Query Success Stories

There were three things that made me purchase and read LIKE MANDARIN by Kirsten Hubbard. The first was the description of the novel on Kirsten’s website. It sounded intriguing, especially since her novel centers around what happens when the lives of two very different people intersect, a similar theme I explore in my novel, though in a different way. The second was the fact that her book was mentioned more than once by agents during WriteOnCon 2011 (and one or two agents may have even said they wished they’d repped it–I might be wrong about that… perhaps they just thought they wished they’d repped it and I picked up on it 🙂 ).

The third reason I bought it is because I read Kirsten’s original query letter, along with her agent’s notes on why the query was persuasive. Yes, it’s online. And being able to read the query letter, and then read the novel, just struck me as… well, neat. Cool. Especially since I was cobbling together my own query letter and was desperate for tips. Yeah, perhaps a strange reason for buying a book, but along with the other two points… And it was a good query.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Some of the best agent blogs provide query letter critiques: what mistakes to avoid, what to include, etc. If you haven’t visited any of these and you’re struggling with a query letter, then do yourself a favor and check them out. To get you started try QueryShark, BookEnds (they critique a query every Wednesday), and Lauren Ruth’s Slushpile Tales (look for her QueryDice articles). However, I think it’s equally useful to read queries that worked. The great queries. The query letters that made an agent say “I’ve got to have this manuscript, this author, NOW!”

So, to that end, here are some that I’ve found:

• Kirsten Hubbard’s query for LIKE MANDARIN (part of the YA Highway Query Series)
• Kate Hart’s query for AFTER THE FALL (part of the YA Highway Query Series)
• Kody Keplinger’s query for THE DUFF (part of the YA Highway Query Series)
• Karen MacInerney’s query for MURDER ON THE ROCKS
• J. B. Stanley’s query for DEATH OF A COLLECTOR

Tell me, faithful blog reader, do you know of others? Would you care to share? And what about query letters you would love to see that may or may not be online? I would love to see the letter J. K. Rowling wrote to Christopher Little asking for representation. Or perhaps Stephenie Meyer’s query letter for TWILIGHT? What do you think?

Oh, and while hunting down query letters, I found this little gem from 2009: Janet Reid talking on the BBC World Service about query letters. In this seven minute clip, she picks apart a couple of queries, and also tells us what she loved about Dan Krokos’ famous QueryShark query. Cool!