Crafting a Query Letter
How to Stand Out with a Personalized, Professional Pitch
If you’re interested in traditional publication, you’ll need a literary agent to get your manuscript in front of most major editors. Querying literary agents varies slightly depending on whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, but as I represent fiction, that will be my focus here. Either way, your query will hinge on a letter pitching the project for which you want representation. So, what should you include in the query letter to make yourself stand out?
Before you begin querying, it’s important to finish writing and editing your novel to the best of your ability. Different agents will request different material—a few pages, a longer partial, a complete manuscript—and you want to be prepared, whatever they ask to see. Once you’ve polished your manuscript, you can move on to the submissions stage.
A query letter typically serves as your introduction to an agent.
It will include two types of information: content you will write ahead and keep as the majority of your letter for every agent you query, and details you will alter for each letter in order to personalize it for the agent in question.
Let’s start with the standard information. You’ll need some basic data about your manuscript, including the genre, title, and approximate word count. The pitch, which focuses on the plot of your story, should make up the bulk of the letter. Finally, you want to include a short author bio mentioning any previous credits if you have them, and personal information that pertains to the project.
Metadata is straightforward, so let’s move on to the trickier stuff. Your pitch is the portion of the query letter that sells an agent on your story idea, and it will form the core of your letter. Whatever else you include, the pitch should be about two or three paragraphs long and give the reader specifics about the novel that will entice them to read the manuscript.
An agent reading a query looks at the pitch portion with two questions in mind: Is this a fresh, interesting, marketable idea that makes me curious enough to take a look? and How well does this person write? This might sound daunting, but consider that you’ve just written and revised a complete novel. If you can write a novel-length manuscript you feel excited and confident about, to the point you’re willing to submit it, you can write a query that shares your enthusiasm.
Every pitch should contain the key points about your novel, almost like you are filling in a template to start.
Make a list, if this simplifies things for you.
Protagonist
Description of protagonist (who are they?)
Your setting
Inciting incident
Antagonist (if you have one); in romance this could be the romantic interest
Your protagonist’s driving action (what they need to do)
Your protagonist’s end goal (what they want)
Antagonist’s conflicting action/goal
Stakes (what happens if your protagonist fails)
Make these items specific to your novel. Name your protagonist and antagonist. Include a few vivid examples right out of your plot. Avoid talking about themes or using sweeping generalities. The pitch itself is for talking about your story, not how it fits into a larger market or genre.
Use your key points to craft what will serve as an outline for the pitch. You’ll end up with something along the lines of:
[Protagonist’s name] is a [description of protagonist] living in [setting; include description if naming the location isn’t sufficient—fantasy world, unfamiliar area, etc.]. When [inciting incident], [Protagonist] must [driving action(s)], and thwart [Antagonist], who [Antagonist’s conflicting goal]. [Protagonist] needs to [goal] or else [stakes].
Keep in mind, this is overly simplified for lack of actual details. You will take up more space with your very special and specific characters, locations, and exciting or heart-wrenching or suspenseful events. There will be more than three sentences, and possibly mention of more characters, especially if your novel features an ensemble or multiple timelines or any of the fancier tricks of the fiction-writing trade. But this gives you a very basic gist.
If you are, in fact, pitching a more complex story, here are a few pointers.
Multiple timelines? Note that in your mention of genre at the start, as in “a historical fantasy set across multiple timelines” or “a women’s fiction following two generations of the Smith family women through parallel timelines.” Or, with the title: “[Novel’s Title] follows two narrative arcs, set in the late 1890s and present day.” This way, when you get to the pitch portion of the query letter, you can jump right into descriptions of each narrative arc without confusion.
Writing a romance? Give each of the lovers their own introduction. You might use the first paragraph to establish who one half of the couple is, their setting, and goals, and the second to repeat that information for the other half of the couple, including a conflict to a potential relationship. A third paragraph can then pull in both characters and continue with action and stakes.
Writing nonlinearly? Again, you can mention this or any other structural differences with the metadata. For the pitch itself, consider whether you want to maintain that nonlinear structure or go with something a little more straightforward. A few paragraphs isn’t much space, and intricate structure tends to confuse things when you attempt to condense it down.
Large cast of characters? Pick a few to focus on, and make sure at least one appears in the early pages of the manuscript. There’s nothing more confusing than to read a pitch about a character and then an opening chapter that never mentions them. You can also give the sense of a bigger cast without naming everyone, either by referring to a group of friends, a team, etc. within the pitch, or simply stating with the metadata that the novel follows four main characters with revolving POVs or whatever is the case.
