Querying Tips Series: #2 Keep your query letter short

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash 

It's time for Tip Number 2 in my Querying Tips Series. This time, I'm talking about the query letter itself. In this post, my advice is: keep your query letter short.

Be concise to keep your query letter short

Literary agents receive hundreds – if not thousands – of queries each month. They simply don't have time to read a query that goes on, and on, and on… When faced with a wall of text, it can be difficult to pick out what really matters.

That means you need to keep your query letter short. Every word must count. No words not doing a job in there. CUT!

What about word count?

As for how long your query letter should be? Anywhere between 250-400 words is acceptable.

However, if you're looking for the sweet spot, aim for 300-350 words.

But… why so few words?

It's simple. Your query letter is designed to sell your idea. You want to capture an agent's attention as quickly as possible, and get them interested in reading your pages.

You absolutely do not need thousands of words to do that. Pick out the key points of your novel and pitch them concisely. Your pitch will be so much stronger for it.

The structure of a query letter

A query letter should be a maximum of 4-5 paragraphs long.

Within it, you should include:

-          Housekeeping, 1 paragraph (title, age range, genre, word count, comparable titles)

-          Pitch, 2-3 paragraphs

-          Author bio, 1 paragraph

You can check out my blog posts on the metadata (housekeeping) paragraph and the author bio paragraph for more information.

Again, be professional

Like I mentioned in my post on Tip #1: Always follow submission guidelines, you need to come across as professional in your query letter, and keeping it short is an excellent way to do exactly that.

Being concise and using carefully considered words shows you understand the publishing industry, as well as what you've written.

Ultimately, the goal of your query letter is to sell your book so think of it as a sales pitch. The best sales pitches are short and snappy, right? So make sure yours is as well.

Check out my other posts in this Querying Tips Series:

Tip #1: Always follow submission guidelines

Tip #3: How to address a literary agent in a query letter

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