The Complexity of a Query Letter (with examples)

When I started the process of getting my debut novel The Chronicles of Jackal and Rabbit published, I never dreamed that it would be so complex. I knew there had to be a synopsis and a query letter and I honestly thought that the synopsis would be the most difficult part but as I discovered in my last post (Writing The Dreaded Synopsis) it's really just a matter of following three simple steps to get it done.

The query letter on the other hand is far more complicated, this is due to the fact that each publisher wants something different from you, while you need only write your synopsis once, the query letter is going to take on so many different forms that you will need to keep track of what you're sending to who very carefully.

You will need to do your research on what each publishing house wants; do not just send unsolicited writing to all of them in the hope that one picks you out of the masses of content they receive every week, if they say they want a three page synopsis first then that's what you send them, if they say they want you to send a picture of  yourself with a shoe on your head, don't do that, they're probably trolls.

Also be careful of who you choose; it can be tempting to answer the calls of all the publishers but not all of them are going to suit your book. A publishing house that specifically state they're looking for high fantasy content is not going to be interested in your historical war story, in fact, some publishers will even give you a list of their editors and what they specialize in, don't send your erotic romance to the hard sci-fi editor, (s)he will ignore you.

I've sent a query to a number of publishers (the ones who accept writers without an agent) and I've found that there are at least four different ways that I've been asked to present my work, for the sake of not getting into trouble I've kept the names of the different publishing houses to myself and have listed them below under the very boring titles of Publisher A, B, C and D.

PUBLISHER A

Was one of the publishers that gave me a list of their editors to chose from, once I had decided who would be most likely to enjoy my book I carefully went through the list of what he was expecting in a submission.
This publisher wanted it all; query letter, synopsis and manuscript (or part there of).
I decided to put together a PDF with all the above neatly arranged in order with a table of contents to head it:


Table of Contents

Query Letter                                                                            2
Synopsis                                                                                   3
Writing Sample (First 17,000 words)                                          6

  
Meg Smith
Address line 1
Address line 2
Address Line 3
Ireland
Name of Publisher
Address line 1
Address line 2

To Name of editor

My name is Meg Smith and I have completed my debut novel for new adults; THE CHRONICLES OF JACKAL AND RABBIT, an action filled suspense with a romantic subplot that will have readers flipping pages and losing sleep.

JACKAL, an assassin who is completely bored with life meets RABBIT, an artist who is hiding from her past in Bavaria Germany. Neither of them have any idea about the dark future that awaits them, neither of them could possibly expect that they are about to embark on a mission to save the world from an organized takeover, neither of them realize that their passion will inspire a great team of people to follow them on their path of justice and brutality; because when they meet, both of them are so focused on saving the other that the world and it's problems can wait.

As Rabbit’s past catches up with her, Jackal takes the opportunity to prove his ability for great leadership and finds a tenderness in himself that he didn’t know he had, while Rabbit taps into her bravery and discovers that she is tougher than she’s ever been given credit for.

This is the first volume in a series [REDACTED], I’m hoping that by the time you’re done reading it you will be emailing me and demanding more.

Word count: 79,720

I have included a synopsis and the first 8 chapters of The Chronicles of Jackal and Rabbit for you to read through, please also feel free to follow my social platforms:


Warmest Regards

Meg Smith

It's important that your query letter contain 'the hook', the gist of your story, it needs to make the editor wants to read your synopsis, it also must contain the word count of the full manuscript and if you have any notoriety like awards or previously published work you may add that in too, I added my social media platforms for them to see that I am willing to engage with my readers and work at promoting my book. The query letter was followed by my full synopsis (normal spacing) and then the writing sample (double spaced). All together the document came to a total of 57 pages. 

I attached this document to a brief email which read as follows:

Subject: QUERY, New Adult Novel, THE CHRONICLES OF JACKAL AND RABBIT

Good Afternoon Name of Editor

I trust that this email finds you well and ready for lots of holiday reading and new author discoveries. 

I'm very excited to be emailing you a query for my debut novel The Chronicles Of Jackal and Rabbit - Volume I

Please see the PDF attached; it contains my query letter, full synopsis and first 8 chapters of the book.

Warmest Regards
Meg Smith


PUBLISHER B

Did not give a list of their editors, instead they gave a list of the genre's that they were currently accepting; my book falls under New Adult, Suspense and Romance, all of which the publisher is taking under consideration. 
The submission requirements were clear and to the point, they wanted a query letter and the first three chapters of the book, they also wanted to know about about who I was as they look at the authors as well as the work (this tells me that this publisher has a set of ideals they hope to find in a writer they will be working closely with), they were very specific about not copy/pasting the content into the body of the email and that they preferd to get everything in the an attachment, so I made a PDF again but this time according to their specifications:

Table of Contents

Query Letter                                                                            2
Writing Sample (Prologue and first 3 chapters)                          3
  
Meg Smith
Address line 1
Address line 2
Address Line 3
Ireland
To Publisher's Name

My name is Meg Smith and I have completed my debut novel for new adults; THE CHRONICLES OF JACKAL AND RABBIT, an action filled suspense with a romantic subplot that will have readers flipping pages and losing sleep.

