How do you know your query letter is good to go?
Last year (only a couple of weeks ago) I blogged about my effort of writing the best query letter I possibly could. And I did. I was so proud of it and after rewriting and tinkering with it from every angle; I finally set about my plan to send it to literary agents.
Only I didn’t.
I had those nagging feelings that something is still not quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I reread my query for what seemed about a million times until my eyes got crossed. The query was long, about two pages and the more I read it the more I hated it.
Then, I did the unthinkable. I put it on the forum and let everybody shred it to pieces. While forcing my eyes to close, I was sweating blood thinking how I am going to bail myself out of this misery.
It. Was. That. Bad.
When I opened my eyes, my fellow writers had been very professional and pointed out the right direction of how to improve it. The impression I got was that I only saw the trees and not the forest. This happened because I was too close to the story. And then it hit me—this was the answer I was looking for, but it was always at the tip of my tongue.
Your query’s pitch or summary of your novel must be short: one or two paragraphs at most. So my advice is to find someone to read your query. Someone other than your family, spouse and friends—a total stranger who never heard about your story.
But in the end you’re the only one who makes the decision, which version of your query letter that best represents your manuscript. And I have several versions of mine—each targeted at different agents.
And you knew when the query is ready to be sent to the prospective agents. Just believe in yourself. I do and I’ve sent mine.
Now the waiting game is on…
