Query letter for Fantasy: what's the key?

I think the thing that works best is to be specific. Specific things that make your book different. Not the usual sweeping statements of "swept into a world of danger" bla bla bla "must save the world" yadda yadda.

The more specific you are about how your story is unique, the better it stands a chance of catching someone's eye. Take it from someone who used to have excessively vague queries. *g*

When I'm trying to define my hook, I tend to think of what I would say if someone asked me what my novel/short story/screenplay is about. I'd say, "It's about _____________." Then I assume that whatever my subconscious puts in the blank is probably the hook.

In my personal experience, I've also noticed that if I can't explain the plot of what I'm writing in a sentence or two, I usually need to do more work to make it properly hooky.

Fascinating protagonist in a believable, meaningful struggle with an equally fascinating antagonist.

That's "all" you need.

JD

First: if your book were really a movie to appear on HBO, what would be the one-sentence description in TV Guide?

Nowadays, it's as important to let the agent or publisher know what makes you unique as an author as it is what makes your story unique. What's your expertise? Who do you know? Do you have any marketing advantages that others might not?

The most important part of your query letter is the writing sample attached to it.

Your query just needs be good enough to get the agent/editor to look at the writing sample.

All too often, I fear that people sweat queries FAR more than necessary. Ultimately, the agent/editor will not be buying a query, but a book.

The best fantasy query letter is clean and professional and comes with the greatest fantasy novel since One Hundred Years of Solitude on page 2.

Don't sweat the queries. They're not as hard as all that.

If you need help/advice, follow this link. Password is "Vista".

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=84

badducky said:

The most important part of your query letter is the writing sample attached to it.

Your query just needs be good enough to get the agent/editor to look at the writing sample.

All too often, I fear that people sweat queries FAR more than necessary. Ultimately, the agent/editor will not be buying a query, but a book.

The best fantasy query letter is clean and professional and comes with the greatest fantasy novel since One Hundred Years of Solitude on page 2.

Don't sweat the queries. They're not as hard as all that.

If you need help/advice, follow this link. Password is "Vista".

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=84

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I disagree. I think the most important part of a query is to convince the agent or publisher that there is something different about you than the gazzillion others who also are contacting them. Good writing plays only a small role in the initial process.

deathwizard said:

Good writing plays only a small role in the initial process.

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So that's how all these crappy LOTR rip-offs with no character development keep getting published.

Nowadays, it's as important to let the agent or publisher know what makes you unique as an author as it is what makes your story unique. What's your expertise? Who do you know? Do you have any marketing advantages that others might not?

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Well, if that's true, I have no chance whatsoever. I never even finished high school (and got so-so grades in english back then), have zero professional training of any kind, have never submitted a piece of work to any competition or publisher in my entire life, and don't know a single person even remotely related to the industry in any way, shape, or form. I worked in marketing for a little while and quit because I sucked at it.


I don't really have an answer for the OP's question. I've finally gotten a query I'm fairly happy with for my novel, though. I have no antagonist (each scene has an antagonist, but the book focuses on a problem which is no one person's fault), three main characters of whom two are women and one's a man (but it's not a love triangle), an important romance plot (but it's not a fantasy romance), and a very unique setting which looks fairly normal at first glance. I'm sure you don't have that many problems to overcome in two paragraphs, so you should be able to write a good query.

The only real advice I have is to just sit down and write query letters. Do about ten of them, each different, without worrying too much about how good they're turning out. Then read over them and see if you accidentally wrote a good one, or have some good stuff in each which you can combine. Anyway, that worked for me, but I haven't actually sent the query yet, so take it for what it's worth.

Hope To The Horizon said:

Well, if that's true, I have no chance whatsoever. I never even finished high school (and got so-so grades in english back then), have zero professional training of any kind, have never submitted a piece of work to any competition or publisher in my entire life, and don't know a single person even remotely related to the industry in any way, shape, or form. I worked in marketing for a little while and quit because I sucked at it.

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We all have a chance, of course. You never know when you might catch a (new) agent or (medium to small) publisher at just the right time in just the right mood. But if you don't have some kind of edge/connection with an agent and/or publisher, then your chances are at least slightly diminished, in my humble opinion. There always are those who will tell you simply to write better, but that seems to come most often from writers already published. And my guess is, most of these writers either were first published quite a few years ago when it was easier to do so, or had some kind of connection to jump-start their careers.

deathwizard said:

I disagree. I think the most important part of a query is to convince the agent or publisher that there is something different about you than the gazzillion others who also are contacting them. Good writing plays only a small role in the initial process.

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Yes, the important difference is this: They can make money from selling your writing.

Platform, shamtform. What was my platform? "Hi, I'm nobody. I've published a couple short stories in places you've never heard of. Also, I'm a pretensious git who thinks he can write a great book despite being in my early twenties despite being incapable of properly spelling pretensious.

*I've attached the first three chapters of my book.*"

Guess what worked?

-J

From my own experience, I have to go with badducky. I'm not selling me, I'm selling my book. Did being sixteen give Paolini a marketing edge? Absolutely. But I am a twenty-seven year old native of Delaware who works in retail and writes urban fantasy. Nothing interesting there. I don't even include a bio section in my query, because I have no credits.

I'm boring. My book, however, is interesting.

I wrote a darned good query (IMHO). It's fun, it tells you what the story is about, and is written in the voice of the MC. So far, I've received about 1/4 requests for pages (either partials or fulls). I've gotten past that first hurdle numerous times--I got the agent to want to read me. Once pages are in the hands of the agent, it's no longer about me. It's about the writing, and I'll sink or swim based on that.


To the OP: Make your story sound unique. Bookstore descriptions sound pretty familiar, because they are marketing to fantasy fans. There will always be a market for heroic fantasy, quest fantasy, high fantasy, etc... Don't think about the bookstores. You aren't trying to hook a bookstore reader. You're trying to hook an agent who's looking for the next sell.

Don't tell them why your book is just like every other book already on the shelves. Tell them why yours is different. Imagine Your Agent calling up an editor at Tor and saying, "I've got this new fantasy for you, and you'll love it because it's____." Make sure that blank isn't filled in with "just like the last six books you published."

I agree with selling your book, not yourself. You can certainly sell yourself when you get on the phone with an agent, but even then, they're just looking to sell a product, and until you have solid sales under your belt, you are not a good product.

I want to add another chip of advice onto the pile - voice. Sell your voice. Every editor out there is looking for a unique voice, because audiences LIKE the 'same old story told again'.

Your voice is what makes you different from the masses, and it is what will draw someone to read your manuscript, even if you have no short story credits, no previous publications, no college degrees and no connections in the industry. Like me.

Oh, and let me just say that I also had absolutely no connection to the industry whatsoever when I started, and it wasn't that many years ago, at all.

If lots and lots of published people tell you the same thing, doesn't that mean we ought to be listened to?

This is not the kind of question we can answer successfully without specific info.

Namely, the actual query itself.

Thus, head over to the share your work forums, that I linked above, dedicated to query letters.

And, relax. It doesn't have to be perfection. It just has to be good enough to get the person to turn the page to the actual product, itself.

I go with Miss Snark's preferences:
"Tell me who did what to who and why I should care."

I think an agent wants to see a character with a problem, told in a way that makes them care. They want character because that's what fiction's about, a person. They want a problem because there is no story without problem, and they need to care because otherwise they've no reason to turn to the next page.