The 10 Most Common Mistakes in a Query Letter

Home » Writing Business » The 10 Most Common Mistakes in a Query Letter

The 10 Most Common Mistakes in a Query Letter

Posted on April 10th, 2008 in Writing Business by Wolfe

The query letter is the most important document in your fledgling writing career. This single-paged letter will tell a potential agent if your writing marks you as the next “it” writer or another casualty of the dreaded form rejection. You have thirty seconds to impress an agent. These are the things you do not want to do.

To Whom It May Concern

Opening with this, Dear Agent, or no greeting at all means instant rejection. Always open with Dear Mr./Ms./Miss and the last name of the agent. If you are not completely certain of the gender, you need to research the agent further until you do. If you are still in doubt, use the full name as in Dear John Doe. Don’t take the chance that “Robin” is a man when she is actually a woman.
Never Getting to the Main Plot

Amateur writers believe the query letter is the place to ramble on and on about plots, subplots and to introduce multiple characters. This is a grave mistake. Remember, you get thirty seconds to impress. If you take three paragraphs to talk about the plot, you’ve failed. You get three sentences that introduce the hook, conflict and resolution. Focus on one plot-the main plot. If you cannot do this, consider whether the work lacks focus. Taking forever to get to the point makes agents think the manuscript is just as wordy-and they would be right. Keep it short and to the point.
The Series Trap

Read more in Writing Business
« Write for the Throne
Sports Writer »

No matter how tempted you are, do not mention that your work is the beginning of a series. While agents and publishers love a successful series, the query letter is no place to advertise this. What this translates into is you lack focus on the one work that matters for right now. If your work is successful, the agent and publisher will want to know what else you have. That is the time to introduce the series potential.
Name Dropping

Agents and their assistants go through literally hundreds of query letters a week. All of those letters have the names of protagonists, antagonists, minor characters, etc. That is a lot of names to remember. Make it easier on the agent and name one character by his or her first name only or don’t name drop at all. You can say protagonist or show the plot alone. If you name drop almost every character in your novel, it will confuse the agent. And confusion equals rejection.
All Telling and No Showing

This is a classic mistake. If you are doing this in your query letter, you are doing it in your manuscript. Better fix it or that bestseller will never be published. Telling instead of showing means you describe or “tell” everything the story is going to do-to include the characters-instead of showing the action. Correct it now.
Passive Voice

This goes hand-in-hand with telling and not showing. Passive voice is where your writing is all in past tenses. Your prose is heavy with words such as has, had, was, by, or to be verb conditions. Instead of, “He had run home” you write, “He ran home.” Not, “He was running” but, “He ran.”
Clichés

“And out of the blue, she escaped by the skin of her teeth.” Gems like that get the Rejection Stamp every time. If it’s in the query letter, it means it’s in the novel too. Remove them, don’t use them, and have someone qualified who knows clichés point them out. Recognize them now and avoid them later.
Big Words Don’t Mean You’re Smart or Impressive

Unless you are writing the next big literary novel, avoid multi-syllable words in your work and query letter. And even if you are, consider toning down the verbiage. While highbrow words may impress the literary academics in their tweed jackets and Captain Black pipe smoke, they do not impress most lay readers or agents. If the word has more than four syllables, you overdid it. If your reader is looking up the word definitions every sentence, they won’t read much further and neither will an agent.
No Credentials or Bad Credentials Mentioned

This is critical and many agents state credentials are the first thing they look at. If you lack credentials-get them. Or better yet, find them. Chances are there is something in your past that merits you writing the novel. And some items do not need mentioning. Personal information about your kids is nice, but remember a query letter is a business letter. Unless it pertains to the novel or your experience as a writer, leave it out. But do say something about yourself. Nothing at all is bad.
Don’t Give Up!

No matter how perfect your query letter is, agents are going to reject it. Do NOT read into the rejections! You press on. Send out more query letters, revise as needed and keep at it. Luck always has its place as a published writer, but persistence is key. Don’t ever give up. It may take a while, but one day someone else will recognize the beauty of your work. Hone your skills, read books on technique, and most of all-keep writing.

3
Liked it

I Like It

Tags: Common, letter, Mistakes, query, Writing

| Subscribe to RSS Updates

Click the icon to the left to subscribe to Writinghood with your favorite RSS reader.

The 10 Most Common Mistakes in a Query Letter

To Whom It May Concern

Never Getting to the Main Plot

The Series Trap

Name Dropping

All Telling and No Showing

Passive Voice

Clichés

Big Words Don’t Mean You’re Smart or Impressive

No Credentials or Bad Credentials Mentioned

Don’t Give Up!

Leave a Reply

Popular Articles

Popular Tags

Recent Comments

Share Your Writing Tips