Yesterday, I attended "Query Boot Camp" with Janet Reid, a successful agent from Fine Print Literary Agency in New York City.  For those young writers and readers, queries are letters writers send to literary agents or editors at publishing houses to generate interest in their work.  The word 'query' means 'to ask or inquire about', so the query letter essentially asks,"Would you like to publish my book?"

During the two hour boot camp, Ms. Reid shared a number of wonderful pointers for query creation.  Her most important observation of the day--don't take advice from anyone else but literary agents about how to construct a query letter.  After all, they ARE the ones who read them each day.  They know what they want.

The most difficult part of the query letter is the first few lines.  This is where you tell the agent what the book is about.  This includes:

a.  Who is the main character?

b.  What happens to him/her?

c.  What choice does s/he face?

d.  What terrible thing will happen because of his/her choice?

Sounds simple, right?  You know your work better than anyone else.  Easy in theory, but difficult in practice.  Query letters should run around 250 words or less.  Within that time, you must also include things like title, word count, and publishing credits (if you have them). This leaves precious little space to waste words.  You must condense a manuscript of tens of thousands of words into an introductory sentence of twenty or less.  Once you've captured their attention, you have roughly 100 words to answer the question, "what is this book about?" without retelling the entire story.

"Expect to spend two months writing a good, solid query letter," says Ms. Reid.  After all, an author only get one shot at an individual agent, so the work better be polished.

For more detailed information, visit Janet's blog at http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com  You won't be disappointed.

~Scott

"Live, Learn, Teach"

www.scotthbooks.com