Ultimate Guide on How to Write a Query Letter
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Query letters are one of the toughest things a writer will have to put to paper—and this is true even if you’ve crafted a 100K-word novel with five points of view and time travel. Though creativity is needed to write one, a query letter is a business document, and there are expectations built into it regarding what’s included and what’s not. Understanding these expectations and knowing how to write a query letter makes all the difference between your submission standing out in the slush pile—earning you a full request—and receiving a form rejection or no response at all.
Full request? Slush pile? Form rejection?
Stepping into the business side of writing for the first time can feel like stumbling into a wasteland of jargon, unknowns, and confusing instructions. However, we’re here to give you a primer on everything you need to know about query letters—definitions, links, and advice—so you can feel confident that you’re presenting yourself and your book in the best way possible.
The Querying Process
Before we go too far, here’s a brief rundown of how the querying process works when it comes to traditional publishing. (If you already know what querying is, feel free to skip down to the next section on the essential parts.) Due to shifts in the industry and the advent of email, most big publishing houses don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts, which means authors can no longer send their books directly to a publisher for consideration. To reach out to a large publisher (such as Penguin Random House or Macmillan), you have to have a literary agent to represent your work. Querying is how an author approaches a literary agent.
A query letter introduces you and your book to the agent. If they feel your work has the potential to do well in the market, they’ll sign you as a client. Then they shop your book around with editors at publishing houses (note: though they have the same title, these are not the same kinds of editors who provide edits, like us). An agent brings their knowledge of the industry to the table, and if an acquiring editor is interested in acquiring your work, the agent will negotiate the best terms possible for you. Because they’re experts in the business side of writing, agents are powerful allies for writers and can give you confidence as you enter the market as an author.
Multiple publishing paths
This is a simple breakdown of what’s known as traditional publishing. You may have heard of self-publishing, hybrid, or small publishers—these are all other paths you can take as a writer. If you’d like to learn more about all the paths to publishing, including traditional, we highly recommend checking out The Key Book Publishing Paths: 2025–2026 by Jane Friedman.
More on agents
Just like any industry, there are many pretenders eager to take advantage of people—in this case, writers who want to be published. It’s essential to do your homework before submitting. To learn more about agents and how to find them, check out this article from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SWFA): How to Find a (Real!) Literary Agent.
How to Write a Query Letter: The Essentials
As we mentioned above, a query letter is a business document, and it shouldn’t be any longer than one printed page. If it helps, think of this letter as a professional introduction of you and your book to another publishing professional, the agent. On average, agents receive hundreds, if not thousands, of queries each month. The inbox where they receive queries is called the slush pile (this only means they are unsolicited submissions, not that the writing quality is bad).
Because agents receive so many queries, it’s vital to write a letter that meets their expectations, grabs their interest, and gives them everything they need to know about your book. If they are interested, they will ask to read more by requesting more chapters (what’s called a partial) or the rest of the book (a full request). Below, we’ll walk through the seven most important elements to show you how to write a query letter that gets an agent’s attention.
1. A finished manuscript
Before you send a query letter, you need a completed and revised manuscript. It might be tempting to dash off a letter the day after typing “The End,” but as you’ve likely noticed, agents are very busy people. They are looking for professional, polished work. Some agents are editorial, meaning they may take you on as a client and work with you to do revisions before submitting to publishing houses, but since agents only get paid when your book sells, they are less likely to invest a lot of time bringing your work to the proper level. The best policy is to only query when you know you’ve written the best book you can.
Only query when your book is complete. Sometimes it will take an agent several months to reply, but there’s always the chance they will ask for it hours after you send your letter, and then you’ll be in the bind of having to tell them they need to wait. This not only means you’ll lose the benefit of the agent’s excitement, but you’ll also come off looking unprofessional.
2. A defined genre
A strong query letter needs a well-defined genre. Many authors resist putting their book into a category, but genre is one of those nonnegotiable for a query letter. Remember, an agent is looking at your work with an eye towards selling it; they’ll be less likely to offer representation if there’s little to no market for what you’ve written. The more specific you can be about what genre it fits into and who will be reading it, the more you establish yourself as someone who understands the business of writing. Agents (and the editors who acquire books) want to know where your book would fit on a shelf in a bookstore. What section is it in? Who is looking for books there?
Knowing your genre will also help you narrow down your search for an agent who’s a good fit for your book. Not all agents represent all kinds of books, and finding an agent with a strong track record for your genre is a good sign that they will find a good publisher for your work.
If you need help figuring out your genre, check out this article from WritetoDone: What Genre Is My Book? (4 Simple & Easy Ways To Choose!)
3. Strong comp titles
“Comp titles” is short for “comparable titles,” and these are books that are similar to yours, though that similarity can be anything from writing style to plot. Usually, you'll see these written as something like “War of the Worlds meets Jurassic Park” or “the thrilling twists of John Grisham’s The Firm mixed with the atmospheric tone of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.” They help provide context for your book, though many authors struggle to find these titles—after all, your book won't be just like anyone else's! Most comp titles should be recent (published no more than three years ago), so it might take some digging to find titles that are recent and were received well (have good reviews, won awards, etc.). Another way to think of comps is to think again about where your book would live in a bookstore. What books are next to yours? Who wrote them?