JACKAL, an assassin who is completely bored with life meets RABBIT, an artist who is hiding from her past in Bavaria Germany. Neither of them have any idea about the dark future that awaits them, neither of them could possibly expect that they are about to embark on a mission to save the world from an organized takeover, neither of them realize that their passion will inspire a great team of people to follow them on their path of justice and brutality; because when they meet, both of them are so focused on saving the other that the world and it's problems can wait.

As Rabbit’s past catches up with her, Jackal takes the opportunity to prove his ability for great leadership and finds a tenderness in himself that he didn’t know he had, while Rabbit taps into her bravery and discovers that she is tougher than she’s ever been given credit for.

This is the first volume in a series and [REDACTED], I’m hoping that by the time you’re done reading it you will be emailing me and demanding more.

Word count: 79,720

I have included the prologue and the first 3 chapters of The Chronicles of Jackal and Rabbit for you to read through, please also feel free to follow my social platforms:


Warmest Regards
Meg Smith

Note that while the query letter is mostly the same in terms of the hook, I made sure to change who it's addressed to and what the rest of document contains as it differs from the last one I sent out. The body of the email was also different to the previous one as it needed to include a little about me and where I'm from as well as my social media:

Good Day

I trust that this email finds you well and ready for lots of holiday reading and new author discoveries. 

I'm very excited to be emailing you a query for my debut novel The Chronicles Of Jackal and Rabbit - Volume I
Please see the PDF attached; it contains my query letter, and the first 3 chapters of the book, I have a full synopsis at the ready should you need it.

About Me:
My name is Meg Smith and I am a South African writer currently living as an asylum seeker in Ireland, having recently escaped the violence and fear in my home country I found myself able to tap into my creativity once again and the result was the book I am now submitting to you. 
Once I finished the novel I began building an online platform for myself as an author, I am most active on Instagram and my blog (please see links below) but if you wish to get to know me a bit better I am open to communicating over Facebook.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Warmest Regards
Meg Smith


PUBLISHER C

Was very specific about not sending any unsolicited writing, they even stated that emails with attachments would not be opened, this is one of the publishers that gave a list of their editors and were very clear about choosing the right editor for your book and recommended that you not send a query to more than one editor. 
Instructions were to send the query letter in the body of the email and that's it. No synopsis, no samples, no gimmicks, no nothing.
I formatted the letter to email and sent the following:

Good Day Wendy

I trust that this email finds you well and ready for lots of holiday reading and new author discoveries. 
My name is Meg Smith and I have completed my debut novel for new adults; THE CHRONICLES OF JACKAL AND RABBIT, an action filled suspense with a romantic subplot that will have readers flipping pages and losing sleep.
JACKAL, an assassin who is completely bored with life meets RABBIT, an artist who is hiding from her past in Bavaria Germany. Neither of them have any idea about the dark future that awaits them, neither of them could possibly expect that they are about to embark on a mission to save the world from an organized takeover, neither of them realize that their passion will inspire a great team of people to follow them on their path of justice and brutality; because when they meet, both of them are so focused on saving the other that the world and it's problems can wait.
As Rabbit’s past catches up with her, Jackal takes the opportunity to prove his ability for great leadership and finds a tenderness in himself that he didn’t know he had, while Rabbit taps into her bravery and finds out that she is tougher than she’s ever been given credit for.
This is the first volume in a series and [REDACTED], I have a full synopsis ready if you would care to read it and and my manuscript is complete.
Word count: 79,720
Warmest Regards
Meg Smith

PUBLISHER D

This involved the least amount of work and irritated me the most; in the submission guidelines you are given a link that takes you to a contact page, its a simple "name:email address:subject:message" system and they very clearly state that you are to send no more than a few sentences about the book (so basically the hook), they didn't want a query letter or synopsis and they would decide whether or not you are worth their time from those simple sentences.

One might think that this is a very hap hazard way of finding new authors but they are an established publishing house so I wasn't about to turn my nose up at them. I kept it simple:

The Chronicles of Pumpkin and Rabbit is one story told from the perspective of two characters; JACKAL, a cold assassin who’s bored with life and RABBIT a lonely artist with a dark past.

When the two meet, neither of them have any idea about the epic future that awaits them, neither of them could possibly expect that they are about to embark on a mission to save the world from an organized takeover, neither of them realize that their passion will inspire a great team of people to follow them on their path of justice and brutality; because when they meet, both of them are so focused on saving the other that the world's problems can wait.


These are 4 very different submissions and it took me a long time to get them out, when you write your query letter do it in the knowledge that it's going to be different each time you send it and as always keep things as simple as possible, the editors reading them have a lot of them to get through in a week and if you do not immediately catch their attention you're done for.

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