Writing Query Letters

Writing a good query letter is a necessary evil in the writing business. It's not enough to write a novel (hopefully, a good novel), you have to also be able to condense that novel into a couple of sentences, a paragraph at most, and you have to write those few lines in such a way as to peak the interest of very busy agents and/or editors so that they want to read more of your work. Thousands of hours, months, years even of your time spent hunched over a computer composing and editing your novel--and its fate typically rests in those few sentences and perhaps at most 30 seconds of an agent's/editor's time.

Talk about pressure, eh?

You know, it might just be easier to write a query letter first, and then write the book to match it afterwards...(though I don't recommend submitting any query letter without having written and polished your book--and no, I honestly did not learn that from first-hand experience).

I wonder how many good books have never been published because an author has difficulties writing a good query letter. I know some people will say, "If you can't write a good query letter, then you obviously can't write a good novel..."

"I disagree."

"You would, you're not very good at writing query letters."

"Wow. You're being harsh tonight."

"Get used to it. You need thick skin to be a writer."

"I know, but writing a novel and writing a query letter are two very different beasts."

"No, no, no! They both are made up of words. Words are your tools. Either you know how to use them properly or not."

"But, for me, when I write a novel, I am creating a new world, new people, revealing their story, their problems, the words I use are put together in such a way as to evoke feelings, to entertain, and a query letter..."

"Yeah?"

"A query letter is all about selling that book and me. It's a sales pitch. It's an entirely different style of writing."

"So?"

"Well, it's not that I'm incapable of writing creatively--I'm just not certain that I'm very talented at selling myself."

"That's too bad. You'll probably continue to fail until you overcome that problem and learn how to write in that style too."

"Yeah..."

So, that's the bottom line, I think. There's more to writing than just writing. You have to be able to sell yourself too. You need to be able to put that artistic hat aside and wear the salesman (salesperson) hat equally well. Because if you cannot be that multi-faceted writer, agents and editors will pass you by and spend their limited time on writers who can.

Additional writing goal: become a better salesman...write better queries.

Take care all -