving advice to authors
about how to write a literary agent
query letter (including
book agents).
I've learned more
about story structure from writing
query letters than I have from some how - to
books.
Think
about the process of publishing a
book by a new author from the publisher's perspective: they have to hire a staff to read
query letters,
book excerpts, and full texts.
The first section in my
query letter sample outline is for you to explain what your
book is
about.
Last Updated: 09th December 2013 We often hear
queries from authors and publishers
about how to use BookBuzzrs
Book Tweeting technology to market
books on Twitter.
One of the nice things
about self - publishing your
book is that
querying is not even a part of the picture.
Scroll below to learn more
about the
query letter sample structure that you can use to get literary agencies fighting over the chance to represent you and your
book.
This agency — one of those that uses an online form for sending in your
queries — actually wanted more information
about the marketing plan and
about my connections with libraries and the media in the area than it wanted
about the
book I was
querying about.
If you want to get a literary agent, publisher, and
book deal... you must also know the basics
about how literary agents work, and you must know how to write a good
book and pitch materials (
query letter and
book proposal).
That top
book agent that you're thinking
about querying might not be that great.
Most of the information published
about queries (in
books and online) is inadequate (it's not completely wrong, but it only paints half the picture).
Depends on you, if you read like 5
books a year then I would advise that you get a tablet, android, iOS whatever, but if you read a lot, then go for an ereader, if you have any
queries Good ereader has an extensive videos
about ereaders.
I
queried for years without having a clue
about genre or where my
books would fit in the marketplace.
In a
query include: one paragraph
about the story, one paragraph
about you and your credentials; a market analysis showing other
books like yours, potential markets and what you as the author are willing to do to push the
book.
Learn more
about how to write a
query letter for a self - published
book.
Your
query letter needs to tell the agent: Why you're writing to that particular agent, what your
book is
about (in three - four sentences max), and who you are.
Before you
query agents, take the time to think very specifically
about your
book's genre, and get a second opinion from an editor or a few thoughtful reader friends
about the genre.