Caren Johnson Literary Agency

I keep getting this question when I’m on panels or doing interviews so I thought it deserves its own blog post: what makes a query letter stand out for you? I did a previous post on how I’d like a query letter formatted, but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about query letters that have really made me sit up straight in my chair and read faster.

First, the main thing that is going to get me to take notice is your idea. I see a lot of similar ideas, probably because I represent so much genre fiction. This means I’m searching for the funny, new, interesting take on the same old story. I represent Kelley St. John because she writes fun romance, but also because she has a different take on the same old romance lines. Her first book, Good Girl’s Don’t, is about a woman who works for an alibi agency; her newest client is none other than the niece of a guy she had a crush on in high school and while she’s excited about hearing his voice, she’s guilty as hell because she’s lying about where his niece is and what she’s doing. The alibi agency got me from the beginning. Who really works for those companies? I know they exist. She had tons of research to back it up. It made the perfect backdrop to this story about rekindling old passions.

Now please don’t confuse different with outrageous. The reason that I love Good Girl’s Don’t is that Kelley made it plausible. And the love story was front and center. That is important.

The second thing that is going to get me to take notice of your query letter is how well you can tell your story. If you have to include seven paragraphs (pushing the acceptable query length from 1 or 2 pages to 4 or 5) to get your point across, then I’m going to think that you’re either too close to your story to have perspective on it or that you don’t know your story well enough to explain it. Since I don’t have a lot of time to devote to every author, I cannot spare the extra five minutes it would take to reread and figure out what you mean. Be succinct and make sure that you can sum up without getting too wordy. I’ll find out more when I read your synopsis and your manuscript anyway. Just give me the highlights.

The third thing that is going to get me to take notice of your query letter is your bio. Please don’t ever, ever say that you’ve never written before. That makes me nervous. I get a ton of queries from people who get up one day and think that they’re going to make money by writing novels or the next great self-help book (for some reason I get most of my amateur writers in these areas). Tell me that you’ve written short stories and articles that have been published in a number of places (it is always nice when you are published in your local paper/journal, but make sure you have clips from other sources as well) and are now branching out into novels or a full book. If you don’t have clips, but you know you can write a good book, tell me a little about yourself and why you are the best person to write the book you’re proposing. The point to this is to tell me the relevant facts about you and your writing career that will wow me and in turn that I can possibly use to wow a publisher. If you have a background in marketing, sales, publicity, or promotion, don’t just mention it. Tell me how you’re going to use it to help your book get into the hands of your readers.

Lastly, don’t be too informal or cute. This is a sales tool. Keep it simple and let the story speak for itself. Do you really want your stationery distracting me from your prose? Do mention if you’ve met me at a conference; don’t forget to mention when and where. I’m looking forward to getting your query letters.

One last bit of wisdom: I only accept material by email. That means I want your query letters emailed to me or they get tossed in the trash. My email address is cjohnson@johnsonlitagency.com.