You’ve done the hard part.

You’ve spent ages researching, writing, and rewriting until youfinallyfeelyour book准备与世界分享。

Not so fast.

Your next step is one of the most important. Writing a query letter can determine whether aliterary agentasks to see more or sends you a cordial form letter intended to let you down easy.

It’s time to move fromauthorto salesman.

You’re about to make a virtual sales call, and your query letter makes the first impression.

Nothing can be more important.

什么是查询信？

单身汉曾经习惯于要求通过将其电话卡交给她来打电话给妇女。

You’re courting an agent on behalf ofyour manuscript，查询信是您的电话卡。

This one-page letter must masterfully sell. Write it poorly and an agent will assume your book is also poorly written.

It must stimulate and intrigue to secure your all-important first date.

引起代理商注意的查询字母格式…

1-对特定人说话。

Get the agent’s name and title right. You’re not sending this “To Whom It May Concern.”

It should be clear you’ve done your research and are targeting an agent who represents your genre and that you’re aware of similar books he has represented to publishers.

2—Presents your book idea simply.

Include a one-sentence summary. Here was mine for my first novel: “A judge tries a man for a murder the judge committed.”

有效。

3 - 您的风格。

抓住的代理引人入胜的写作. Briefly tell剧情的your novel或您的非小说类书籍的目的。Write with the same voice在告诉最好的朋友时，您会使用。您的激情一定是显而易见的。

4—Show you know who your readers are.

An agent needs to believe he can sell your book before he’ll ask for more.

Be specific about your target audience, and “everyone” doesn’t count. Agents know the business and cannot be persuaded that “everyone will find this amazing.”

Tell what you hope readers will take away from your book and why.

5—Clarifies your qualifications.

简要总结为什么您是写这本书的人。

你还发表了什么？您构建了哪个平台？你有什么教育？链接到你的网页.

The more you’ve done, the less you need say about it. Don’t emphasize your lack of experience, but resist the urge to exaggerate or embellish.

You need not list your entire resume. Instead, refer to a web page where an agent can find more details.

Better to just say something like, “I’ve been a professor of astrophysics for more than two decades, the last four years at Notre Dame.”

An令人惊叹的ide书acan even transcend the need for a vast platform. So if you don’t have one, it’s all the more important to well represent the potential of your book.

6-探讨您的灵活性和专业精神。

Keep it brief and express your ability to provide whatever is requested:proposal,synopsis, sample chapters, whatever. Conclude with a simple “Thanks for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Be sure to:

• Include your book’s genre, title, and expected word count.
• Properly format: limit yourself to a single page, single-spaced, and use a 12 pt. serif type. The shorter your letter the better, but say what you need to.
• Follow the agent’s submission guidelines to a T, including how to send (via email attachment, not as an attachment, by snail mail [rare], etc.).

查询字母示例

• Here’s a great exampleBrian Klems的分解是为何工作作家的文摘.

• Study作家的文摘’slist of successful query letters.

基本罪

1. Overselling- 让您的前提说明自己。
2. Gushing, flattering, or waxing obvious，例如，“您会发现我很早就得到了您，因为我很兴奋”或“我希望您喜欢它。”代表自己比粉丝更重要的同事。专业。
3. 提交多个页面。Trust me, your query will be ignored if it’s too long.

4. Querying only one agent at a time.音量是你的朋友。

5. Typos.校对！然后再次校对。甚至在如此简短的文档中的一个错别字都打了一个业余主义。让某人用新鲜的眼睛阅读。

“I sent my query letter, now what do I do?”

要有耐心。占据下一个项目的想法。

Some agencies say that if you get no response after a certain period, assume they’re not interested. That’s rude, and sometimes you’re not even told whether they received it in the first place. In that case, wait six weeks and follow up with kind note asking about the status.

Best case: the agent reads your query and immediately asks for more. That’s rare, but it happens.

Agents get thousands of submissions, and they reject most of them within minutes.

Too many writers give them too many reasons.

My goal is to get you to where you’re seen as the next success. That’s why agents are in the business.

Despite how many ideas they reject, they’re longing to discover the next bestseller. Be the one who writes it!