The Writer-in-the-Know Guide to Query Letters

Whether you’re hoping to get a literary agent or to place your book directly with a publisher, a query letter is your most important sales tool. But writing a good query letter can be more difficult than writing a whole manuscript. How do you distill the essence of your novel or memoir into a couple of pithy pitch paragraphs? Come find out! This course opens with an introduction to the query letter and where it fits within the scope of the entire publishing process. From there, we’ll move into some important things you should do before you query. I’ll show you all the common mistakes writers make in their query letters and why so few query letters lead to requests for sample pages or full manuscripts. I’ll walk you through how to write a standout four-part query letter, and we’ll spend a lot of time breaking down the pitch, which is the most important part. Finally, I’ll give you some strategies for setting up a query system. I’ll let you know what to expect, how (and when) to respond, and what to do when multiple offers start rolling in. Are you ready get that novel or memoir published? Let’s get started!