Many authors have questions about agent queries and what resonates best when approaching a literary agency.
I’ve written about literary agents and the query letter process in the blog posts below, but wanted to add some YouTube videos from actual agents themselves.
Agent Queries on YouTube
BookEnds Literary Agency has a great YouTube Channel with informative and fun presentations. I recommend the generous advice shared by agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan when it’s time to write your own query letters.
Rarely does an agency reach out to writers with such generosity, informality and enthusiasm, so be sure to listen to and learn from these professionals.
Since opening its doors in 1999, BookEnds Literary Agency has never strayed from our original goal: Achieving dreams and doing what we love. Representing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children alike, BookEnds agents continue to live their dreams while helping authors achieve theirs.
More Tips — Jane Friedman
Jane Friedman is a business strategist in the industry and another one of my favorite go-to sources for all thing literary, including agent queries. Below are some of her blog posts which are extremely helpful for first time and emerging authors. You can see all her query letter advice here.
The Complete Guide to Query Letters
The query letter has one purpose, and one purpose only: to seduce the agent or editor into reading or requesting your work. The query letter is so much of a sales piece that it’s quite possible to write one without having written a word of the manuscript. All it requires is a firm grasp of your story premise.
~ Jane Friedman
The Conflicting Advice You’ll Receive on Query Letters
At its core, a query letter is a sales document, and so it’s meant to sell. But opinions differ on the best possible sales approach in a query.
~ Jane Friedman
How to Immediately Improve Your Query Letter’s Effectiveness
In my many years of critiquing queries, I see the same weaknesses again and again. Here are the biggest issues that afflict novel queries and how you can fix them.
~ Jane Friedman