Guide for writers querying agents
Query Letter Examples That Got Agents
Six real queries that won an agent and what each did well, sample queries by genre, the mistakes to skip and a checklist before you send.
A query letter that gets an agent does four things in about 250 to 450 words. It names the book's title, genre, word count and comps. It introduces a main character with a problem, shows what they stand to lose, and adds a line or two about the writer. The six real queries below all do this, though each opens a different way.
Every excerpt is short and credited, with a link to the full letter and the agent's notes where the author or agent shared it. After them come four short sample queries written for this guide, the parts of a query with word targets, the common mistakes and a checklist for before you send.
When you're ready to write your own, the query letter template gives each part a word target, and the query letter generator drafts a finished query from your pitch or manuscript.
Real query letters that got agents
These six queries each led to an agent and a published book, across rom-com, mystery, literary fiction, fantasy and memoir. Five come from Writer's Digest's Successful Queries series, where the agent explains what caught their eye. Each excerpt is a few lines; follow the link for the whole letter.
PASSION PROJECT is an adult rom-com complete at 79,000 words. It combines the nuanced portrayals of grief in FLOAT PLAN with the tight banter and big soulmate energy of PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION.
If your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet is failing miserably…with a big emphasis on the miserable.
- What it does. It opens with the facts and two comps, one for the grief and one for the banter, so the agent knows the book's mix before the story starts.
- The agent's view. Dolin wrote that from the first few lines, "I knew exactly what the book was, who would read it, and what made it different from other novels in the genre."
- Try this. Dolin reads a query as if it were the copy on a book's back flap. Read yours that way, and ask whether you would buy the book.
Knives Out meets Bridgerton in A RATHER PECULIAR POISONING, a multi-POV 78,000-word nonlinear adult mystery set in 1910, that follows the tumultuous relationship between twins Easton and Wes, and the headstrong girl in love with one but promised to the other.
Was it Della Drewitt—the shrewd heiress reluctant to marry Wes?
Or did Easton decide killing his brother was the only way to secure Eloise’s affections forever?
- What it does. One sentence gives the comps, title, point of view, word count, genre, setting and the central triangle. The questions work because each one names a real suspect and a motive.
- The agent's view. Cudd called "Knives Out meets Bridgerton" the perfect opening hook, and added, "Comps don't have to be a perfect fit; it can be a little of this, and a little of that."
I am seeking representation for a plot-forward literary novel, THE FIRE CONCERTO (103,000 words). A story about a brilliant female musician lost to history and another woman’s quest to ensure she is not forgotten, THE FIRE CONCERTO is a past/present narrative in the vein of Geraldine Brooks’ Horse and A.S. Byatt’s Possession.
I am a classically trained pianist who also holds an MA in English.
- What it does. A one-line description of the whole book comes before any plot. The bio has no writing credits, just a pianist's authority on a novel about music.
- The agent's view. Dunow warns that many queries go wrong by "trying to exhaustively summarize rather than seduce". His rule: "less is more."
- The result. Landenwich writes that she sent 15 queries for this book and had six offers within two weeks.
While clearing out the Raleigh home of her recently deceased grandmother, 38-year-old Sydney Singleton discovers she had an aunt, Carol, one of six local Black girls to go missing in the 1960s. Sydney, a former crime reporter, is uniquely positioned to investigate what happened to “The Raleigh Six.” Yet Sydney left journalism after an obsession with another missing girl triggered a psychotic break.
WE DON’T TALK ABOUT CAROL was selected as a top 10 finalist for the 2023 Reese’s Book Club LitUp Fellowship.
- What it does. Three sentences set up an outside mystery and an inside wound at once. The letter opens with a referral from one of the agent's colleagues, which Jane Friedman advises mentioning right away.
- The agent's view. Pelletier wrote, "Commercial novels may have primarily external stakes and literary novels may have primarily internal stakes," and she looks for upmarket books with both. On the fellowship line: "any good query has its fair share of bragging rights!"
As you requested during our Saturday pitch session, I am sending along my YA fantasy manuscript for your consideration.
