How to Write a Query Letter for a Novel

Video Transcript

REBECCA SATO: Hi. I'm Rebecca Sato with ExpertVillage.com, and we were just talking about how to submit a query letter for, like, a periodical, such as a newspaper or a magazine article. And let's say you wanted to do a query letter for a book that you've written. You've written a novel and you're ready to get it out there for publisher's consideration. So that query is going to be formatted just a little bit differently. And actually, if you go online and look around at different samples, everybody just does it a little bit differently and that's fine. There's no right or wrong way. The main point is that you get the idea across to the editor that this is going to be an awesome book that people are going to want to read. Because all they want to know is that people are going to want to read this and buy this and make me a lot of money. That's all they care about. So I would say there's none but very few editors out there that aren't going to publish something that they don't think is going to sell. So just keep that in mind when you're writing it, and I'm going to go ahead and just--I've just written this pretend sample query for a novel. So, "Dear Mrs. Dill, I'd like to submit to you "You Only Die Once," a mainstream thriller. Here's the novel's premise. Melanie Higgins, a junior attorney at the prestigious New York Law firm [SOUNDS LIKE] Harper and Higgins, discovers that her boss is winning all of his cases by murdering key witnesses, blah-blah-blah, with the help of her old lover and her new fling, blah-blah-blah. The big case involves a young girl who is a key witness. Will Melanie risk everything to save her life?" Okay, I just made that up. But we'll say that I really [INDISCERNIBLE] a lot of effort and just started to write this book. And then you run your credentials. "My credentials for writing this book include," and then go ahead and list some credentials. I made up some credentials here. Just to give you an example, "a summer internship at a law firm. Three years experience as a personal assistant to a high-power attorney." You really going to get it if you're in the know. That you're an expert on this topic. Even if it's fiction, that you have something to draw from. "Fiction reviews from my local newspaper, the Greendale Tribune, attendance at the Fiction Writers of America Annual Writing Contest where my two manuscripts earned second-place overall and honorable mention out of 10,000 submissions." Basically, whatever you can put on there that makes them go, "Hmm, okay, this is a decent writer. They're going to be able to write something that will sell." And then here's an idea you can just put, "To see this 120,000-word manuscript"--you want to give them an idea of how long the overall manuscript is--"please check "yes" below and return this letter in the enclosed reply envelope." Because the thing is you want to make it easy for them to say yes. And then you'll go ahead and put, "Yes, I'd like to see "You Only Die Once."" All they have to do is click. See how it is easy. All they have to do is check that, put it in envelope and hand in to their secretary, and you've already got an invitation. So there you go. And then you can do the, "No, thanks, and please query." So they can click, "No, thanks." If they want or they can say, "Please query," and they'll give a name, a reference at my firm that says that John Doe sent you. And that's it too, because then they'll pass you on someone else that will look at it. And then, of course, it shall include the self-addressed stamped envelope.

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