Quick query format question

Jimmy McAdams · Apr 2, 2009

Hi everyone,

My query letters are pretty much ready to be sent out, save for a few touch-ups. When I got to the part where it came time to put my contact information at the bottom by my signature, it looks quite clunky and I don't find it too appealing:

<Query Intro>

<Query Body>

Sincerely,

<Signature goes here>

Name / Address (Street and Number)
Phone / Number City, Province and Country
E-mail / Postal code

For reference, the contact information after the slashes is right justified.

So what do you guys think? Is the contact info setup fine as is, or should some of it be removed (say, keep just the name, phone number and e-mail)?

Thanks.

dawinsor · Apr 2, 2009

We're talking snail mail here, right?

I put my address at the top as the return address with the date right below it.

At the end of the letter, below my signature, I put my phone and email, lined up with my signature.

Kathleen42 · Apr 2, 2009

If this is a snail mail query, your format is incorrect. It should be formatted like a business letter with the agent's address and your address at the top, left justified (or your address in a header if you have a letterhead).

Personally, for letter queries, I just include a line in the letter which says that I can be contacted by phone at 111-111-1111 or via email at [email protected]. I'm not sure if this is strictly correct but this is the format I have always used for cover letters.

For an email query, I would out your contact info below your name (your contact info is part of your email signature). In the interest of disclosure, though, I did just take a peak at three agent blogs and couldn't find any who suggested a different format. HOWEVER this is always how I've composed business emails (and how others have composed business emails that they have sent to me). You may want to double check but I can't see why it would be different.

colealpaugh · Apr 2, 2009

Kathleen42 said:
or via email at [email protected]

Who woulda known 1111 was Litchfield, CT?

http://www.1111.com

I guess I'm the kind of person that forces movie and TV writers to use 555 for telephone numbers...

Kathleen42 · Apr 2, 2009

colealpaugh said:
Who woulda known 1111 was Litchfield, CT?

http://www.1111.com

I guess I'm the kind of person that forces movie and TV writers to use 555 for telephone numbers...

I thought 555 was too cliche

Jimmy McAdams · Apr 3, 2009

Thanks for your advice, everyone.

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the query format should be something like:

<My Address>

<Date>

<Recipient's Address>

<Dear:>

<Query Body>

Thank you for taking the time to consider my work. I have enclosed a SASE and I hope to hear from you soon. You can contact me at ###-#### or [email protected].

Sincerely,
<Signature>
Name

I was unaware of the need to have the recipient's address on a query letter. I understand that it's business letter format, but it seems like it's there to take up space more than anything. I'm sure the recipient knows their own address and it is the envelope that would get the letter to them to begin with, and not the actual letter, so I didn't think that would need to be included. :tongue

I also seem to be running into the problem now of having a query letter that's extending over one page, due to the addition of the recipient's address, and all of the vertical space it requires. I know that making the font smaller is a bad idea, and my query is already single spaced (the body is 250 words), but does anyone have any tips on making everything fit better? It seems like I'm trying to cram a lot onto one page.

dawinsor · Apr 3, 2009

The body's 250 words and you're running to two pages? The whole body, everything between <Dear :> and <Sincerely>? That shouldn't be. I just checked mine and the body was 272 words and it fit on one page.

Take out the vertical space between your address and the date.

Sometimes you can put two parts of the recipient's address together with a comma: 1111 Fourth Street, Suite 60.

Do those help?

Snowstorm · Apr 3, 2009

Yep, the recipient's address is included. (This makes sense if you have a stack of letters, who would you know it was sent to?). Me, I put my phone number and email address up with my address. This way, all contact info is together and not separate in the letter. Good luck with your query!

JRTurner · Apr 3, 2009

I started using a letterhead just to streamline the letter itself because I too thought it was rather odd looking to have all that white space above the query itself. However, before I switched, I did it exactly as suggested by Kathleen42 in #3

Good luck with your query!

Warmly,
Jenny

Kathleen42 · Apr 3, 2009

JRTurner said:
I started using a letterhead just to streamline the letter itself because I too thought it was rather odd looking to have all that white space above the query itself. However, before I switched, I did it exactly as suggested by Kathleen42 in #3

Good luck with your query!