THE SECRET WORLD OF ALEX MACK meets SERPENT & DOVE in my novel MUD AND BONES, complete at approximately 90,000 words.
The only problem is, once Cyrus dies, so do his golems. Desperate to save herself – and the other golems that populate their town – Terra strikes a deal with Thorne and the witches to preserve the life and magic of the warlock. If she can uphold her end of the bargain, the golems will survive. If she can’t, the mudchildren will perish along with Cyrus.
- What it does. The agent asked for it at a conference pitch session, so that comes first. The stakes are an if and an if not: keep the bargain and the golems live, break it and they die.
- The agent's view. Orozco liked "that touch of personalization that really helps set a writer apart in the inbox," and noted "the stakes were clear from the outset."
- Worth knowing. The book was queried as MUD AND BONES and published as Woven From Clay. A title can change before publication, so don't hold back a query to perfect yours.
At age thirty, facing a crumbling marriage, a stalled writing career, and a growing fear of going outside, I wondered if lying about who I was for the last fifteen years might be the cause of my problems. A routine trip to the eye doctor when I was sixteen led to a diagnosis of incurable blindness. I could no longer read, but I never had been much of a reader. I couldn’t drive, but lots of people didn’t drive.
- What it does. It opens on the moment the story turns and gives the arc of the book, from diagnosis to acceptance, in two paragraphs. The bio lists where his essays and fiction have appeared.
- The agent's view. Smith wrote, "Platform isn't only about your following. It's about where you publish." He also notes a memoir can sell on a proposal, but a finished one won't hurt you.
The parts of a query letter, and how long each runs
The parts of a query letter
| Part | Its job | How long | See it in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal line (optional) | Why this agent: a referral, a meeting, or something specific they asked for | One sentence | Carol, Woven From Clay |
| Book line | Title in capitals, genre, "complete", word count rounded, and two comps | One or two sentences | Passion Project, The Fire Concerto |
| Hook | Who the main character is and what upends their life | One or two sentences | Blind Man's Bluff, Passion Project |
| Pitch and stakes | What they want, what stands in the way and what they lose if they fail, without the ending | 150 to 300 words | All six |
| Bio | Relevant credits, work or life experience, and nothing else | One line to about 100 words | The Fire Concerto, Blind Man's Bluff |
| Close | Thanks, any pages the agent asks for, and your contact details | One or two sentences | A Rather Peculiar Poisoning, The Fire Concerto |
Word ranges for the pitch and bio are from Jane Friedman's query letter guide. The book line can go first or after the pitch; both appear above.
For the whole letter, Nathan Bransford, a former agent, suggests 250 to 350 words for a novel, and Jane Friedman gives 200 to 450. Janet Reid of Query Shark aimed for 250 but called it a flexible target: "If you're over 400, that's when to sharpen your scissors."
Reid's test for the pitch is the most useful one in this guide. After reading your query, an agent should be able to say who the main character is, what they want, what's getting in the way, and what's at stake if they don't get it.
Sample query letters by genre
These four samples were written for this guide, for invented books, to show the same shape in four genres. Each shows the pitch and the book line. Add a personal line, a bio and a thank-you to finish the letter.
Maren Holt has spent eleven years repairing other people's history. Now she has to decide whether to repair her father's lie. While rebinding her town's famous 1847 whaling log for an auction, she finds a watermark from a paper mill that did not open until 1871. The log is a copy, and the margin notes are in her father's hand.
THE SALT LEDGER is an upmarket mystery, complete at 88,000 words.
- The hook gives a name, a job and a problem in 21 words.
- The discovery is concrete, a watermark and two dates, so the agent sees the mystery instead of being told there is one.
- The full letter, with a note beside every part, is in the query letter template.
Tess Okafor has captained the night ferry to Gull Island for six years and has never once left late. Then the island's new doctor starts holding her boat. Dr. Rafe Lindqvist won't close the clinic while anyone is still waiting, and the night ferry is the only way his patients get home.
