How to Write a Killer Query Letter

Let’s face it, query letters are the spawn of the devil, but sadly they are the bread & butter covering that meaty manuscript filling and if you can’t wrap up your manuscript within an awesome query letter, often you’re not going to have a hope in high heaven to get your manuscript read.

I’m not going to tell you anything anyone else hasn’t said:

Hook

All consuming middle paragraph (or two)

Last paragraph that has voice, what’s at stake and who’s going to win and lose… blah, blah, blah… yep we all know the ‘rules’ trouble is writing is an art and art has no rules!

So I’m going to suggest a different approach… lets forget about the hook (for the time being) and let’s work on the second bit first.

Actually, let’s take an entire step back and do something no one has likely suggested, stay with me because some people are about to roll their eyes at me. You know that moment when you get a new idea, that brilliant moment when you have your main character, your setting and your bad-guy all sorted and you can’t wait to start punching your laptop keys? Guess what, that’s where and when you start your query letter process.

OK, stop rolling your eyes, seriously, stay with me, it’ll all make sense in about two minutes. When your manuscript is little more than an idea that you want to jot down so you don’t forget it, that is your moment of clarity –seriously.

Think back to every time you’ve started a new WIP and your partner or friends ask “what are you working on?” and you are able to tell them in a few lines, “My main character is a time-travelling witch who has no control of when and to which period she jumps…etc”

Its when there is perfect clarity of who the MC is, what is happening, what is at stake and who will gain and who will lose if the MC does or does not achieve their objective. Now, if you’re already working on your MS, it’s still not too late. You can still work out the crux of your story – by forgetting about the query and instead working on your pitch. Give yourself 30-60 words, no more, to nut out what’s really at stake, who will win and who will lose.

You see the issue with most queries is that they get lost in the muddy world of sub-plots and over-wordy mish-mash of stuff that is surely vital in the manuscript but not at all needed in a query. Once you’ve got your pitch ready, from it, you can create your query. Fill with a little meat, not too much, remember you want the editor/agent to ask THE RIGHT questions, that is, “I wonder what happens”, rather than, “Why is this and that important/happening?”

Still stuck?

OK, try this. Don’t try any more (for the moment), give it a rest and then, the next time someone asks you, “what’s your MS about?” after you’ve finished giving them your pitch (because spoiler alert- that’s what you’re doing), jot down what you just said. It doesn’t have to be word-for-word but I bet you it’s not a war&peace epic – right?

And now you’re ready for the hook.

And again I’m going to suggest something that is likely not often said – read other successful hooks. Learn from the best.  After all, isn’t the path to being a great writer filled with reading as many books as possible? So why would you think it different for hooks? Read hooks that worked in your genre and in others. See how they have used very few words to convey voice and create tension/interest.

Perfecting queries is just like everything in like, try and try again.

Look, it’s true, some people are naturals. Sometimes someone who has written their first manuscript just ‘gets everything right’ but that’s not the case with most of us.

Get your paragraph 2, 3 & 4 right first – then worry about your hook.

I’ll let you in on a trade secret; killer hooks are awesome and everyone wants to see one, but most agents and editors will forgive an average hook if the query is killer-hot, however if the hook is oh-myyy-gorrd amazing and the rest of the query isn’t, it’s almost always a reject.

Killer hooks is what you really, really, really want – but killer queries is what you really, really, really, need to get a request for more pages.