Querying Queries (Part 2: The Dreaded Mini-Synopsis, the Bio and Final Details)

Welcome back! If you haven’t read Querying Queries (Part 1: The Basics and the Hook), I invite you to do so! Just a reminder: This is a summary of important/useful information I have discovered while researching query letters. I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I hope my research will help you with yours!

Now, on to the dreaded mini-synopsis.

All of the sources I encountered seemed to agree that this is the most important part of your query letter. It tells the agent what your book is about, but it is also a way to showcase your skill. Basically, the goal is to take your 300 page novel, and condense it down to one short paragraph. The general word-goal seems to be around 150 words. Any writer who can do that, and make their novel sound compelling must be a writer worth reading, right?

The problem is that most websites I’ve found have basically said: It’s hard to do. Good luck! We don’t envy you.

Not the most helpful advise. So, here is my process (and some things that I found useful) for writing my own mini-synopsis.

I started off thinking about the main points of my novel. If you’re an outliner, that’s easy, but I don’t write from an outline, so it’s a bit of a challenge. Though, now that I think of it, actually writing an outline may have helped me out with the mini-synopsis. Basically, I knew that every one of those 150 words had to count. They had to highlight the most important points of my novel, and they had to do it in a way that would make a professional in the publishing world actually interested enough to ask for more.

At first, I had the mini-synopsis confused with the full synopsis. The full synopsis is a detailed account that shares all of the important points of your novel from beginning to end. The agent you are querying may ask for the full synopsis in his submission guidelines, or he may ask for it after reading your query. The mini-synopsis, on the other hand, is just a taste. You share the main plot of your novel, but you don’t actually include the ending. Think of it as a teaser that shares your main conflict, but leaves the reader hanging. That is all you need in the query letter.

Once I realized that I didn’t have to synopsize my entire novel–without leaving out any of the important details–in 150 words (what a headache!), I put aside the beginning of my full synopsis for later, and got going on the one I really needed. I decided that I would highlight the two main characters, the conflict between them (which is a major point in my novel, seeing as though they are of two very different lifestyles that would normally have them at odds), and the major conflict that they have to work together to solve. My first write-up was 301 words.

So, I skimmed it down. There were a few sentences that I didn’t like. I re-worked those. Got it down to 250, and just kept going. I think I gave up at around 195 words with the intention of going back to it later, after searching around for more advise.

That is when I came across How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman. I downloaded it and read it through. The part about the mini-synopsis was probably the most useful and frightening piece of advise I’d come across. He suggested that the mini-synopsis should be limited to three sentences. Three! At that point, mine was around ten, but I decided to give it a go. I ended up with one sentence for each of the two main characters, one for the conflict between them, one for the major conflict they have to work together to solve, and one more for the exciting/enticing/cliff-hanger wrap-up. 150 words. Done. Though, I admit that I don’t love it. It’s a little dry and matter-of fact. Almost documentary-like. I need to re-work it over and over until my head explodes. But, at least now I know how to approach it.

The final paragraph of your query letter, according to all of the sources I’ve explored, is your author bio. They say it’s the easiest part. All you have to do is say what writing experiences you have. But they have to be relevant. You don’t want to include things like “I was often featured in my High School Newspaper” or “I’ve been writing since I could pick up a pencil” or “I have a blog that averages 70 viewers per month” or any of that. What they want is: “My submission to Prestigious and Genre-Relevant Writing Contest XYZ placed in the top ten,” or “I’ve written for This Amazing Literary Magazine,” or “My last book, NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10, was a best-seller for three weeks.” Things like that. They also say that, if your college degree or life experiences are directly relevant to your novel, you can include those details (for example: Your main character has been diagnosed with a relatively unknown illness that you happen to struggle with daily.). The most important detail here is relevance. If you’re submitting a mainstream fiction novel, they don’t need to know that you won a poetry contest unless it was a really big deal national contest.