Warmly,
Jenny

One advantage of having a letterhead is that it will usually save you at least a line or too as well.

Jimmy McAdams · Apr 6, 2009

Hi, everyone, sorry for the late response. I was out of town for the weekend and the computer I had there ran into problems.

dawinsor said:
The body's 250 words and you're running to two pages? The whole body, everything between <Dear :> and <Sincerely>? That shouldn't be. I just checked mine and the body was 272 words and it fit on one page.

Take out the vertical space between your address and the date.

Sometimes you can put two parts of the recipient's address together with a comma: 1111 Fourth Street, Suite 60.

Do those help?

I tried that out, but I ran into problems, as I counted 11 single spaces I had to deal with total, meaning I'd have to consolidate more than I had to work with.

Even though I was using single spacing, I just found a line spacing option in Word that apparently was adding more space between each paragraph than was really needed, so I shortened that so that I could fit everything in. It feels a little cluttered, but I suppose that makes sense, considering how much extra space I was used to.

I think it should be good to go now! Thanks everyone, for all of your advice and support.

Jimmy McAdams · Apr 7, 2009

Kathleen42 said:
For an email query, I would out your contact info below your name (your contact info is part of your email signature). In the interest of disclosure, though, I did just take a peak at three agent blogs and couldn't find any who suggested a different format. HOWEVER this is always how I've composed business emails (and how others have composed business emails that they have sent to me). You may want to double check but I can't see why it would be different.

Sorry to revive this once more, but I wanted to clarify something regarding e-mail queries.

Would I include everything that's in a standard business letter/snail mail format, but remove my address? Do I still include their address and my phone number, or even obvious things that are part of the e-mail, such as my e-mail address and the date?

In other words, would e-mail queries have this format:

Dear:

<Query Body>

Thank you for taking the time to consider my work.

Sincerely,

Name

I tried looking around to double check this before asking again here, but I didn't see anything regarding it (I was thinking it was omitted because it wasn't required).

Thanks again, AW. I hope I'm not being too repetitive in what I'm asking about format, but I know that getting the query letter just right is an incredibly important step in finding an agent.

EDIT: Also, another quick question. Hopefully I'm not asking one too obvious, but if there's a general e-mail (like [email protected] or [email protected]), would I include the name of the agent I'm looking for in the subject line (assuming that more than one person may use that e-mail)? Thanks again.

scarletpeaches · Apr 7, 2009

Whether it's because I'm in the UK or I've been getting it wrong for years, I put the recipient's address in the top left and my contact details in the top right.

scarletpeaches · Apr 7, 2009

And in response to my last rep point -

I write and print the letter without my address and details in the top right, then open another word document with my address/details only and run the same sheet of paper through the printer.

Kathleen42 · Apr 7, 2009

Jimmy McAdams said:
Sorry to revive this once more, but I wanted to clarify something regarding e-mail queries.

Would I include everything that's in a standard business letter/snail mail format, but remove my address? Do I still include their address and my phone number, or even obvious things that are part of the e-mail, such as my e-mail address and the date?

In other words, would e-mail queries have this format:

I tried looking around to double check this before asking again here, but I didn't see anything regarding it (I was thinking it was omitted because it wasn't required).

Thanks again, AW. I hope I'm not being too repetitive in what I'm asking about format, but I know that getting the query letter just right is an incredibly important step in finding an agent.

EDIT: Also, another quick question. Hopefully I'm not asking one too obvious, but if there's a general e-mail (like [email protected] or [email protected]), would I include the name of the agent I'm looking for in the subject line (assuming that more than one person may use that e-mail)? Thanks again.

I format my emails as follows:

<Dear Agent>

<Query letter>

<maybe an additional line about how they can contact me by phone or via email>

<Regards>

<Name>
<Address>
<Phone number>
<Email>

But, just to be absolutely clear, I am formatting email queries the same way I write business emails at work. For all I know, I could be completely off base.

If anyone has any additional advice on this, or a source with a recommendation, please jump in.

