A great literary query letter is your golden ticket to finding representation and publication for your debut novel. It acts as an introduction to literary agents, editors, and publishers by representing you and your manuscript through a one-page pitch submission.

A literary agent might receive hundreds of query letters every single week, so yours needs to get to the point and stand out from the rest. Keep reading to learn:

1. What is a Literary Query Letter?
2. Before Sending Your Query Letter…
3. Where to Send Your Query Letter
4. How to Write a Query Letter (step-by-step):
   1. Address
   2. Story Hook
   3. Author Bio
   4. Manuscript Information
   5. Sign Off
5. A Query Letter Example
6. Top Tips for Publication Success

What is a Literary Query Letter?

A literary query letter is an initial pitch sent to a literary agent, publisher, or editor in a bid to get your manuscript published. It is typically no longer than one page and between 200 and 400 words in length.

Having a great literary query letter is almost as important as having a great manuscript. It acts as the first interaction an agent will have with your writing or project, and if it doesn’t perfectly sell your story, it won’t get picked up.

Your query letter should contain a brief description of your concept, a short author bio, and some housekeeping like genre and word count. It also needs to get across what makes this story and your author’s voice special, without saying more than what is absolutely necessary.

Before Sending Your Query Letter…

Just because you have a great idea for a novel, doesn’t mean it’s time to start sending out those feelers. First, you want to have a relatively complete and ready-to-send manuscript. Try reading my guide on Turning Your Novel Idea into the Next Bestselling Book for help with this process.

Whilst it may take several months (or longer) to get a response from a query letter, you never know when an agent might get back to you with a request for your completed manuscript. The worst-case scenario is finding an interested agent, but not having your book ready to submit.

Some agents will request the whole manuscript, others just the opening 3-4 chapters. The best practice is to have everything complete and ready, with the opening 10,000 words being particularly polished and enticing.

Where to Send Your Query Letter

Crafting a killer query letter strategy is an important step in your pitching process – this means finding who you want to send it out to, when, and why.

Start by looking into books that you love and feel are similar in genre or tone to your own manuscript. Research the authors, publishers, and literary agents, and try to find out if they are open to receiving new pitches – this information is usually listed on their website or social media.

Always make sure to read their submission guidelines fully and do not attempt to cut corners. If an agent isn’t open for submissions, then do not reach out to them. Disrespecting a professional’s time is a big no-no in any industry, particularly when you’re trying to get your foot in the door.

You can also find lists of agents through sites like Reedsy and WritersCorner, or try looking on LinkedIn for professionals in your niche.

How to Write a Query Letter (step-by-step):

Although there should be an element of creativity to any query letter, it must contain a few specific sections/pieces of information. Feel free to play around with order and approach, but these are the steps that need to be included:

Address

Keep it simple and professional, opening the letter by addressing it to the recipient directly. As a rule of thumb, if you don’t know their name (e.g. submitting to a larger publishing house), it probably isn’t worth sending the letter at all.

Use their ‘Meet the Team’ page or LinkedIn to find a specific agent or publisher on the team that represents stories like yours, and reach out to them directly – I guarantee a much higher likelihood of success.

Story Hook

The most important element of the letter. This short paragraph needs to grab the reader’s attention and give them a taste of the story, world, and characters…without giving anything away.

The point of the hook is to leave a reader needing to know what happens next. Remember, an agent has read thousands of story pitches, how can you ensure your hook really leaves its mark?

A lot of people like to open their letter with a story hook, diving the reader straight into the world of their story. This is how I tend to start my letters as it skips over any boring logistics and gets straight to the most exciting part of my manuscript.

Author Bio

Try to find a way to interweave a little about yourself without resorting to the same old ‘author’s bio’ used on your website and guest posts. In essence, you are telling the reader why you have to be the person to tell this particular story. What is your connection with the themes or subject matter? What makes you stand out as an author?

Here you may also want to mention any awards or related qualifications you might have, as well as if you conducted specific and unique research for this project. Talking about your google searches isn’t particularly interesting, but interviews or trips to unexpected places could add something special to your pitch.

