How to Write an Effective Query Letter [Part 1]

A literary agent is a critical ally in your mission to write a great book and get it published. 

To find a literary agent, you’ll need to send him or her a convincing query letter.

But how do you write an effective query?

We interviewed Literary Agent Sam Hiyate for his advice. Watch the video to find out [Transcript Below].

So You Want to Write?: The first question here is from Neil from the Toronto NaNoWriMo Facebook group, and he wants to know how to write an effective query letter.

Literary Agent Sam Hiyate: That’s a really good question and one that I get asked a lot. There are a ton of online resources included writersdigest.com, which is the website for the great magazine that every writer should be reading, that has a section which is I think “queries that worked” or “effective queries,” if you just search there or in the site.

SYWW: So it’s kind of like your query is an inadvertent way of talking about your book and promoting yourself, but you can package it?

Sam: It definitely is, and my analogy is a good query letter is like sending a cover letter with a resume, and then the outcome you want from when you do that is you’ve analyzed the job description and the company and the industry and you should know why you want to work there and what that cover letter says and the cover letter and the resume are usually adapted to highlight your experiences that relate to what they need you to have, right?

SYWW: Ya because you always can tell when there’s canned emails that they’re sending to everyone. You can tell…

Sam: Well that’s actually one of my pet peeves but I think that’s another question…

Watch Part 2 Here