As for the general info, are you submitting to the [email protected] addresses because they request submissions go through there or because you haven't looked up the agent's profile on Agent Query or other directories?

Tuuli · Apr 7, 2009

Jimmy McAdams said:
Sorry to revive this once more, but I wanted to clarify something regarding e-mail queries.

Would I include everything that's in a standard business letter/snail mail format, but remove my address? Do I still include their address and my phone number, or even obvious things that are part of the e-mail, such as my e-mail address and the date?

In other words, would e-mail queries have this format:

I tried looking around to double check this before asking again here, but I didn't see anything regarding it (I was thinking it was omitted because it wasn't required).

Thanks again, AW. I hope I'm not being too repetitive in what I'm asking about format, but I know that getting the query letter just right is an incredibly important step in finding an agent.

EDIT: Also, another quick question. Hopefully I'm not asking one too obvious, but if there's a general e-mail (like [email protected] or [email protected]), would I include the name of the agent I'm looking for in the subject line (assuming that more than one person may use that e-mail)? Thanks again.

Jimmy, you would set up the equery exactly as Kathleen42 had it. Someone posted the other format (snail mail version) on the Query Shark and she almost bit his head off. Her reasoning is that you just wasted her time with yours and her address being first. She had to scrolled down to get to the important stuff.

As for your second question, I don't unless it is specified in their submission guidelines.

Hope that helps.

Jimmy McAdams · Apr 7, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
And in response to my last rep point -

I write and print the letter without my address and details in the top right, then open another word document with my address/details only and run the same sheet of paper through the printer.

Sorry, I'm a little confused with what you're trying to do with this. How is this different from having a header that has left and right justification, except for how many times it goes through the printer? I'm not sure if I'm missing something with this. :Huh:

Kathleen42 said:
As for the general info, are you submitting to the [email protected] addresses because they request submissions go through there or because you haven't looked up the agent's profile on Agent Query or other directories?

Thanks again for the help with formatting.

I have looked up the agents in said hotshot agency, but they share the same e-mail address. To be more specific, I was looking up Jennifer Jackson, who on AgentQuery has her own e-mail, but her queries go to the Donald Maass Agency's general address. Do they just choose which agent to send it to themselves?

Tuuli · Apr 7, 2009

Jimmy McAdams said:
Do they just choose which agent to send it to themselves?

You would address the specific author in the actually letter (Dear Ms. Jackson).

Jimmy McAdams · Apr 7, 2009

Alright, thank you for the clarification, Tuuli!

scarletpeaches · Apr 7, 2009

Jimmy McAdams said:
Sorry, I'm a little confused with what you're trying to do with this. How is this different from having a header that has left and right justification, except for how many times it goes through the printer? I'm not sure if I'm missing something with this.

dpaterso repped me to point out you can't left-justify and right-justify text on the same line in MS Word, so I was pointing out how you could get an address in both the top left and top right corners of a sheet of A4.

Jimmy McAdams · Apr 7, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
dpaterso repped me to point out you can't left-justify and right-justify text on the same line in MS Word, so I was pointing out how you could get an address in both the top left and top right corners of a sheet of A4.

Thanks for the tip!

I managed to do this in Word 2007, though. You can do left, middle and right justification in a header/footer at the same time through tabbing. If you want that format elsewhere in the document, you can copy and paste it from the header/footer.

Quick query format question

Jimmy McAdams

dawinsor

Dorothy A. Winsor

Kathleen42

crushing on fictional characters

colealpaugh

"Bear trumps Elephants!"

Kathleen42

crushing on fictional characters

Jimmy McAdams

dawinsor

Dorothy A. Winsor

Snowstorm

Baby plot bunneh sniffs out a clue

JRTurner

Kathleen42

crushing on fictional characters

Jimmy McAdams

Jimmy McAdams

scarletpeaches

scarletpeaches

Kathleen42

crushing on fictional characters

Tuuli

Research Addict

Jimmy McAdams

Tuuli

Research Addict

Jimmy McAdams

scarletpeaches

Jimmy McAdams