The problem that I’ve run into is the fact that there is very little information out there about what to do with your bio if you’re a new writer. For me, this is my first completed novel. The only writing contest I’ve ever won was a scam-poetry contest that my sixth grade teacher had my entire class send entries to, the only non-scam thing I have published is a non-fiction short story in a book that has had little to no media attention (It’s a collection of stories about 4-H, and all the proceeds go to National 4-H Hall of Fame, making it kind of like a charitable thing, so do I include it, anyway, to show that my main interest is in the writing, not the money?), and my novel is a fantasy-thriller, so none of my life experiences are very relevant.

Many sources seem to say to leave the bio out if you don’t have anything to add, but it seems as though some agents request one. As a result, I’m still struggling with my last paragraph. As of right now, I’ve put a bio that states:

I have been writing with intent to publish for many years. My non-fiction short-story “Manure Happens” was selected for inclusion in 4-H Stories from the Heart, published February 28, 2011 with proceeds going to fund the National 4-H Hall of Fame, though my main area of interest is fantasy fiction.

Not much better than nothing, I guess. As I said: I’m still working on it.

The final part of your query is, of course, the “Thank you and goodbye.” From what I’ve seen, it’s generally a one-sentence “Thank you for considering my novel.” Or a “Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you.” Some also say to include something like “I will be happy to supply my completed manuscript at your request,” others say that the agent will assume that you have the completed manuscript available for them to view and you don’t need to tell them this is so. Also, if you didn’t go with the identifier hook, and you didn’t work genre and word-count into your mini-synopsis, you will want to include that information here. Formatting-wise, it’s added like a fourth one-to-two sentence paragraph, but it’s really just a closing statement.

After that is the complimentary closing. Appropriate closing phrases for letters of this type include: “Yours truly,” “Cordially,” or “Sincerely.” After that, enter down four lines and type your name. When you print out the letter, that space you left will be for your signature.

Some sources say to add an enclosure notice that says:

Enc. SASE

Some advise nothing of the sort. Personally, I intend to research the agents I am querying and see if that ask for such a thing. To me, it seems silly to say “By the way, I’m adding a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope” when they’ll know that is exactly what it is when they see it (By the way, if you want a response, you must include an SASE!).

One other thing a lot of sources talk about is the actual printing of the letter. Most seem to agree that is is best to go with high-quality white paper and laser printing. The all agree that any paper other than white or off-white is an unprofessional rookie-mistake. (Personally, I intend to use a white resume paper with a good cotton count, possibly a watermark, certainly not an odd texture, and a matching envelope.) They also emphasize black ink from a fresh cartridge or toner bottle. (I’ll be going to the copy center that I mentioned in “Off to the Readers (& How to Price Out the Cost of Printing Your Manuscript))

The last thing I want to mention is the act of personalizing your query letter. Some say you should look at the agent you are querying and see what other books they have represented and mention one or two of those books in your hook. (An new hook I came across today was the personalized hook: “I am querying you because you represented GREEN EGGS AND HAM, and I feel that you will enjoy my book THE LIFE OF TOADY THE FROG:” A suspense-coming-of-age novel, complete at 102 words.”). Others say it’s cheesy, and should not be done. I, personally, feel that some form of personalization is necessary, and the best way to go about it would be to research the agents you are querying and see if you can find some examples of query letters that have caught their attention in the past. If you read their blog, and they seem extremely proud of a specific representation, it can’t hurt to add it in there, as long as it really is relevant to your own query. If, for example, I come across an agent who has represented a book I have read and enjoyed, I’ll probably use the personalized hook. I will not, however, use the personalized hook if I’ve never read the book I’m mentioning in it!

So, I think that’s about everything I’ve come across so far. As a wrap-up, here are the major highlights:

• Do your research! Both about the agent you are querying and about the actual query-letter-writing process!
• Check out the agent’s website, read his blog and become familiar with other authors and books he has represented and with his likes and pet-peeves.
• Your query letter should be exactly one page. No more, no less.
• Be professional and approach the agent with respect (even if you spoke to them for five minutes at a conference and are now “best friends”).
• Make sure you are querying an agent who represents your genre.
• Use proper, business-letter format and font.
• Select the style of hook (Logline, identifier or personalized) that best suits your novel and the agent you are querying.
• Keep your mini-synopsis short but compelling and, remember: EVERY WORD COUNTS.
• Include only relevant information in your author-bio.
• Thank the agent for his or her time.
• Be polite and respectful!!!
• RESEARCH

That’s all I have. When I have a query letter that gets me some representation, I’ll post it (along with my failed attempts) under the tag “Querying Queries,” as long as I am able to do so. Before I leave you, here are a few more sources I’ve encountered in my Query Quest!

