Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Query Letter?

Everyone

Hi friends,

I can’t believe it, but my book is out in just under two weeks. EEEEK! People have been asking me how I’m doing, and tbh I’m not freaking out. I know it’s going to feel amazing to see it out in the world. But instead of a finish line, it feels like the start. I wish I could transfer that feeling to you, too, if you’re staring down your query letter like it’s the finish line. It’s not. It’s just the beginning—and that’s a GOOD thing.

Speaking of freaking out, the query letter causes more angst than almost any other part of the process. Why? Because that’s usually a writer’s first interaction with the publishing machine. It’s the beginning of a very steep learning curve. Writers get overwhelmed by having to learn about literary agents and submission guidelines and word counts and genres and comps and elevator pitches and author platforms all in one go. Understandably so! Here are the things, though, that I think people freak out about the most when faced with query letters. And how to not.

It’s Going to Take So Long

You’re scared it’s going to take a long time and you want to be published yesterday. You’ve already been writing forever and now you have to wait more to see if your hard work is going to pay off. There’s no telling how long it will take. An agent could email tomorrow, or six months from now. An email could come in AT ANY TIME. Quick! Go check again!

And you’re right. Getting a response to your query is going to take a long time. I talked about why in this post. It does not take long to read your query, but there are hundreds in line before you. There are also hundreds of agents, so that does up your