Referral Etiquette

Elizabeth Holloway

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A writer friend recently read my current novel and encouraged me to query her agent with the project. She told me to include her name and how long I've known her in the query. I'm fine with all of that, but what do I put in the subect line of the email? Would it be proper etiquette to say something like "Referral query: TITLE-genre"? Or would it be better to just mention the referral in the body of the email?
I'm probably overthinking this, but any direction in this matter would be so helpful.
Thanks!
 

Terie

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The two times friends have referred me to their agents, they contacted the agent first. In both cases, the agents said to send a query. In my subject line, I said something like 'Referral from <friend's name>'. This way, the agent 1) knows in advance that the referral is real and 2) is expecting the query.

Good luck!
 

BethS

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Ideally, your friend will contact her agent prior to your sending the query and let the agent know to expect it. She can then ask the agent how you should address the subject line.
 

Elizabeth Holloway

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Thank you both. I'm not sure if my friend plans on contacting the agent before I query or not. I suppose I should find out before I actually hit send...
 

Terie

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Thank you both. I'm not sure if my friend plans on contacting the agent before I query or not. I suppose I should find out before I actually hit send...

If she doesn't, I probably wouldn't put her name in the subject line of your e-mail, but make sure it's in the first sentence of the query. That way, the agent sees it right off the bat.
 

RKLipman

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It depends, usually, but in this case I'd go ahead and put "Query: TITLE (Referral from Awesome Friend)" in the subject line.