Query Letters - The First Hurdle of Traditional Book Publishing
Technically, the first hurdle is writing the first draft and that is a hurdle many writers don’t get over. So if you have made it all the way from story idea to a manuscript that is polished enough to query to agents you should be incredibly proud of yourself! You have already accomplished an enormous feat and that should be celebrated!
How do you know if your manuscript is ready to query?
There are a couple of questions you should ask yourself before you begin pitching.
Is your book ready for the marketplace?
Do you know who your ideal readers are?
Do you know what genre (and sub-genre, if applicable) your book falls into? You can also think of this as what shelf would your book sit in a bookstore?
Have you honestly evaluated the work and thoroughly addressed all story issues?
Do you love what you have written?
Have your received positive feedback from your ideal readers?
Many writers wonder if their manuscript must be 100% error free before pitching agents. The answer is yes and no.
Yes, you should be finished making any major changes to the story itself. You shouldn’t still be writing new scenes, addressing plot holes, etc.
If you plan to have your book professionally developmentally edited that should be completed before querying agents.
Agents and sometimes publishers often offer some amount of developmental editing but it is limited in scope. If an agent requests your full manuscript and sees the need for heavy developmental editing they likely won’t make an offer.
No, you do not have to have perfect grammar.
Major publishers take care of copy reading and proofreading so agents aren’t worried about typos or grammatical errors unless it is truly egregious.
Reality Check - The state of the publishing industry today
Many authors are surprised by the lack of marketing support they receive from major publishers. They also are surprised by how little the writer is consulted on cover design, title, and packaging decisions with the Big Five and mid-size publishers. Over time publishers have been offering less hands-on support to authors. Does this mean you shouldn’t publish with one of these major publishers? It depends on the writer. It is something that you need to decide if you are comfortable with before searching for agents. If you would prefer to publish with smaller presses you can search for agents that are linked to small presses or who specialize in small press publishing.
As changes in the publishing industry have occurred the marketplace has changed to include many different paths to publishing. Traditional publishing is when the publisher takes on the financial risk of publication. They sometimes pay an advance but not always. The publisher pays for editing, design, printing, etc. and the author retains the copyright in most cases. Traditional publishing includes:
The Big Five publishers - Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hatchet, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan and all of their various imprints.
Mid-Size publishers - W.W. Norton, Scholastic, Kensington, Arcadia, Chronicle.
Smaller presses that pay an advance, typically invest in a print run, and support their books.
University and scholarly publishers
Professional and educational publishers
‘No advance’ publishers
Rights sales
There are many non traditional paths including hybrid publishers, paid publishing services, self-publishing, and social publishing. I won't go into detail on these since they are not relevant to querying. However you can learn a ton of valuable information about every publishing path (tradition and non traditional) in Jane Friedman’s 2025-2026 Publishing Paths Handout.
Note: Some non traditional paths have some controversy surrounding them and scams to watch out for.
What is a query letter and why is it important?
A query letter is a short letter written to an agent that will hopefully entice them to make an offer to represent you. Your main goal with your query letter is to get the agent to request additional pages from your manuscript or even your full manuscript. Agents receive hundreds of queries every week! This means they read and dismiss them very quickly. So your query has to be outstanding to get you noticed.
Quick Dos and Don’ts of Query Letters
Do:
Be polite and professional
Let them see your personality and writing style. Don’t be robotic or plain.
Keep it short. The general guideline is 300-500 words. Remember, agents receive a lot of queries so resist the urge to write anything longer than one page.
When describing your story write in third person, even if your story is written in first person.
Have someone proofread your query. It is so easy to miss a typo when reading your own writing (seriously, there is a chance there is a typo in this blog article and a very good chance there is a missing comma) and a query letter is not the time for spelling or grammatical errors.
Follow the submission guidelines! Every agent has specific guidelines indicated for queries. Many agents will reject your query without reading it if you have not followed their guidelines. Some agents have a form that you will be pasting your materials into. Others want queries sent via email. That is just one example of how the guidelines can vary between agents.
Don’t:
Use cheesy gimmicks like writing your query letter as the main character of your novel.
Make apologies
Take a defensive tone
Query agents that are currently closed to submissions
Include quotes from other people about what they thought of your book.
Thank them for their time or tell them you value their time. It is kind but agents are aware of how busy they are and more importantly, this is wasted space in your query letter.
Elements of a Query Letter
Your query letter must include the following:
A one sentence hook. Something that will grab the agent.
A short paragraph that tells the agent:
Who the story is about - the protagonist and what they are up against.
What happens in a concise and interesting way.
The takeaway for the reader - why should the reader care?
The genre and word count of the book. This is a small but crucial detail.
Comparable titles
When agents ask for comparable titles, they are not asking you to name a book that is just like your story. They are asking what shelf would your book sit on in the bookstore. If a reader likes your book, what other books would they likely enjoy.
A short author bio
Don’t include non-relevant degrees. If your degree is in something to do with writing or is relevant to the book you have written, include it.
This is a great place to put any publication credits or writing awards.
Personalization
You don’t want it to appear that you are copy pasting to a ton of agents with no discernment for who you would actually like to work with.
Do not start with To Whom it May Concern, use the agent’s name.
To get a full breakdown of each of these elements and thorough advice on researching comparable titles you can grab my complete guide for writing query letters.