Not sure where to start? I’ll always recommend taking a stroll through your local library, but you can also check out the Tourist Map of Literature. This fascinating little tool lets you search by author, clustering similar authors around that name. These authors represent writing styles or subjects that readers of the original author might also enjoy. You can even click through to find their books.
4. Appropriate word count
All queries must include word count, and this is another good reason to have a finished manuscript before you hit send. Word count might not seem like a big deal, but it’s another way an agent assesses your professionality and whether the book is ready for publication. All books have expectations when it comes to length, and that length is determined by your audience and the genre you’re writing in. If your work doesn’t meet those expectations, the agent may feel that the book as a whole isn’t ready. For example, you may have a contemporary middle grade novel that’s 88,000 words, but the agent is thinking of books that have sold recently and what the market is asking for, which is closer to 45,000 words. Having a word count that’s either too low or too high compared to the average signals to the agent that either you don’t have a grasp of who your book is really for or your book hasn’t been edited or developed enough.
The exact word count for genres are always in flux, but for the most part, you’ll find the averages are consistent. You’ll always find authors who have written exceptions to these guidelines, but adhering to the average is a good idea for a debut author who doesn’t have a track record of selling books to back them up yet. Remember, agents are busy people, and while you might think they’ll be hooked if they’d just read some of your book, if they see a word count that’s well outside the range for the genre, they may skip reading the rest of your query letter.
Here’s a good place to start with learning ideal word counts for your genre: Word Count Guide: How Long Is a Book, Short Story, or Novella?
5. A compelling summary
One of the most vital parts of learning how to write a query letter is learning how to condense your book into a snappy summary. However, this is frequently harder than it sounds. The summary of the book should contain information about your main character, their world, their internal and external conflict, and the stakes that drive the story—and all of this needs to happen in the space of one or two concise paragraphs. The summary should also be intriguing enough to get the agent to want to read the sample pages you’ve sent (which we’ll talk about soon).
The summary is a place where your writing voice can shine, but you also don’t want to bog the agent down with too many details or confuse them by being too mysterious. In some ways, it’s kind of like the blurb you’ll find on the back of a book, but this summary should contain enough information to demonstrate that the story is well crafted, containing rising action and stakes that will keep a reader engaged.
We always recommend authors planning to query take a look at the Query Shark archives. This blog was run by the late Janet Reid for years, an incredibly savvy agent who dedicated a lot of time to critiquing query letters authors sent in. Even if the query letter is for a book that isn’t your genre, her blunt, honest, and often funny feedback is applicable to all writers learning to master this very tricky document.
6. A helpful bio
A good query letter should tell the agent a little bit about you as the author as well. In this part of the query, you can share any writing accomplishments or credentials you might have. However, it’s completely okay if you don’t have any! If you have any relevant experience that ties into what you’ve written, you can share that. For example, if you’ve written about a character who’s going through equine therapy and you happen to provide equine therapy as your day job, that’s something that should appear in your bio. Note: Agents don’t need to know how long you’ve been writing, if your beta readers loved the book, or how you came up with the idea. If you don’t have any credentials, a short one- or two-sentence bio is perfect.
Here's a great breakdown from Aspiring Author that goes into more detail on how to use this part of your query letter effectively: What to Put in Your Query Letter Bio.
7. Polished opening pages
Sample pages are almost always included in a query letter submission. The number of pages varies from agent to agent, so you should always pay close attention to any instructions they have on their website or submission portal. Don’t send more than they ask for! Most of the time, you’ll be asked to send anything from five to twenty pages as a sample. These pages should always be the first pages of the book. If you feel that the book doesn’t really get going until later and you’re tempted to send a different part, that could be a good sign that your story isn’t starting in the right place.
Your opening pages should be well polished and as error free as possible. Agents won’t throw out your submission because of a stray typo or two, but be sure you’re sending a great representation of your work. Ideally, these pages should get the agent to want to read more and ask for the rest of the book.
Here’s a great article from Jericho Writers on how to get your reader’s attention right off the bat: 10 Story Hook Tips For Grabbing Attention.
Final Thoughts on How to Write a Query Letter
Query letters are an art and a science, so they can be tough to write. However, the more you know, the better chance you have of crafting a query that gets an agent excited about finding your book in the slush pile. Knowing the expectations of query letters can help you avoid a lot of form rejections (canned responses) and work towards personalized rejections (individualized feedback from the agent) and maybe even a full request that leads to an offer of representation!
Need help with your query letter?
Query letters are tough, but you don’t have to go it alone! We love helping authors like you draw out the heart of their story so it can shine in a query, highlighting what makes your story unique and putting your best foot forward as you step into the business of being a writer. As authors ourselves (and one of us being an agented writer as well), we know how tough the query trenches can be. Let us put everything we know about this process at your disposal to make that time as productive (and short!) as possible.
Send us a note today, and we can help you learn how to write a query letter that does your book proud.
