I am looking into submitting my work to various agencies and many of them are asking for a query letter. Is there an industry standard in writing one? How in-depth should I go with the story? Do they care about my writing background at this point?? What exactly should I include? How long should it be? I just don't want to blow it by submitting something that would be deemed "incorrect" by the agency.
(It is worth pointing out first-time crite tend to sting; someone just bailed last week over it. critiquing before you sub your own work can help you avoid some of the stinging mistakes, and also help bring home the point you aren't being "singled out" when your glowing work of art is called into thorough question. So hopefull you'll have some idea of the process by the time you get crits of your own work. In either and any case, if you see something you don't like, take a day or two to kick it around before you decide how to deal with it.)
