So yeah, the most important step after writing your story is writing that perfect query letter. Everything else literally depends on nothing else but that one important letter! In the past few years God knows how many letters I sent out for my past stories and failed. During that time I kept on discovering ways to improve my letters and hopefully now with my other story I'll do a better job. My point is that by now I know a lot about query letters and as promised I'm here to share my knowledge to help you!
So there are four parts of a query letter; Into, hook, story description, and bio. INTRO; the intro paragraph is the start of your letter which will consist of the general info about you and your story. It's the introduction, so start by introducing yourself of course! I usually go for the basic 'my name is...and I'm writing...' Too much irrelevant info about yourself is extremely discouraged, just tell your name and move onto the story because that's the real thing that matters. In the intro tell the name of your book, the word length and genre plus any other important basic info. Also MOST IMPORTANT, include something about the literary agent in the intro too, they mostly ask you to tell them how you heard of them and why you decided to query them. This is very important because it helps personalize your letter according to each literary agent and it's always good to start off on a friendly note and make them feel slightly flattered. HOOK; the hook is something that you can even entwine into your intro or you can begin your story description with it. The hook is basically that one line intro to your story that is supposed to get the agent's attention. I personally encourage to write that one quote or dialogue in the book that defines your story, think of it as that one (probably first) line in a movie trailer that is meant to make the viewers interested in it. STORY DESCRIPTION; then you get into a one paragraph description of your story. It's just a brief interesting introduction to the story of your book. It is said that the story description mostly starts of with 'when this this happened then...' And then you just write about briefly telling about the main plot and the main characters. It is supposed to be short and to the point. Think of it as if you don't have much time but you are gonna give your best to impress the literary agent in just a few words. BIO; finally comes your biography. Basically this is where you professionally introduce yourself and show off your strengths and achievements. But please only talk about what's relevant to writing and your story. No one is interested at the moment about where you come from, what you do or even who you are; telling things like even your age is discouraged as it is only a waste of time for the agent. So keep it brief and to the point and only talk about your previous writing related works, any writing related achievements, any previously published work, any writing related degrees and that is it! And of course in the end you thank them for their time and sign off with a polite salutation. Well that's all, hope I was of help, feel free to ask anything in the comments, I'll help you out. Follow me for updates on the book I'm hoping to get published and wish me luck! Meanwhile, check out my eBook; Bonds of Friendship and help it reach a 100 sales so that it can be available in bookstores soon!
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AuthorWelcome! My name is Iman Malik and I am an aspiring novelist who is dreaming to be a bestseller one day who can be well known as writer Iman Malik. Archives
September 2021
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