Query Letters: Jody’s Seven Goals
Don't Sweat the Query
Query letters. Yet again.
Holy smokes there’s a lot of query letter advice out here on the World Wide Web.
And like everything in information-overload-land, that’s good and bad–it’s terrific for writers to have easy access to models and thoughtful counsel, but at the same time I’m a little concerned about the stressing out I see–the agony over each detail in each query; and the stridency of the dogma. As in, “All query letters must start with x, end with y, and never, never include Popsicles.”
Query letters are crucial, don’t get me wrong. And yes, each book pitch does have to include some standard elements, like, well, the title of the book.
But ultimately each letter is as individual as the book that is being pitched and the author who is writing it. So rather than trying to fit your query into someone else’s mold, I suggest you sit back, take a deep breath, scribble out a quick rough draft, and
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