QUERY(n) – the letter a hopeful author sends to an agent or editor with the express wish of getting the manuscript off their desk and onto someone else’s publication schedule.
The query is an essential part of the publication process even for Indie Authors, it’s also one of the more misunderstood parts of publishing.
What The Query Is Not:
– a resume
– a summary
– a synopsis
– a snippet
– a tell-all
– a letter of desperate pleading
What The Query Is:
– a short teaser
– a paragraph about genre and length
– a bio if you have one
Nothing more and nothing less.
Let’s go over the parts…
THE BLURB- is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the back-of-book blurb that entices the reader (in this case an agent) to read. If you are an Indie Author you better perfect your blurb writing skills because this is what will make or break you. Authors who go with a press have a professional helping write the blur, indie authors only get one shot with a reader. So learn how to do it right.
Start by looking at blurbs for your genre.
SCIENCE FICTION – CALIBAN’S WAR –
We are not alone.
On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.
In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .
ROMANCE – THE HATING GAME
Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
2) A person’s undoing
3) Joshua Templeman
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.
Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.
FANTASY – PHOENIX UNBOUND …
Every year, each village is required to send a young woman to the Empire’s capital–her fate to be burned alive for the entertainment of the masses. For the last five years, one small village’s tithe has been the same woman. Gilene’s sacrifice protects all the other young women of her village, and her secret to staying alive lies with the magic only she possesses.
But this year is different.
Azarion, the Empire’s most famous gladiator, has somehow seen through her illusion–and is set on blackmailing Gilene into using her abilities to help him escape his life of slavery. Unknown to Gilene, he also wants to reclaim the birthright of his clan.
To protect her family and village, she will abandon everything to return to the Empire–and burn once more.
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
All of these are 2-3 paragraphs that hint at what happens in the opening chapters of the book.
The blurb doesn’t tell you everything. It doesn’t give away the ending. It sets the tone, names at least the main character, and sets the opening stakes of the book. It’s a teaser, nothing more.
If you aren’t sure how a query should read, go to the nearest bookstore and read the backs of all the books in your genre to get the cadence. Then read through the backlog of
QUERY SHARK and see how these things get edited
THE STATS – Again, fairly self-explanatory. When the agent or editor reads the query and likes the blurb they need to know the genre and length. If you have comp titles, throw those in too.
A good stats paragraph would be something like “ARTIFICIAL CONDITIONS is a science fiction novel complete at 90,000 words that will appeal to fans of Ann Leckie’s ANCILLARY JUSTICE.” That’s all you need.
What the agents are really looking for here is the word count (not the page count). You need to know what’s expected for the genre you are querying in.
500 – 1000 ~ Picture Books
1,000 – 10,000 ~ Short Story
10,000 – 30,000 ~ Novella For Genre Fiction
20,000 – 55,000 ~ Middle Grade
40,000 – 60,000 ~ Upper Middle Grade
55,000 – 80,000 ~ Young Adult
75,000 – 100,000 ~ Standard Genre Fiction (thriller, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, UF, ect)
85,000 – 120,000 ~ Epic Fantasy
There’s obviously some overlap in word count and readership, but know who wants what.
A ‘zine isn’t looking for a novel, they want your short stories.
A small press putting out a call for novellas wants more than 5,000 words and less than 50,000.
A traditional publisher does not want an epic fantasy that’s 50,000 words, they want double that.
Write the story the way you want to tell it and then send it to the right market for the length.
THE BIO – This is optional for new writers. Go ahead and mention past awards if you have them, writing groups if you belong to a good one that puts on conventions, or anything that will tie into the novel.
“I live in South Florida and have a degrees in literature and computer engineering.”
Once you have publication credits, you can post them, but you really do not need them. Good writing is good writing, published or not.
DO NOT – tell the agent how much your mom loved the book, how you have always dreamed about being a published author, how you know in your heart this will make you a millionaire. None of that matters. This is a business deal, you are selling a book not trying to find a soulmate.
GENERAL ADVICE –
When you write the query keep in mind that a lot of agents are going to read on their phones, grab their interest first, talk about yourself last.
Dear Agent,
BLURB
STATS
BIO
Sincerely,
Your Name
DO:
– double-check the submission guidelines before sending
– have your book finished, edited, and polished before querying
– have a new project to work on
DON’T:
– respond to rejections
– get angry because no one loves your books
– vent in public places about a bad rejection
– pay someone to send a query
– pay anyone to publish your book (in traditional publishing the money goes to the author… do not pay reading fees, editing fees, or publication fees unless you are an indie author)
– query the same book after a rejection
– give up because the book isn’t getting picked up
After that… your best bet is to have a great book. A good query can’t do anything if you’re turning in bad pages. Make sure you run them through a local writers group, past a beta reader, or find an online critique group like CritiqueCircle.com (which is where I started ages ago). You never want to send out a manuscript without someone else reading it first. You need a battle buddy in the query trenches, and you also need someone to look at the book and tell you when you’ve spent sixteen pages too many describing fruit cake.
