All of us who want to get our writing published need to know about querying. It can be kindof a scary step in writing & publishing, but there are a lot of resources out there to help us along the way.
Writer's Market is great for finding who to send the letters to, and it's always a good idea to find out what the SPECIFIC publisher/agent wants. Sometimes you can find information like that in the entries in Writer's Market, or visiting their website.
Here are some good quick tips for writing query letters:
- You ALWAYS want to know about who you are submitting to. It's a little embarrassing to send them fantasy if they only publish historical fiction or romance.
- Know who to address the query letter to (it's better to have a name rather than "To Whom it May Concern" (it'll show that you took the effort of five extra minutes to figure out who the person is. Even if it isn't listed, you can probably find it on their website)
- be formal, and without grammatical errors. Some places toss letters with a mistake without a second look.
- new/different/original idea, present it soon in the letter (they read a lot of letters, don't want to take a lot of time)
- SHORT - only one page for the query letter.
Also, here is a great blog for learning about query letters:
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/
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