Querying your manuscript

Just returned from San Jose, California, where I visited their famous Rose Garden. As soon as I walked through the entrance, the fragrance from hundreds of roses was intoxicating. The weather was perfect for viewing the Rose Garden in all its glory. Very nice visit!

San Jose Rose Garden

Now let’s talk about queries. How much personal information should you include in your query? What is important and what isn’t? Mary Kole, associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, writes on her Kidlit blog, Biographical Information in a Query, that “there are two things you should focus on in your bio: professional writing credits and information relevant to the project at hand.”

But what if you don’t have any publishing credits? Kole writes: “If you haven’t published or won anything, don’t sweat it.” She then goes on to advise what to do. On this post, Kole also covers POV in Queries, Identifying Genre, and Query Formatting. If you’re ready to query your manuscript, it might be a good idea to read Kole’s post. 

Here’s an actual query letter that author Nathan Bransford, wrote to an agent (it worked) for his book, Jacob Wonderbar, which is due out this month. 

Best of luck with your query!

"This morning I took out a comma, and this afternoon I put it back again." -- Oscar Wilde