Queries through the eyes of your MC

My gut feeling is that it's a bad idea. It might be brilliant, but it would be so easy to drift into something really embarrassing. Already I can think of some awful parodies. However, that's not to say you have to write a drab query letter. There are ways to get your own voice across. Hope that helps.

Ms. Snark says that querring in the style of your novel is a bad idea, and that if you're doing something unusual with the narrative, it's best just to say so.

Offbeat queries can work. I read an article a couple of years back about a guy who got an agent (who then sold his book) on the strength of a wild-n-crazy query letter in the voice of his eccentric protagonist.

But--and this is a big but--for this kind of thing to work, you have to be able to carry it off. Miss by even a fraction, and you may be torpedoing, rather than helping yourself. Even if you make it pitch perfect, there will be agents who won't like it. Unless you're really, really sure you can make it amazing, and are willing to risk alienating some of the people you query, it's probably best to stick to normal query letter format.

- Victoria

Ditto to what Victoria said.

I think there's an example in the last Crap-O-Meter where someone did this, and it really was great. But most of the time, it comes across as irritating.

The trick is in knowing whether it is, as Victoria said, pitch perfect. And making sure the recipient is tuned to the same pitch.

JD

My novel that's going to be queried next is in 1st person. I tried writing the letter in first person, and found it didn't work, i.e., it sucked.

One problem is the switch from the crap such as "seeking representation for novel" to where the protagonist could be telling the story. It was very jarring.

I do tell people who are having problems finding their story for a query to write it from the view of the protagonist, but then to translate it into 3rd person. Especially for a novel in 1st person, that where I would (and did and do) start.

Come over to query letter hell, though, and maybe someone there can come up with an idea to make this work.

Jim Clark-Dawe

The thing is...
I found it surprising how many business letters and interviews I have had to do that require the same ability that is necessary to write good queries AFTER my book sold.
You need to demonstrate this quality from the beginning.
JMHO