Tess needs a spotless record for the mainland route she has wanted since she was nineteen. Rafe needs the clinic open past spring, when the county plans to close it. Every night they wait on the dock, it gets harder to pretend they are only arguing about the schedule. Then the county offers Tess the mainland job, if she will sign a report saying the island can do without a night crossing.
LAST BOAT TO GULL ISLAND is a contemporary romance complete at 82,000 words, told from both points of view.
- Each lead gets a goal, and the two goals collide.
- The last line forces a choice between love and career without saying which she makes.
Ilse Marrow forges receipts. In the city of Vell, every debt is inked into the debtor's skin and fades only when it is paid, so a good forgery can buy a family another year. Ilse is careful and cheap and has never been caught, until a client pays her with a receipt that carries the queen's seal and her dead mother's handwriting.
Now the crown's auditors are hunting whoever cleared the queen's own debt, and the forgers' guild that raised Ilse wants the seal for itself. Worse, the mark on Ilse's wrist, a debt she has never been able to read, has started to fade. To survive, she has to learn who her mother forged for before the auditors learn who taught her.
INK AND QUITTANCE is an adult fantasy complete at 104,000 words, a standalone with series potential.
- The world gets one rule, debts written on skin, and only because the plot needs it.
- The word count sits inside the usual range for adult fantasy in our novel word count guide.
The week my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at sixty-one, I moved back into the house I had spent my teens trying to leave. I was a hospice chaplain. I sat with the dying for a living, and I had no idea how to sit with him.
SITTING WITH MY FATHER follows the three years I spent as his caregiver, while he forgot my name, then my mother's, and finally the anger that had run our family. It is about learning to love the man in front of me instead of the one I remembered, and why nothing in my training helped.
SITTING WITH MY FATHER is a memoir complete at 71,000 words. My essays on caregiving have appeared in [publications], and [number] family caregivers read my monthly newsletter.
- Like Blind Man's Bluff, it opens on the moment the story starts, in the first person.
- It names the stretch of life the book covers and how the writer changes, the arc agents need to see in a memoir.
- Brackets hold the platform facts. Use only numbers you can show.
Common query letter mistakes
- Not enough story on the page. Abstract lines about love, loss and destiny leave an agent unable to answer Reid's four questions. Name the person, the problem and the price.
- Summarizing the whole plot. Reedsy's editors suggest one or two short paragraphs of plot, and agent Henry Dunow's rule is "less is more."
- Giving away the ending. The query stops at the choice; the synopsis is where the ending goes.
- Comping a blockbuster or a classic. Friedman suggests recent books whose readers overlap with yours, or a famous title only with a twist that shows how yours differs.
- Praising your own book. Friedman's list of what doesn't belong includes your years of effort, your family's praise, past rejections and what you spent on editing.
- A personal line anyone could write. "I see you represent mystery" says nothing. Mention a book they sold, a wish they posted or a talk you heard.
How to write yours from these examples
Read five queries in your genre
Start with the collections under Other good resources and note how each opens, how long it runs and where the word count sits.
Write the book line
Title in capitals, genre, "complete", the word count rounded to the nearest thousand and two comps you have read. Check your length against our novel word count guide.
Answer Reid's four questions
Who, what they want, what's in the way and what's at stake, in 150 to 300 words. Stop before the ending.
Add a true bio
One line of relevant work, credits or life experience is plenty. "This is my first novel" is fine on its own. The author bio template helps with longer versions.
Draft it, then make it yours
Fill in the query letter template part by part, or paste your pitch into the query letter generator for a finished draft, then read it aloud.
Before you send: a checklist
- The agent's name is spelled right, and the greeting uses it.
- You have followed this agent's guidelines for sample pages, a synopsis and the subject line.
- The book line gives the title in capitals, the genre, "complete" and the word count.
- Your comps are books you have read, ideally from the last few years.
- A stranger could name your main character, their goal, the obstacle and the stakes.
- The ending is not in the query.
- Every fact in your bio is true and relevant.
- The letter is pasted into the email or form, with no attachments unless the guidelines ask for them.
- You are sending in small rounds, such as the 5 to 10 at a time Jane Friedman suggests, so you can adjust.