Novel Query Letters

Posted by Jennifer Jensen Dec 3, 2007

I sent off my query letter, synopsis and sample chapters for my book this week. The agent’s website had detailed information about what they wanted – nothing unusual, nothing I hadn’t expected.

But when I composed the query letter, I found myself stuck. What exactly was different about it? How do I “position my project against what has been published in the same vein?”

The story is a children’s chapter book for 2nd-4th graders. The main character faces a verbal bully as well as a sudden shift to homeschooling. She is age-appropriate, there is humor, she solves her own problem. The story fits right in with other chapter books.

What could I say about how it is different? That she is a middle child, instead of youngest, oldest, or only? That her pet is a guinea pig instead of a cat or dog? That the homeschool setting is unusual? Other than homeschooling, it didn’t seem all that different. My objective was to write a book that fit in, not that was tremendously unusual.

In the end, I left the whole idea out of the query letter completely. But it’s made me wonder if it’s really a strong enough story. And when I find myself thinking about my next project, the characters and the plot, I’ll determine what will make it different before I write the whole book!