Spend the most time working on the pitch portion of the query letter.
This is your selling point, your compelling story that the agent will be excited to read. Everything else in your query letter might be terrific, but you’re writing to pitch your novel, so that’s what needs to stand out.
Once you establish what you want to say, you can finesse how you say it. Revise for voice. Read it out loud. Remember, this introduces your writing to the agent before they even see your first page. Make the most of it.
Following the actual pitch, wrap up with everything that’s left. This is where you might indicate comparative titles for your work. Comp titles suggest your work is Title A crossed with Title B, naming recent works that have been at least moderately successful in your genre. I recommend when you use comp titles, you aim for books published within the last three years, and you note what about each feels akin to your work. For instance “the found-family dynamics of Title A with the hearth-thumping tension of Title B.” This helps immeasurably if the agent has not read one or more of your comp titles, or if they disliked one of them. You can also suggest your novel might appeal to readers of certain books, which shows you know where you fit into the market.
Finish with your personal information.
You want a short bio, including your basic details and anything else that feels helpful. Is your day job writing related? Have you any previous publishing credits? Writing degrees? Awards? This is where you name them, including publishers and years, if applicable. But don’t panic if you don’t have these things, yet. Everyone starts somewhere. It’s also fine if, absent professional achievements, you list your partner, kids, and pets, or mention some small, fun detail, such as your dream to visit Antarctica.
Okay, that’s a lot, but we’re not quite done yet. Everything we’ve discussed comprises the meat-and-potatoes of your query letter. Once you’re happy with the details, they’ll appear in your letter to every agent. But you want to do a little bit more to personalize each one.
At some point in this process, you need to research literary agents.
I recommend you do it as you go, at least on a casual level. Collect names of agents and agencies from the acknowledgement pages of your favorite novels, through social media, at conferences, Publishers Weekly magazine, and Publishersmarketplace.com.
When you’re getting ready to query, review your collection and do a little more in-depth research. Visit agency websites and see what each agent represents, whether your project might mesh with their interests, and what their submission guidelines are. Remember that agents will never charge you to read your submissions; agents only make money when they sell work for their clients. Finally, double check to make sure the agents you’re interested in are currently open to queries. Then make your go-list.
At a minimum, you will personalize your query letters with each agent’s name. Ideally, you will also have a tiny tidbit you’ve collected about them that you can include in your query letter, during your introduction, along with the metadata. Something about them that makes you want to work with them or believe they will click with your project. Maybe they represent your favorite writer or recommended a craft book that helped you over a hump.
This is also when you mention any personal connection. If you spoke at a conference or met at a writers’ workshop, remind them. Likewise, if you’ve been referred by one of their clients, say so here. Keep in mind, a referral is when someone the agent knows and/or works with tells you to use their name. This means the agent can comfortably reach out to that person to confirm the referral, or that the person told the agent ahead to expect your query.
Needless to say, agent name and what has drawn you to them will change from letter to letter. Confirm before submitting each query that you’ve updated from the last version, so your personalized details match the agent you’re submitting to.
One final tidbit:
You can shuffle the order here. Some query letters dive right into the pitch and then follow with metadata and bio. Every agent will tell you they have a preference between this structure and the one I outline above, but no one will hold it against you if your query structure differs from their favorite. The most important thing is to include the key components, and to allow your own enthusiasm for your story to shine through.
If you’re interested in seeing successful query letters, an online search will yield various examples across the different genres. For those of you writing nonfiction, I recommend reading How to Write a Book Proposal: The Insider’s Step-by-Step Guide to Book Proposals that Get You Published by Jody Rein and Michael Larsen, which covers all of the aspects of putting together a proposal for different nonfiction subgenres.
Speaking of queries, I am still in the midst of working through my backlog from before the holidays. Right now, I plan to open to new material at the end of the month. Specific dates when I have them. Meanwhile, a quick reminder that I’m taking online pitches Saturday, March 7th as part of the 2026 Online Texas Writing Workshop. In addition, I will be in person at the 2026 Writing Conference of Los Angeles on Saturday, May 2nd.
Thank you, as always, for joining me here and giving me your time. Wishing you a wonderful week, filled with good books and productive writing. Until the next one!🥰
Fantastic for a rookie like me. Thank you very much. I’ve followed.
This helped me sharpen my current pitch, thank you!
Should the book pitch itself be in the same POV as the novel? I thought third person was the rule, but I've seen a few sample rom com pitches lately written in first person.