Writing A Killer Query

The query letter.

It's just a few lines. Not nearly as time-consuming and angst-provoking as writing a manuscript, right?

Wrong.

The query letter is your foot in the door. It's your first chance to shine. It is, in other words, your first impression, and if you think that doesn't matter, you need to rethink what you're thinking.

First impressions are everything. They portray us as professionals or not, writers or not, successful or not.

Slapping a few words into a few sentences onto a page that's going to decide your fate as a writer is not the way to handle query writing.

So, what is the proper way to compose a stellar query?

In one word...professionalism.

A concise, well thought out and easy to read query goes much farther than colorful paper and flowery prose. Editors and agents don't have time to weed through your overwrought description of why they should read your manuscript. They want to know three things:

1. Who you are.
2. What your story is about.
3. Why you feel they might be interested in reading it.

And, they want to know those things quickly.

An attention grabbing query is not the one that grabs the most attention, but, rather, the one that sells the product in smooth easy tones that don't even hint at anything beyond that moment. Because, you are not selling your manuscript at this point. You are simply knocking on the door and asking to be let in.

To set up a query that will work, you must be able to highlight the main points of your story in a few well thought out and well written sentences. A mini synopsis, if you will. A back cover blurb. A tantalizing peek at what is to come.

A killer query touches on your story, showcases your writing and gives a glimpse of you.

Important?

Very.

It is the beginning of everything.

And, we all know how important beginnings are.

They set the tone for the story. If your story is to have a satisfying ending, it must also have a compelling beginning, and that is exactly what your query must provide.

I have a few query examples to post next.

Good and bad. Successful and not.

For, today, this will have to be enough, because I really am an author, and I actually do write, and I have quite a bit of work to do.

Secret #1: It's Not All About Writing

Did you think it was?

We all begin with the grand idea that we are writers. Good writers. Maybe even great writers.

We are told by teachers, parents, friends, family that we write well and that we should, therefore, write a book and get it published.

And, so, we write. We work. We labor. We strive to create a book that will sit on a bookstore shelf, be featured on Amazon, be bought and read and talked about.

It seems so simple.

Hard work + Talent = Success

But, it is not simple.

I know great writers who have worked toward publication for decades and never attained it, and I know mediocre writers who have written one manuscript and sold it quickly and easily. No muss, fuss or drama.

No, good writing isn't all this industry is about.

It is about having the right thing in the right editor's hands at the right time.

It is about hard work, but it is also about a little bit of luck or fate or divine intervention. It is about pressing on through rejection and not letting those rejections become a mantle thrown over the shoulders during every writing session.

It is about the story and that indefinable thing that brings a story to life.

What is it? How do you find it? Where does one go to attain this thing?

That, perhaps, is the deepest secret of this business, the most compelling question, and it is one that I can not speak to with any authority.

I suppose, if I were to venture a guess, I'd say it comes from somewhere deep inside the writer. It is the ability to move within a character and to become, as the words march out onto white paper, the thing that is being created. Not the author but the story itself. Dwelling within, being part of it rather than simply existing as narrator of it, that is what the thing stems from.

As one dwells within the world being created, life springs onto paper and that life is what draws readers in. No longer just sentences and paragraphs, the story leaps forth and readers are able to suspend disbelief, put aside worries, sink deep into a new world.

But, even that is not enough, because this business is not all about writing or a great story or having the thing that makes a story come to life.

It is about finding a way to open a door that will allow your writing and story telling and that indefinable thing to land squarely in the hands of an editor who will see them and say, "Yes! This is what I've been looking for!"

And, that, my friends, takes a killer query letter.

Curious about how to write one?

Or, maybe, how not to write one?

Stay tuned.