How to Write a Query Letter: Pt 2

Continued from Pt 1

5. Don’t tell me what happens in your book. This is where most writers loose it. I don’t care about situations, I want themes. I want to know what the book is about. I don’t care that Mary is a fairy who learns that she really a human queen, but must battle an evil wizard before she can regain her throne. I want to know that Mary is self-conscious and nervous but faces fear and discrimination in a fantasy based coming of age story.


6. Please tell me how you plan to resolve the story and explain this further in the synopsis. Most writers spend 100 words telling me all sorts of garbage, like: trees that talk, a hero who is in a wheel chair, a pandemic that only attacks women, an alien that eats rocks. But, they only put a few words into telling me the ending.

Most of the full manuscripts I ask for are returned because the ending is flat, meaningless, and does not address any of societies concerns. I would rather know that you can write a great ending than know what your characters look like.

And – never – ever – under any circumstance – tell me about a subplot or a secondary character – no matter how important they are to the main character’s growth or the plot’s resolution. If the novel is a romance, then explain the character’s growth and how the romance unfolds. Remember to include the climax, black moment, and resolution.
More to come...