Manuscript Information

This is not necessarily its own section, but there are some specifics that need to be in your query letter so the reader knows how to categorise your manuscript. Make sure to include:

• Genre
• Word Count
• Title
• Format (e.g. novel, novella, part of an intended series)

Sign Off

Keep it brief and professional! Feel free to thank the agent for their time and consideration, but do not go on beyond this. A query letter is not the time to suggest in-person meetings or share your personal availability.

Use ‘Yours Sincerely’ and sign off with your pen (or real) name.

A Query Letter Example

Dear Sir/Madam,

Aurora’s world is on fire. She is heartbroken, her family in tatters, and worst of all her planet Roaota is literally burning at the hands of Uma, Guardian of what was once the Northern Region. Her greed for a powerful substance known as Mythium, a black liquid that offers riches beyond belief, but at a cost…the pollution of the planet. Autora’s birthright was the power of healing but grief, heartbreak, and anxiety have blocked her from being able to even heal herself.

As Uma invades the Eastern Region, hungry for more Mythium, Aurora is left standing at the edge of helplessness…and yet, against all odds, she finds the courage to hope. Now, Aurora must face a decision: to live up to her destiny as Empress of Roaota and give up everything in order to save her home, or, choose her own happiness and choose love.

An 80,000-word Adventure Fantasy Novel, this story takes place on a mystical planet made of four regions. Disharmony has been cast upon the world by Uma’s hunt for Mythium, and there’s no end in sight. The North has already been lost to destruction and only Aurora and her friends have the ability to change Roaota’s destiny.

Pulling from my own experience as a climate change activist, The End of Roaota is my debut novel. Intended as the first instalment of a trilogy, this book reflects themes of mental health, environmentalism, and the importance of hope, no matter how slim. My intention is to inspire the next generation of readers to take note of our reality of the climate emergency through a lens of magic and a message of hope.

If interested, I would love to send you my finished manuscript.

Yours sincerely,

Top Tips for Publication Success

Beyond the facts, here are my five tips to improve your chances of getting manuscript requests from your future agent:

1. Disconnect from your book. It’s easy to forget that the query letter recipient has no idea what your book is about. Distil it down to the most central themes, memorable factors, and important players. This is all the query letter needs to contain. Ask someone who doesn’t know about your book to read the story hook and see if they understand what the greater narrative is about.
2. Don’t waste time. Everything you say should be directly relevant to this specific manuscript. Don’t spend words selling yourself and trying to convince a reader that your book is their next bestseller. Let the story speak for itself and trust that if the agent is interested, they’ll reach back out on their own accord.
3. Have a sending strategy. Make a list of your top 10-15 dream agents, then a backup list of another 10-15 who aren’t your first choice but you would still love to work with. Finally, keep a running list of other professionals who work within the realm of your book and might be a less obvious but still relevant recipient. Each week, send out your letter to 2 people from each of these lists and see what responses you get. If after a month you’ve had no interest, it’s time to make some changes to your letter.
4. Give one memorable fact about yourself. Whilst the story is more important, you want to make sure to include something in the author’s bio that will make the reader remember who you are. This might be your background, recent work, or a unique factor that other authors wouldn’t have…something that separates you from the rest.
5. Don’t make it personal. This is a hot debate in the publishing world, however, in my opinion, the personalisation comes into play when choosing who to send your letter to, not each individual letter. A recipient should read your pitch and instantly understand why you have sent it to them in particular, without you needing to spell it out in wasted word count.

Now, all that’s left to do is hit send. So long as you’re following each individual agent’s submission guidelines, have proofread your letter, and had someone else read over it, then there’s nothing to be afraid of!

Not hearing back for a few weeks (or not at all) is a normal part of the process and you should expect to have to go through several iterations of your query letter before settling on the successful version.

Keep putting yourself out there, get used to rejection, and don’t give up until you find your perfect match!

In the meantime, as an aspiring author, you may find some of the following posts useful:

• How to Plan a Novel in One Week
• 10 Exercises to Access Your Creative Flow
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Good Short Story