Where Can Writers Examine GOOD Query Letters?
Q. I noticed that your current GLA e-newsletter published another “terrible” query letter to remind authors what they should not do. I remember that you provided plenty of those letters…
Q. I noticed that your current GLA e-newsletter published another "terrible" query letter to remind authors what they should not do. I remember that you provided plenty of those letters at the Northern Colorado Writers Conference last April. However, I think that that authors would really like to see examples of GOOD query letters, possibly representing different genres or levels of author publishing experience.
- Martha
A. With a lot of research through all the agent blogs (listed on the left side of this page), you could probably find a TON of good stuff. That said, here are some sports to visit:
- Query Shark. This site is devoted entirely to evaluating queries. they come in, and agent Janet Reid tears apart the bad ones and tells you why they're bad. The good thing here is that you get a lot of examples. The bad thing here is that most of them are not up to snuff, according to the Shark; however, she does enjoy some of them.
- Agent Nathan Bransford's Anatomy of a Query Letter Part I, then Part II.
- BookEnds Literary is starting to post some of their successful query letters online. See the first one here.
Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.
