A query letter is a one-page email that pitches your finished book to a literary agent. Most run about 250 to 350 words, in a familiar order: an optional line on why you chose this agent, a hook, a mini-synopsis of 150 to 250 words, the book's title, category, word count and comparable titles, a short bio, and a thank-you. Its only job is to make the agent ask for pages. Each agent's submission guidelines override any general advice, this page included, so read them before you send.
How agents read a query
Queries land in the slush pile, read in batches around the work agents do for the clients they already have. An agent reads each one for reasons to continue and reasons to stop. Reasons to continue: a category they represent, a character in a specific situation, sentences that sound like someone who can hold a reader for 300 pages. Reasons to stop: a genre they do not take, a word count far outside the norm, a plot told in abstractions, a letter that looks as if it went to fifty people at once.
So a query is a sales letter. It sells the premise and your voice. The synopsis carries the whole plot, ending included, and the sample pages prove you can write the book. Many agents want the opening pages pasted under the letter, so the query's real task is to make them keep scrolling. For a novel or a memoir, query only when the manuscript is finished and revised, because a request for the full book can come the same day.
Query letter format at a glance
| Part | What it does | Length |
|---|---|---|
| PartPersonal line (optional) | What it doesSays why this agent, specifically | LengthOne sentence |
| PartHook | What it doesCharacter, situation, the thing that goes wrong | LengthOne to three sentences |
| PartMini-synopsis | What it doesGoal, obstacle, choices, stakes | Length150–250 words, two or three paragraphs |
| PartBook details | What it doesTitle, category, word count, comp titles | LengthOne or two sentences |
| PartBio | What it doesCredentials that matter, one human line | LengthA few sentences, rarely over 100 words |
| PartClosing | What it doesThanks, what is pasted below, contact details | LengthOne or two lines and a signature |
The order flexes. Some agents like the title, category and word count near the top, others after the pitch, and a referral or a request from a conference pitch always goes first because it is your strongest line. The format does not flex: single-spaced block paragraphs with a blank line between them, no indents, no letterhead, no date.
The parts of a query letter
The personal line
Personalization is optional, and a weak one is worse than none. "I see you represent thrillers" could be pasted by anyone. A specific line earns its place: a book they represent that sits near yours, a wish from an interview or their agency page, a conference where they asked to see the book. If an agent requested the manuscript, say so in the first sentence and in the subject line.
The hook
The hook is the opening of the pitch, one to three sentences: your main character, the situation they are in, and the event that knocks it over. Think of it as your logline turned into prose. Specifics do the work. "A woman uncovers a dark secret" could open a thousand queries. "A court stenographer hears a witness repeat, word for word, testimony from her father's trial" could open only one.
Skip rhetorical questions ("What would you do if your whole life was a lie?") and opening statements about life, love or human nature. Both spend words without telling the agent anything about your book.
The mini-synopsis
This is most of the letter: two or three short paragraphs, about 150 to 250 words. It answers four questions in order. Who is the main character and what do they want? What stands in the way? What do they do about it? What do they lose if they fail, or even if they succeed? Write the character's choices rather than things that happen to them, and end on the decision they face.
Keep the cast to two or three named characters. Leave out subplots, backstory, the history of your world and statements of theme ("a story about grief and forgiveness"). Tell the story and the agent will see the theme. Use present tense and the book's own tone, so a funny novel gets a funny query. The ending stays out: the query sells the question, and the synopsis answers it.
Book details and comp titles
One or two sentences carry the title (in capitals, by convention), the category, the word count rounded to the nearest thousand, and two or three comp titles. Name the category the way agents list it on their own pages, and never write "fiction novel". About 80,000 to 90,000 words is the safe target for most adult debuts, and much past 120,000 is a hard sell in any genre. The guide to novel word counts by genre has the ranges.
Comps tell an agent where the book sits on a shelf and who will buy it. Choose books, not authors, from your own category, published in the last five years and ideally the last two or three. A blockbuster as a comp reads as boastful, and a classic works only for a retelling, next to a recent title. Say what each comp shares with yours: "for its view of a courtroom from the inside" tells the agent more than a bare title. Most agents expect comps, but not all require them: if you cannot find two that fit, leave them out rather than force a bad match.
The bio
For fiction, keep it short. Include publication credits in venues an agent would recognize, any expertise or experience that bears on the book, and a line about you as a person. "This is my first novel" is a perfectly good bio. Leave out how long you have been writing, what your family thought of the book, and apologies for having no credits. Nonfiction is different: your expertise and platform are part of what is being sold, and they get a full section in a book proposal.
The closing
One sentence of thanks, a note on anything the guidelines asked you to paste below, then your name and email address. A phone number or a website is optional. No requests for a call, and no list of sequels.
A query letter example
Here is a complete query for an invented novel. The comp titles are placeholders on purpose: real ones would be stale within a couple of years, and yours should come from your own corner of the shelf.
Subject: Query: LET THE RECORD REFLECT, upmarket suspense (88,000 words)
Dear [Agent's full name],
Your agency page says you want suspense set in places fiction tends to skip, so I'm glad to send you LET THE RECORD REFLECT.
For eleven years, Nell Brannigan has typed every word spoken in Courtroom 4B without looking up. Then a witness in a routine arson trial describes the fire in the same nineteen words a stranger used at her father's trial in 2013. Her hands stop.
Nell knows that transcript better than anything she owns, and testimony that exact isn't memory. Someone wrote it. So she starts doing what a court reporter is trained never to do: listening for meaning instead of sound. Nights in the county archive turn up the same polished sentences in four other fire cases, all built on witnesses found by one insurance investigator, Dale Kerrigan, who now sits two rows behind the prosecution and nods when the testimony goes his way.
