Before You Query

Finishing a novel is a huge feat. After months or years of writing, revising, and second-guessing yourself, you finally have a manuscript you're ready to share with the world.

Depending on your publishing plans, your next step might be to start querying literary agents. But before you begin sending out submissions, it's worth taking a little time to make sure your manuscript—and your submission materials—are ready.

The querying process can be unpredictable, and while there's no way to guarantee a request for pages or an offer of representation, a thoughtful approach can help you give your book its best shot possible.

Here are the things to get right before you send that first query.

Make Sure Your Manuscript Is Ready

This might sound obvious, but it's worth emphasizing—your manuscript should be complete and thoroughly revised before you begin querying.

That doesn't mean every sentence must be perfect. No manuscript is ever entirely beyond improvement, and there's a point at which further revision becomes less productive than moving forward. But you should feel confident that you've addressed the major issues in your story.

Consider the bigger picture first. Does your plot hold together? Are your characters well developed? Are there sections that drag, or important scenes that happen too quickly? Does the ending deliver on the promise of the opening?

It's tempting to begin querying as soon as a manuscript feels almost ready, especially when you're eager to share your work. But if you're still making substantial changes to the story, give yourself time to finish revising first.

You only get one first impression with each agent, and you want the pages you submit to represent the strongest version of your novel.

Know What Your Story Is Really About

This can be more difficult than you think. You know your novel inside and out. You've lived with your characters, followed them through every twist and turn, and thought through all the layers that make your story meaningful.

The challenge is communicating that story to someone who hasn't read it.

Before you write your query letter, take a step back and identify the essentials:

• Your protagonist: Who is the central character, and what makes them compelling?

• The central conflict: What disrupts their world or forces them to act?

• The stakes: What do they stand to lose if they fail?

• The hook: What makes this particular story intriguing or distinctive?

  
  

Notice that none of these questions ask you to summarize the entire plot. A query isn't a miniature version of your novel. Its purpose is to give an agent a compelling reason to want to read more.

This can be surprisingly difficult. When you've spent years developing a story, every subplot, secondary character, and carefully constructed detail can feel essential. Learning to distinguish the heart of your story from everything surrounding it is an important part of preparing to query.

Give Your Query Letter the Attention It Deserves

A strong manuscript and a strong query letter require different skills.

Your novel has room to develop characters, establish a world, build tension, and explore complex situations. Your query has only a few paragraphs to introduce the story and persuade an agent to request more.

A query letter generally includes a brief pitch focused on your protagonist, the central conflict, and the stakes. It also includes relevant information about your manuscript, such as its genre, word count, and appropriate comparable titles, along with a short introduction to you as the author.

The pitch is usually the most challenging part. It's easy to fall into the trap of explaining too much or not enough, or ending up with a list of events instead of conveying the conflict that beats at the heart of the story.

Try to focus on the choices your protagonist faces and the consequences of those choices. What makes their situation difficult? What stands in their way? Why should a reader care what happens next?

Your query doesn't need to explain everything. It needs to make an agent curious enough to open the manuscript.

And something that’s more important than you think—follow each agent's submission guidelines carefully. If an agent requests five pages, ten pages, or a specific file format, give them exactly what they've asked for. Many agents are looking for specific things, not to mess with an author’s submission process, but to ensure the author is paying attention and that they’ve put some thought into matching their project to the agents they’re querying.

One Last Thing

Preparing to query can feel isolating. You've spent so much time working on your novel that it can be difficult to pare it down to its magical, extraordinary, gut-wrenching core with someone who hasn't been living inside the story as long as you have.

Outside feedback can help you identify weaknesses you may have overlooked, clarify your pitch, and approach the submission process with greater confidence.

That doesn't mean you need to hire an editor before querying. Writers take many different paths toward publication, and there is no single preparation process that works for everyone. But if you're uncertain about your opening pages, struggling to pin down the heart of your story, or revising your query for the tenth time without feeling any closer to the right version, an informed second perspective can be valuable.