Most advice on how to write a query letter is oriented toward novels with a conventional structure. As a result, I often get confused emails from authors who are wondering how in the heck they’re supposed to write a query letter when they have multiple protagonists and intersecting plot lines. With so few words at […]
Query Letters
Why you should remove the word “ensues” from your query and synopsis and light it on fire
What’s your least favorite word? Is it “moist?” Well, sorry, you’re wrong. The worst word in the English language is “ensues.” The word “ensues” (I shudder just typing it) is bad enough on its own. In a query letter and/or synopsis it’s roughly the equivalent of kryptonite mixed with garbage that’s been baking in 100 […]
How to list your publishing credits in a query letter
This, oddly, is one of the questions I receive the most from readers: how should I list my publishing credits in a query letter or otherwise construct my bio? Why do I say “oddly?” Because agents don’t care about your publishing credits that much. If you’re writing nonfiction, they care about your platform, which may […]
How to personalize a query letter
Nathan here! My friend Rachel Stout used to be a literary agent at Dystel & Goderich, and now she teaches a course on querying called Query Mastery, which provides live sessions, modules, resources, and community to help you hone your pitch. I asked Rachel to write a guest post on the best approach to personalizing a […]
Query mastery! Hone your research and pitch
In my post on Monday, I mentioned a service called Query Mastery but wanted to do a full post to make sure you knew about it. Query Mastery is an awesome service created by my friends Natasa Lekic (former editor and founder of NY Book Editors) and Rachel Stout (former agent at Dystel, Goderich & […]
The key to a good query letter: Summarizing through specificity
Listen up all you query letter writers because this is the most important post on queries I’ve written in years. I’ve recently been devoting much more time to freelance editing and working with authors on their queries (need personalized help? Contact me!). This means that instead of just evaluating queries for a “yes” or “no”, like I […]