How to format a query sent by email

Heading on a query letter today:
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(date)

VIA: Electronic Mail

Janet Reid
Fine Print Literary Management
240 West 35th Street #500
New York, NY 10001


Janet@fineprintlit.com


Re: Literary Representation
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It took up the entire email screen.  It told me nothing I didn't know already, and a lot about the querier.

If you are querying by email you do NOT put the agent's address OR YOURS, at the top.  E-queries do NOT follow the standard business letter format you learned in stenography 101.

A proper email query uses the subject line for the factual info: QUERY for (title of your book)/fiction or non-fiction

The first line of your email query is "Dear Snookums"

The next line of text is ABOUT YOUR FRIGGING Amazing BOOK.

A lot of agents are reading queries on their smart phones, and every time an agent has to scroll down, you increase the chance they won't. You want to entice an agent to read on from the VERY FIRST WORD you write.  Telling me you are "seeking literary representation" makes me wonder if you think I'm so stupid I need to be told this kind of thing.  You think you're being proper and formal.  You're not.  You're wasting valuable time and real estate. Get to the point. Entice me to read your work.

Be smarter than your phone: learn and follow e-query formatting.

Feeling frustrated with those stupid rejection letters?

You might benefit from an intensive writers workshop.  Here's a good one:

The 4th Annual Seascape "Escape to Write" Retreat

When: 9/9-9/11/2011

Workshop leaders: Hallie Ephron, Roberta Isleib, S.W. Hubbard. (just a side note: I'm a HUGE fan of all three writers, I know them all personally and I think they are terrific.)


WHAT: Tune out distractions and devote a weekend to reinvigorating your creativity and revising your manuscript in the beautiful Connecticut river valley

FOR: Writers working on mystery, thriller, or suspense novels or short stories for YA or adult readers

WHEN: Beginning at about 5 PM, Friday, September 9; ending at 1 PM, Sunday September 11

WHERE: Guest House Retreat Center, Chester, CT


HOW: You submit 25 pages in advance and get a ton of feedback.

INFO: at Roberta Isleib's site


The weekend is limited to 18 writers and is already 2/3 full, so now is the time to make your plans.

Friday Night at the Question Emporium

Vital situation to all writers. I queried nine agents, and have had rejections from five on my contest novel entry. I cannot prove, or disprove, that the potential agents did not Google my name. At current count, there are 1,235 of me in this country. Some are teachers, some are drug dealers. Sometimes, these people make the news.

The top one in the news right now, is the April Brown in Washington state, with the Charity Auction site, and her plagiarism suit brought about by Linda Ellis for sharing an email chain poem on her website. As you can see, an agent pulling this up, and not reading it could determine an automatic rejection for me.

What can I do in my query letter to differentiate me from all the other April Browns who show up in Google search? This can happen to other writers too.

Oh I LOVE seeing what writers are obsessing about other than..yanno...writing.

For starters, we're not going to google you at the query stage.  Right now you're lucky to hear back from us at all (yes, I hate that practice of No Response Means No and I do NOT subscribe to it but a lot of good and reputable agents do---dunderheads all.)

When we google you is when we're serious about taking you on.  First intimation of that is we ask for a full manuscript.

If you're worried about all the other people with your name the first thing to do is make sure I can find YOUR website. The one that tells me you live in Peoria, not prison. And you run a cat rescue facility, not a cat house.

You do this by signing your letter:


Thank you for your time and consideration,


April Brown
YOUR website
YOUR twitter handle
YOUR blog address

That way, I click on those.

And chances are I'm not going to google you at all unless you tell me something I think I need to verify independently.  Those kinds of things are:

(1) I was nominated for a (fill in the blank award)
(2) I'm published (with no title or publisher listed)
(3) I survived the sinking of the Titanic (or other amazing news-related stories)

If you're TRULY worried about this, invest in attending writers conferences where you can meet the agents face to face.

But really, quit worrying about this.  Write the best novel you can. Write the best query you can. Stake out your front lawn in cyberspace.  That's really all you can do.

"damn those kids and their recurring need to eat!"

Divergent on sale today.

I've been waiting for months for this to go on sale so I can talk to people about it!

Buy it now so I can!