Query letter length?

If 50 words is all you need to convey the plot, character and tone, then go for it. My best response tally came from a query that was around 85 words, so it's definitely doable.

You realize most people would envy you for being able to do this, right? I've been toiling on my query for 3 months. Twenty-four revisions so far. Current one 194 words. If you think you've got yours ready to go, more power to you. Slap a personalized intro on that sucker and submit. And good luck!

45k is very short for a crime thriller
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

waylander said:

45k is very short for a crime thriller
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

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That's what I was going to say. But 50 words is incredibly short. That could be, like, three sentences. Maybe think about whether or not it's missing some depth.

You need to add about another 45k to your book and then read Queryshark
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

If your query letter is professional and gets the point of your story across in 50 words, more power to you. I'm not sure if I could do it.

From what I understand, 45,000 is too few words for a crime thriller, and novel word count starts at 50,000.

Although the problem is more usual on the other end (long word count = long query), I'm concerned here that the short query reflects what may be a lack of development in the book. In other words, the query may be so short because there's nothing in the book to work with.

If I was an agent, I'd need a standout query to balance the word count problem. If the query comes up a bit short, then I'd assume the book comes up short as well.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

I sent out a query over the weekend, and just the 'business' part of it is 55 words.:

I am a former client of <name redacted> and am seeking new representation for my middle-grade novel, <six-word title redacted> (40,000 words).

...

The manuscript of <six-word title redacted> is ready for submission by snail mail or electronically.

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

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Honestly, I don't see how anyone could possibly write a query letter of 50 words when just the business part of it should be close to 50.

Now, if you mean the synopsis part of the query letter, as opposed to the whole thing, well, 50 words is pretty lean but might work. However, I share the concerns of others that it might reflect lack of depth in the novel itself. I'm actually pretty good at distilling a novel into a couple of paragraphs (the synopsis of my four-book YA series is 399 words!), and for the query above, the synopsis part of the letter is 167 words.