Seriously? How do we have nothing on this in Heralds' Hall?

Okay, so the day has arrived that I will finally enter Heralds' Hall. I may not look through here as much as I thought I would, since I have done quite a bit of traditional publishing research, and a lot of stuff in here is about self publication, but you never know. I may spend more time in here than I think.

Anyways, to the point. I am writing my query letter. I already have a list of 14 agents that I have researched and will be approaching for representation, but first thing is first. I have to finish my query letter.

So, I've been working on it. I've researched it a good bit. But I was wondering if anyone had any advice. Has anyone else sent our query letters? What elements did you include? Were there things you think you shouldn't have done?

I'm interested in this, too, since I will hopefully be considering an agent in the near future.

*Goes through Go Teen Writers and returns with an armload of links* All I've ever learned about queries has been off Go Teen Writers, so here you go. You might already know this stuff if you have researched it, but as a query-illiterate, I found it very helpful.

Resources for getting an Agent. Mostly links to helpful places and things to know about queries, but good.

Before the query. A checklist of things before sending out a query.

Useful things. Some more useful stuff about queries.

Queries. What goes in a query letter.

Book Proposals. Which are needed for queries.

Synopsis. Some useful things about writing a synopsis.

5 things NOT to do in queries. Some no-brainers, but good to keep in mind.

6 things to do in queries. Again some obvious ones, but I found it helpful.

I can recommend a book that I've not had much contact with but have heard a lot of good things about...it talks about almost anything related to the writer's market. In fact I think it's called the Writer's Market 2012 (they've got a new one each year), it talks about possible agents, publishers, editors (I think anyway), and how to write a query letter, as well as different possible outlets for your work (magazines, etc). I'm planning on checking it out from the library when I'm ready to start looking.

I learned a thing or two about query letters when all of mine were turned down.
I shouldn't have wrote them
I have heard that you are supposed to include in the letter whether or not the letter is being sent to multiple agents at once. However, this works to your disadvantage in my opinion, so I would probably leave it out unless you are sending them one at a time, because agents like knowing they are the only ones under consideration at the moment (or so I guess).
I am sure you know everything I can tell you, because I learned everything I know about query letters with just a little internet research.
One agent I recommend is Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Agency, if you haven't got her on your list.

Thanks, guys. I have the book, Wolf, to which you refer. I have the writer's marketing guide, and the publishing guide.

I will check my list, Reiyen.

Thank you for the links, Aliza.

Airi, have you considered sending your query to the Query Shark* to be critiqued and honed before you send it out to agents? Her archives can also be useful for learning to write a good query.

*Warning: May contain language, as well as possible questionable content in past queries.

I have not. I shall look into it though, my dearest. Thank you!

Short and to the point. Tell a little about yourself, and what your story is ABOUT. What sets it apart from all the other books in its genre.

Do your research. Queries personalized to the individual agents are much better received.

Never, ever mention that you're querying multiple agents/publishers, and if you don't have any publication credits, don't mention that either.

Just a few quick tips there from the top of my head. Writing a good query is really, really hard.

Thanks, Matt.

It is, yes. I have been stressing about it for days.... But I am confident that I will be fine, so I suppose that counts for something....

Just so you know, I was reading through some past queries of hers, and apparently the QueryShark has a strong dislike of loglines, for reasons unknown to me. So even if your logline is in the actual query, it might be a good idea to leave it out of a query sent to her.

Actually, mine does not have the logline. I have read lots of controversy on the inclusion of your logline... Anyone else have thoughts on this? My research has led me to the discussion of "Why have a logline when you are just going to repeat yourself in the summary that is a must for a query?"

Exactly. Redundancy is not appreciated.

I've heard both. I read on a published author's website to include the logline at the beginning, and I read on QueryShark not to (though QueryShark said that loglines were evil in general [ ], so that could just be her too).

Never written a query letter, but to me the point of a logline is to get them to read the longer summary in the first place...

They read the entire query. That is the purpose of your query. They don't just read the top line.

They will stop if it becomes evident in the first paragraph or two that you're not worth spending any more time on.

True, but your summary should be in that section.