Five Elements that Make a Good Query Letter

If you opt for traditional publishing, you will post your query to a literary agent, who will determine whether to request your full manuscript or pass along the query to the publication house.

Let us talk about the essential elements of a well-written query letter to help you make your query letter stand out from the rest.

Here are the essential elements of a good quality letter.

Element #1 – A Professional Approach

Number one, we have professionalism. You will want to dedicatedly invest your time and effort while properly formatting and spell-checking your query letter. Make sure to intensively research on your agent’s specifications, including their preferences for subject lines or their requirements about sample pages from the manuscript.

It is essential to mention here that, ideally, your query letter should essentially look and feel like a query instead of any other type of email. If your query letter is missing any of its core aspects, such as the hook, manuscript synopsis, or your author-bio, you will risk looking like you either don’t care or don’t know what you are doing, and none of these approaches will work out in your favor.

With that said, you shouldn’t feel limited to integrating an overly formal tone throughout your query letter. You will want to allow your personality to shine through in your query letter to maintain that human touch.

Another crucial aspect you will want to focus on while writing your query letter is not using weird and unprofessional fonts, colors, and text sizes. Not only will these look strange in the agent’s email inbox, but they will certainly make you look unprofessional and unattractive.

If you are considering experimenting with the design (fonts) of your query, you will want to resist the urge by taking a step back and prioritizing keeping things simple and professional.

Element #2 – Focus on Personalization

It is very obvious for the agent to detect when the query letter has been directly copied from another resource that might be available on the internet. The agent will also understand if the query letter has been mindlessly emailed out with no touch of personalization – other than perhaps the opening line.

You will also want to avoid copy-pasting query letters to multiple agents – just think about how embarrassing it would be if the agent were to receive a query letter that mentions another agent’s name in the opening line.

You will want to understand the literary agent’s perspective – the literary agent needs and wants to know why you have chosen to reach out to them specifically instead of other agents.

With that said, you will need to make the specific reason for choosing them transparent in your query letter.

Perhaps you met your chosen literary agent at a book-launching event that you have been to – or – you could be following them on social media. It could also be that you like one of the best-selling authors that they represent. Honesty is the key here – just be honest about what brought you to them in your opening lines of the query letter.

Don’t make the mistake of lying about why you are reaching out to that agent. Suppose, you haven’t read one of their author’s books – don’t claim that you have.

While the literary agent might not be able to initially tell that you are lying in your query letter, it could potentially come up down the line when you have established a personal relationship, and the result can be a loss of trust, which is something that you will want to avoid at all costs.

Element #3 – Keep it Precise

You will want to focus on brevity when writing your query letter when opting for traditional publication. Agents have hundreds of queries in their email inboxes, and unfortunately, they don’t have enough time to read through them all.

There is a possibility that your query letter is going to get a quick high-level skim rather than an in-depth read, which is why you will need to get to the point as soon as possible.

Unless the agent has specified the length in their instructions – there isn’t a specific word count that you need to follow

Nonetheless, you will want to ensure that each sentence in your query letter is clear, concise, and meaningful.

You will want to refrain from providing fluff or any extra information irrelevant to your book project.

For instance, it might sound interesting, but sharing that you have three cats and a goldfish at home isn’t necessary.

Element #4 – Stay Authentic

Authenticity matters – if you are an established author, there is absolutely no need for you to exaggerate your book marketing savviness or display unrealistic titles. Believe us when we tell you that your book isn’t more likely the next series of “The Hobbit,” which is completely okay.

Literary agents understand where you are coming from and fully appreciate your honesty. On the contrary, if you have traditionally published or self-published in the past, you will want to mention that in your query letter.

It is essential to mention here that publishing houses have marketing and sales departments, which is why there is no need to make promises or provide book-marketing suggestions in your query letter.

Your suggestions could come off a little bit unprofessional, so you will want to avoid an overt display of exaggerated promises and suggestions.

Element #5 – Make Your Query Letter Intriguing

You will want to refrain from wasting your valuable query letter words by detailing each and every plot development. For starters, you wouldn’t want to spoil the novel before the literary agent has even had the chance to request for your manuscript.

Also, you will want to avoid overwhelming the agent with all the details of your plot. Intrigue them by giving them the taste of the main novel conflict. An effective way to do this is to pose an interesting question that reflects your protagonist’s quest throughout the novel. Your pitch in the query letter should be more like the copy on a book cover rather than a scene-by-scene synopsis. Also, don’t make the mistake of giving away your ending.