YOU KNOW YOUR QUERY LETTER SUCKS WHEN...You Ain't Got No Platform, Honey!
by Jeff Rivera, founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com
Agents are in the business of selling books. That's what they do. They're not our best friends, they're not our therapists, and they're not our life coaches.
The best agents put their nose to the ground, they focus on what they do best which is generating enough excitement on a book that they sell it for as high of a price as possible. When you get paid, they get paid. End of story.
The publishing landscape has changed dramatically the last few years. Whereas just having the credentials and a well-written book proposal could have sold your book even a couple of years ago, nowadays you need to bring your own fanbase. That is, you need more than just 10,000 Twitter followers, you need people who are poised and ready to purchase your book.
If you've got that already, then you need to mention that in your very first sentence. I've recently ghost written query letters for clients who had a very strong platform. At first, they wondered why I would mention it in the very first paragraph but trusting my judgement, they went along with it.
The result? Each had over 50 agents beating down their door asking to read their proposal. You can read the actual query letters here: http://tinyurl.com/25t2mkj
One author had a novel and I only wrote one sentence about what the novel was actually about.
"Don't you think we should tell them more about it?" the client asked me.
I told him, "Who cares what it's about? You're a regular guest on Fox News."
And I was right, the agents didn't care either because tons of them requested to read his novel.
If you've got a strong platform, use this technique and you'll be one step closer to landing an agent.
If you would like to see an example of query letters that worked, visit: http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com
Jeff Rivera is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. He and his works have been featured or mentioned in Publishers Weekly, GalleyCat, Mediabistro, Los Angeles Times, New York Observer, NPR and many other media outlets.
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