But Nell's job is to be invisible. Speaking up means admitting she has been investigating a case she is paid to transcribe, which would end her career and give Kerrigan time to bury what she has found. Staying quiet means watching a nineteen-year-old go to prison the way her father did. And Kerrigan has started to notice the stenographer who no longer keeps her eyes on her keys. With three weeks of testimony left, Nell has to decide whose words go on the record, and what it will cost to add her own.
LET THE RECORD REFLECT is upmarket suspense, complete at 88,000 words. It will appeal to readers of [Comp title 1] by [Author] for its view of a courtroom from the inside, and [Comp title 2] by [Author] for its story of a daughter reopening the case that broke her family.
Like Nell, I spent nine years as an official court reporter in western Pennsylvania before moving into live captioning. This is my first novel. I live in Erie with my husband and two retired greyhounds.
Thank you for your time and consideration. As your guidelines request, the first ten pages are pasted below.
Best regards,
Maren Doyle
maren.doyle@example.com
(814) 555-0147
What the example does
| Part | Words | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| PartSubject line | Words9 | Why it worksTitle, category and word count, so the agent can sort it unopened |
| PartPersonal line | Words24 | Why it worksPoints to something the agent actually said |
| PartHook | Words44 | Why it worksA specific job, a specific detail and a personal stake, then a short stop |
| PartSynopsis, part 1 | Words80 | Why it worksNell acts: she reads, searches and finds a pattern. One antagonist, one telling gesture |
| PartSynopsis, part 2 | Words93 | Why it worksStakes both ways, a rising threat, and an ending on her choice |
| PartBook details | Words50 | Why it worksCategory, rounded word count and two comps, each with a reason |
| PartBio | Words35 | Why it worksThe one credential that matters to this book, then a human line |
| PartClosing | Words18 | Why it worksThanks, a note on the pasted pages, contact details under the name |
Notice what is missing: the father's name, the defendant's name, the mother, the archive clerk and the subplot about Nell's marriage that a novel this size would have. None of them changes the choice at the center of the pitch. The ending is missing too. An agent who wants to know whether Nell speaks up has to request the book.
Writing your query, step by step
- Write the logline first
One sentence: character, goal, obstacle, stakes. If you cannot write it, the problem is focus, and no polish will fix it. The logline becomes the spine of the hook.
- Draft the pitch long, then cut
Write 400 words of story without judging them, then cut to about 200. Anything that does not change the main character's central choice goes.
- Read it cold
Leave it a day and read it aloud. Then give it to a critique partner or a beta reader who has not read the book, and ask three things: who the story is about, what that person wants and what stands in the way. If they cannot say, revise.
- Send a small first batch
Query five to ten agents first. If none of them asks for pages, rework the letter before the next round. The guide to getting a literary agent covers building the list and tracking replies.
To start from a page with the structure already in place, use the query letter template.
How to send a query by email
- Follow the guidelines exactly. They say what to send (the query alone, or with a synopsis and the first five, ten or fifty pages), how to send it and what the subject line should say.
- Paste plain text, don't attach. Paste the query into the email body from a plain-text copy, so your word processor's fonts and indents stay behind. Requested pages go below the signature. Attach files only when asked.
- One agent, one email. Address each agent by name and spell it right. Never "Dear Agent", and never several agents in the To or CC line.
- Use the form when there is one. Many agents take queries only through QueryManager or a similar form, and its fields decide what you send. Paste each part into its own field and reread them all before you submit.
Query letter mistakes
- Querying outside the agent's list. A thriller sent to an agent who lists only picture books and memoir is a pass before the first line.
- A word count out of range. A 150,000-word debut or a 45,000-word adult novel often gets a no on the numbers alone.
- Praise and predictions. "My writing group loved it" and "the next big bestseller" cost you credibility.
- Nudging too soon. Many agents reply only when interested, and their pages say how long to wait before you treat silence as a no. Follow up only on requested material, or on a query to an agent who promises a reply, once the stated wait is over.
- Re-querying after a pass. Send the same agent the same book again only if they invited a revision.
Keeping your query drafts in Strokes
In Strokes, keep the manuscript, the synopsis and the query in one project folder, and save a version of the query before each batch goes out. If a revised query draws fewer requests than the one before it, preview the earlier version with the changes marked and restore it in one click. When an agent asks for an attachment, export the synopsis or the opening chapters to Word or PDF. You can also add the query to an AI Assistant chat, paste in an agent's guidelines and ask whether the pitch states a goal, an obstacle and the stakes. Treat the answer as a second read, not a verdict. The voice has to stay yours, and some agents' query forms now ask whether AI helped write the package.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a query letter be?
About 250 to 350 words is the range agents cite most often, and some guides stretch it to 400. Never go past one page.
Should a query letter reveal the ending?
No. The query ends on the main character's central choice. The synopsis gives away the ending, and agents expect it there.
Can I query more than one agent at a time?
Yes. Querying several agencies at once is normal, and you need not mention it unless an agent's guidelines ask. Within one agency, most ask you to query one agent at a time, and their guidelines say whether you may try a colleague after a pass.
Is a query for a memoir or nonfiction book different?
A memoir is queried much like a novel: finish the manuscript first and let the pitch tell the story. Other nonfiction is usually sold on a book proposal, so the query leans on your expertise and platform and offers the proposal.
Should I say my book is the start of a series?
Keep the query on the book you are sending. If it stands alone but has room for more, one line after the book details is enough, such as "a standalone with series potential." Say it only if it is true.
