Query for novel with multiple protagonists

Visit QLH and look through the threads there, especially the successful queries. It will give you a good sense of what a query should contain. There's also a thread of made-up queries for famous novels, which includes one for Game of Thrones. Basically, yes, your query should only be one character with one interesting problem and one set of stakes. Yes, it's hard if you have multiple protagonists. But you only have 200-250 words to entice an agent.

I'm querying a novel right now with three points of view. My query focuses on only one of them. I've done this as well in the past. It was never an issue.

ETA: That isn't to say that a multi-POV query would never work. As with all writing, if done well, you can break the rules. But the rules generally exist for a reason and any writer should master them before breaking them.

QLH is Query Letter Hell. It's in the Share Your Work subforum (password: vista). One of the most educational subforums here. Be sure to read the stickies and the threads mayqueen recommended. You'll get a lot out of them.

You can also try Query Shark (http://queryshark.blogspot.com/), Janet Reid's blog on queries. She has archives that include all kinds of queries, including examples with multiple POV's.

Even when you have multiple main characters, one character should still be the focus, should still carry the day. Whether it's something like LOTR, or a movie such as The Avengers, one character must somehow rise above the others, get more focus, and save the day.

Making several characters equal usually means making no character the reader can latch onto and follow.

what everyone else said. I think, stealing, you need to get comfortable with the fact a query isn't a synopsis--its job isn't to cover the entire book, just to give an agent enough meat to get a sense of what's going on. A character they want to learn more about. Not to cover the entire book.

lbender said:

You can also try Query Shark (http://queryshark.blogspot.com/), Janet Reid's blog on queries. She has archives that include all kinds of queries, including examples with multiple POV's.

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Great advice. I've been slowly making my way through the queries and stumbled on this one, which is an example of the sort of query you'd want to do with multiple POVs: Query 199

I have a similar issue with my novel, but in the end, I focused on one character's arc and his interaction with one of the two others for my query (while hopefully implying that she also has an interesting and important arc). Is one of your three characters the one who gets the ball rolling at the beginning of the story? If so, that's the one you should probably focus on. Remember that queries tend to be about the set up for your story, not the entire plot. This doesn't mean you can't mention the other two (up to three names in a query is usually all right, I've been told), but the usual approach is to look at it from the perspective of one, even if they're not the only pov or focal character.

I think you have to pick one (and while all three are intregal to the story, there's really only one main MC) and go with that. You should mention that you have three POVs and the story alternates, but hook with the MC and make their plight the focus.

whiporee said:

I think you have to pick one (and while all three are intregal to the story, there's really only one main MC) and go with that. You should mention that you have three POVs and the story alternates, but hook with the MC and make their plight the focus.

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Well, not necessarily with fantasy. Who's the "main" character in George RR Martin's books, for instance? Or Joe Abercrombie's? But there's often an arc that gets the ball rolling for everyone else, at least. If there isn't, I'd pick the one the story starts with.

even before "modern fantasy lit" there were books with broad casts and multiple main characters....The Stand for example