Is including links to news reports in my query letter a major no no?

PerchanceToDream

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Hi all.

The manuscript I am going to start querying for soon is based on a real life crime that happened in my area almost a decade ago. The events were picked up by national and even some international media but it's still not something that agents are going to know about. I would compare the manuscript to something like Emma Cline's The Girls, which is loosely inspired by the Manson family and the murder of Sharon Tate.

But while everyone knows about the Manson family, agents aren't going to know what I'm talking about. Would it be terrible to put some links at the bottom of the query stating something like "I've including some links to news stories in case you are interested" I'm afraid it'll be looked upon as an amateur move, but on the other hand, if they do click, I think it would add weight to my query since it was a fascinating case and still incredibly relevant given the political and social climate right now. I'm aware that it's not enough for the story to be interesting, and that my book needs to be just as interesting as well.

Thank you!
 

Woollybear

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My first thought is that under your sig, where you put contact info, your 'best link' could sneak in fairly simply. I'm sure others will come by with other thoughts and experience. If I were an agent, I'd personally like to see the link.

Example:

Thank you for your time,
P. T. Dream

email: ptdream @ dreaming.com
mobile: 555-555-5555
twitter:mad:ptdream
link: www . thisreallyhappened . cnn
 
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PerchanceToDream

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My first thought is that under your sig, where you put contact info, your 'best link' could sneak in fairly simply. I'm sure others will come by with other thoughts and experience. If I were an agent, I'd personally like to see the link.

Example:

I actually really love that idea. It would make the query letter seem more professional too, instead of embedding links in random parts of the letter. Thanks very much.
 

InsomniaShark

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I'm not an agent, but I compulsively google everything, so if I thought the story sounded interesting and you said it was based on real life I'd start googling it. It'd be helpful if you provided a link so I could see the most comprehensive/interesting article about it instead of having to dig around myself.

How is the rest of the query written? Do you not mention it's based off a true story until the end? Like, "AWESOME TITLE is a 78,000 word Crime novel based on the true story of [whatever]. This article covers the press it received in depth if you'd like to read more. [link here]"
 

PerchanceToDream

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I'm not an agent, but I compulsively google everything, so if I thought the story sounded interesting and you said it was based on real life I'd start googling it. It'd be helpful if you provided a link so I could see the most comprehensive/interesting article about it instead of having to dig around myself.

How is the rest of the query written? Do you not mention it's based off a true story until the end? Like, "AWESOME TITLE is a 78,000 word Crime novel based on the true story of [whatever]. This article covers the press it received in depth if you'd like to read more. [link here]"

The whole second paragraph is about the case. I put it after a brief synopsis/description of the story. It is very important because my whole inspiration for writing the book is the fact that I am part of the community that the victims belonged to. But the query can only be so long, which is why I would want to provide links so they understand what I'm talking about.
 

InsomniaShark

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The whole second paragraph is about the case. I put it after a brief synopsis/description of the story. It is very important because my whole inspiration for writing the book is the fact that I am part of the community that the victims belonged to. But the query can only be so long, which is why I would want to provide links so they understand what I'm talking about.

Could you make a quick segue and then add one link at the end of the second paragraph then? I'm not sure if I'd wait until after the contact info because I'd already be googling it after I found out it was a true story, and it'd be most useful to me to have it before I start googling. (Maybe other people are less compulsive about googling things though. I probably have issues.)
 

jcwriter

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Don't know this for a fact, but I've read that spam filters can reject incoming email that contains links and attachments.
 

Sage

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An agent’s not going to be swayed on your novel based on an article written about the true story it’s based on. If they’re intrigued enough, they’ll look it up. If you haven’t hooked them without it, they won’t be interested.

If I saw an author provide a link in a query, I’d assume it was one of two things: a link to their writing or spam.
 

Woollybear

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Some agents request links to websites, which I got in the habit of providing to all. Possibly a few queries were spammed out of their system as a result, but the request rate I saw in the end was still around half which I think is par.
 

Sage

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Authors definitely include their own websites in queries, where applicable. But I think it’s different to send to something that is not the author’s.
 

Froeschli

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Personally, i'm not sure i would include a link, especially not until the end.
Give the pertinent details of the actual events, place & year, whatever they need to hit google successfully. In the end, you're not selling them the news article, but your take on the story. if they they hit the news article before reading your entire letter, and don't find it intriguing (because they don't "see"your perspective), they may not finish reading what you have to say.

as for spam filters, the more links you add, the more likely you'll get filtered out. though new algorithms account for links per amount of text and some such, haven't actively looked into it lately...