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    How to Write a Great Query Letter
    How to Write a Great Query Letter
    How to Write a Great Query Letter
    Ebook67 pages52 minutes

    How to Write a Great Query Letter

    By Noah Lukeman

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    About this ebook

    Many books have been written about the query letter. But few have been written by literary agents, who receive thousands of queries each year and who grapple with them on a daily basis. New York literary agent Noah Lukeman offers his insights on the query letter, sharing an insider's perspective, giving insights and practical tips about what works and what doesn’t.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNoah Lukeman
    Release dateJul 20, 2009
    ISBN9781452373416
    How to Write a Great Query Letter

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    • 3/5
      It's a great place to start if you don't know what you're doing, but the glaring problem is that he had practically no advice for first time authors for the third paragraph of the letter. If this book is targeted toward first time authors with no literary credentials, it kind of defeats to purpose of this book.

    Book preview

    How to Write a Great Query Letter - Noah Lukeman

    As of May, 2007, Mr. Lukeman has decided to make HOW TO WRITE A GREAT QUERY LETTER free, as a way to give back to the writing community. We hope you read it, enjoy it, and prosper from it. Please keep in mind the following:

    * You are limited to a one time download.

    * Technical support for downloading and/or any other issues is not provided.

    * You may not re-sell this e-book and/or package it with other products for sale.

    * The text is copyrighted, and may not be photocopied or otherwise distributed without the express written permission the author.

    Mr. Lukeman has made this book free to help support the writing community.

    If you wish, feel free to read and support his other books, including

    How To Land (and Keep) a Literary Agent (www.landaliteraryagent.com)

    How to Write a Great Query Letter:

    Insider Tips and Secrets for Success

    By

    Noah Lukeman

    also by Noah Lukeman

    The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying out of the Rejection Pile

    The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life

    A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation

    How to Land (and Keep) a Literary Agent

    The Tragedy of Macbeth, Part II: The Seed of Banquo

    Copyright  2005 by Noah Lukeman

    Published by Noah Lukeman

    Smashwords Edition

    No portion of this text may be copied, reproduced, shared, or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

    It is a crime, prosecutable by law, to make copies of this file (or any portion of it), photocopy it, or email it to or share it with others. Each copy of this book must be downloaded individually.

    Contents

    Introduction

    Chapter 1: Preparation

    Chapter 2: Formatting

    The 4 Formatting Red Flags

    Chapter 3: The 3 Paragraph Rule

    Chapter 4: Your First Paragraph: The Introduction

    Chapter 5: Your Second Paragraph: The Plot

    3 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your Plot Paragraph

    Exercise: Creating a Logline

    4 Positive Traits to Have in Your Plot Paragraph

    Exercise: Refining Your Plot Synopsis

    Chapter 6: Your Third Paragraph: Your Bio

    4 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your Author Bio

    8 Positive Elements to Include in Your Author Bio

    Chapter 7: Fiction versus Non-Fiction

    7 Elements to Include When Summarizing Non-Fiction

    2 Crucial Elements of a Non-Fiction Bio

    Different Types of Non-Fiction

    Chapter 8: Final Issues to Keep in Mind

    7 Common Mistakes

    Conclusion

    Checklist: 30 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Query Letter

    About the Author

    Introduction

    It is more difficult to get a qualified literary agent than it is to get a publishing contract.

    --John Boswell

    Most writers put a tremendous amount of effort into their content, spending months or years with their manuscripts, agonizing over word choice, scene order, character development. Yet when it comes time to write a query letter, they will often write something off the top of their head, sometimes with a mere hour’s effort, and let this suffice to represent their work. They rush through the letter process so that the agent can get to the book itself, which they feel will explain everything. They feel that if an agent just sees the writing, nothing else will matter, and that a poor query letter will even be forgiven.

    This is faulty thinking. For agents, the query letter is all. If it’s not exceptional, agents will not even request to see the writing, and writers will never even get a chance to showcase their talent. For most writers, the query letter—which they rushed through—becomes the only piece of writing they will ever be judged by, and unfortunately, the only chance they ever had.

    Many writers feel upset that their work is evaluated and judged by a one page letter—much less a letter that doesn’t even include a sample of the writing. This is understandable. But this is also the nature of the industry, and something we all have to deal with. It is not unlike an actor’s being judged by a mere headshot. It won’t change. The solution isn’t to rail against the industry, but rather to become expert at writing the query—indeed, to make the query an art form in and of itself.

    While it may seem

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