Nathan Bransford’s blog has an informative and entertaining post on query letters, along with a lot of other good information.

While researching agents, be sure to check out Writer Beware and Predators and Editors. There are a lot of people out there looking to scam hopeful new writers. Don’t get taken in by them!

Best of luck!

Querying Queries (Part 1: The Basics and the Hook)

So, yesterday, I spent essentially my entire day researching query letters and trying to compile the start of one for The Heart Thief (with the intent to alter it and personalize it for specific agents and editors when I’m ready to pick up my copy of The Writer’s Market and get things really rolling). Thanks to a class I took in high school that emphasized business writing, and to the perfectionist teacher who nearly drove me mad with demands for revisions, I have an unnaturally solid grasp on writing business letters, especially for a creative writer. Although I knew that a query letter often makes or breaks a writer, I wasn’t intimidated. I knew I just needed some good samples to reference, and I’d be fine.

My head is still spinning!

I already knew the basics: One page and one page only; Include a short synopsis; The goal is to get the agent to want to read the manuscript; Be professional; Learn the NAME of the person you are querying along with proper title and spelling; Make sure you are querying someone who is interested in your genre; Don’t tell the agent/editor how amazing you are (“I am the next J. K. Rowling!”=No, no no!); Your friends and family are not reputable reviewers in the agent/editor’s eyes. Some basics I learned were: If you don’t know the gender of the person, address the letter using their first and last name, rather than incorrectly guessing a title (I probably should have know this, but the salutation: “Dear John Smith” seemed strange to me); Some agents ask for certain criteria in a query letter (I expect to help them weed out the mail-bombers who haven’t done their research and are just sending queries to everyone listed under their genre in The Writer’s Market).

The first thing I researched was actual physical layout and fonts, mostly because I have encountered sources that stated that manuscripts should be submitted in Courier 12pt. double-spaced, and I wanted to make sure I could use Times for my letter, because I have an eternal loathing for Courier. No one seems to put a lot of concern into font. As long as it’s clear, business-like and easy to read. Serif or sans-serif (which I learned means with or without the little extra digits on the letters. For example: Courier is a serif font while Tahoma is a sans-serif font.) doesn’t seem to make much of a difference in query letters, nor does mono-spacing (meaning each letter takes up the same amount of space. See Courier for an example of mono-spaced.), so, I went with Times (though my preference toward sans-serif may lead me to change it to Arial.). All of the sources I checked with seemed to agree that font size should be 12 point (aka 12 pitch).  The layout was as I expected: Business letter-format, including a header with my name, address, phone number and email; skip a line and put the date; skip a line and put the name of the person being queried, the business he/she works for and the address; skip a line and put the salutation; skip a line between each paragraph. No indenting (I did run into one source that recommends no line skipping between and indenting each new paragraph, but all of my business-letter writing experience tells me that indented paragraphs is too informal and not as easy to read on the page). Everything aligned to the left, though some say you can center-align your personal information if you prefer. Personally, I think it looks cleaner and more professional if it is all left-aligned.

With the physical layout planned, my next step was content. I found several sources talking about the three-paragraph rule. They all mentioned the “Hook,” the “Mini-Synopsis,” and the “Author Bio.” What exactly those are seems to vary slightly from one source to the next. Let’s start with the Hook.

All of the sources I checked out agreed that the hook is pretty short. Most said one sentence, one said it could be up to three. All agreed that it has to catch the agent’s interest without being gimmicky or unprofessional. Beyond that, they all said something different. I seemed to find two different types of hooks: The Identifier and the Logline.

What I am calling the identifier-style hook basically says the title, genre and word count of the manuscript (word count being an entirely different animal. Some say use your word processor’s number, some say use a funky math formula to get an approximate word count. I can’t find anything anywhere that says which to use, so I’m leaning toward the word-processor count rounded to the nearest hundred). Some say to write that you are seeking representation. Some say you should also put in if there is a sequel in the works. My identifier-hook would be as follows:

I am seeking representation for my fantasy-thriller novel THE HEART THIEF, which is complete at 68,200 words. The untitled sequel is in the planning stages.

