Congratulations! Your book is finally completed. The years of hard work, time and energy have paid off. Believe it or not, writing your novel was the easy part. You have a lot of hills to climb from here. Now is the time to get the attention and interest from an agent or publisher to read your manuscript. You are now a salesperson for your own book.
How do you reach them? It's not by telephone but through written query letters. A query letter is an introduction letter stating who you are, your qualifications, what your book is all about and what separates your book from others already in the market world. There will be hundreds of books published on the same topic as yours so you have to prove to them why "yours"will interest the readers more. What makes yours different?
A first time writer has to work twice as hard than an author who is already established in the writing field. A published author who has sold multiple books has the doors opened for their new novel without having to work at it. Readers know who these authors are and look forward to their next book release.
After writing my first book, I had no idea where to go to find what a query letter was. I had to visually see one to understand what information they contained. I came across Charlotte Dillon's website that had twelve listings on Articles to Help with Your Query Letters. Her site shows query samples, along with the do's and don'ts with cover letters. Charlotte will help you through the stages of writing a query letter. Her website is www.charlottedillon.com/query.html
As I mentioned before, the Writer's Market book is a must. The book contains samples and comparisons of good and bad query letters. You will gain information on what agents and publishers are looking for in the letter. There are listings for agents and publishers to contact after your query letter is written. The book can be bought at any bookstore or online through www.barnesandnoble.com
Remember, Barnes and Noble offers used books if you can't afford a brand new one.
Query Letter
Your query letter should contain an exciting opening that will "grab" the attention of the agent or publisher. One page is more than enough. Your query should be clear and without spelling errors, punctuation mistakes or poor grammar. The following is what it should contain:
* A single paragraph that introduces the proposed book
* An "overview" of the intended work-including the expected word count and a brief description of the target audience. I have been informed by editors that a first time writer should try to limit their pages to 250. I can't confirm this. If it's a good book, it will be noticed.
* A few sentences about the writer that highlights your credentials and explains why you will be a credible author of the book
* A concluding paragraph that summarizes the strengths of the book
The James Russell Publishing Company offers a sample of a query letter on their site: www.powernet.net/~scrnplay
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