(Note that my title is in ALL CAPS. Some say to do this, others say to italicize. One of my best sources said that the title of the book I am querying should be all caps, and any others I mention should be italicized. The latter pearl of wisdom seemed the most sound to me.) No frills. Very business-like and plain. Kind of boring, but not overly egotistical, either. The “complete” part is important, because it tells the agent that I’ve actually finished the manuscript. Everyone seems to agree that querying an incomplete manuscript is the ultimate no-no. I’ve also read that this information (genre, word count) is pertinent to the query, because it tells the agent how long the novel is, and what genre. That way, if it’s too long or too short, or if it’s not in a genre they are looking for, they won’t have to waste any time on the query (and, yes, your novel is precious to you, but their time is important and needs to be respected. They shouldn’t have to read queries for novels that don’t fit their parameters. If your novel was the next one in a pile after a query that was a waste of their time, you’d understand, especially if that meant your query had to wait another day on their desk). This style hook puts that information right up front for the agent to see.

The Logline style hook is a one-sentence summary of your book. Not an easy feat, but it tells the agent what the book is about right up-front, and it might be a little more eye-catching than the identifier. The easiest one to write seems to be the “When” version. For example:

When a young woman’s dying father shares a coveted secret that could save the world from a terrible invasion, she is forced to leave her life of comfort behind and journey to a distant land to find the wizard Maccus: The only person who can help her stop the coming apocalypse.

Catching. Interesting. When done right, this style hook will make an Agent want to read more, or so I’ve heard (in case you’re wondering, this is a logline for no book or movie that I know of. I just made it up). The “When” format isn’t the only one to follow. There’s also the “What happens when…?” the “Billy Joe didn’t like bacon, so imagine his horror when he learned that the only way he could save his sister from pigmies involved wrapping himself in pounds of pork and running through their cookfires…” okay, that’s enough. You get my point. There are a lot of different ways to write a logline. It just isn’t easy.

My problem is deciding which to actually use. Though it isn’t as catching, I find myself leaning toward the identifier. A logline feels redundant to me, since the second paragraph is a mini-synopsis, and I like having the title, genre and word count right up front. I’m still toying with it, of course, but, for now, I’m going with the identifier.

I was going to continue from here with the mini-synopsis, but I’m afraid this is getting to be quite long, so we’ll stop here and continue tomorrow with the next part. For now, let me leave you with the most useful sources I came across in my search yesterday.

The Writing Place is a blog with a lot of good information. The article I viewed talks about query letter layout.

AgentQuery was the first site I found, and one of the most useful. It starts off with the importance of the query letter, then moves on to the basics and gives short descriptions of each of the three paragraphs, and good examples of hooks (using the logline hook). It doesn’t give the best advise on the mini-synopsis.

CuteWriting has a lot of good information, and links to other sources for tips on things like writing powerful short sentences for your mini-synopsis. It also uses a logline hook.

CharlotteDillon.com has a very good sample query letter, along with annotations and links to other articles. It uses an identifier hook.

The Complete Nobody’s Guide to Query Letters is an article on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America website (SWFA). It is probably my favorite source, because there is so much useful information on the website, and because the people who write articles for it are involved with writing and publishing in my genre. This article actually includes the author’s own query letter, followed by a detailed discussion on the different paragraphs, basics, paper, printing, and pretty much everything you need to know. This one is the first one I saw using the identifier hook, and (if I remember correctly) the only one displaying a query letter that was sent to an agent who asked to see the manuscript.

The final source I’d like to mention is actually a free pdf file called How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman. Not all of the information here was great. It is actually the only source that I ran into that suggested indenting paragraphs in the query letter, rather than skipping lines, and a few other tidbits were in direct contradiction to things I either already knew or had learned. However, it is worth the download for the tips on the mini-synopsis, alone.

That’s all for today! I hope this is helpful to my fellow writers! Please keep in mind that I’m new at this, myself. I would suggest doing as much research you can and asking other writers for their own experiences!

Happy Querying!