The Query Letter Workshop at the 2001 RWA Conference was conducted by Kate Duffy from Kensington. She was very blunt and to the point about what she liked and didn't like. The one piece of advice that jumped out at me was that a query letter should be like the blurb on the back of a book.
What will make that editor want to read that manuscript just based on the query letter? What makes a consumer buy that book? The answer is usually the blurb on the back of the book. When I got home from the conference, I took four of our books and within an hour had four query letters that were better than any I'd written in the past. I looked at the back of the books on my shelf to see, first of all, which ones interested me most and then I wrote query letters in a similar fashion using the premise of our books. For some strange reason, it was so easy!
The other thing Kate mentioned was she could really care less about whether or not you were a member of different organizations. That didn't tell her whether or not you could write. Your writing style would come through on the query and in the synopsis. However, I would list at the bottom of the letter if the manuscript had won any awards in contests.
Here is an example of a blurb I came up with for one of our projects titled: Different Wavelengths. Add "Dear Editor" at the front and "I'd be glad to send you a full manuscript" at the end and viola!
Upper crust Diane Denton is determined to make it on her own in a profession her parents don't approve of--talk radio. Happy with her mildly successful home-and-garden show, she is comfortable with her life and fiancé. Or is there something missing?
Rip O'Rourke is the missing link between the man of your dreams and a total disaster. A rebel without a cause, Rip prides himself in bucking the establishment with his own version of the "Man Show" on radio. His goal in life is to see the stiff and proper Diane rumpled, certain that buried beneath her starched exterior is a passion worth broadcasting.
When the radio station is bought out, they are forced to work together to come up with a solution to sagging ratings. From the sparks that soon ignite into flames is born the radio sensation Different Wavelengths, a show discussing the differences between men and women--more aptly described as the battle of the sexes.
Good luck writing those Query Letters!
Elle James has been writing romance for a little over 1 1/2 years. She colaborates with her sister Deloris Lynders as well as writing on her own. Living in the hill country outside the sprawling city of San Antonio, Texas, she and her husband, Cleve, have three children, three dogs, three cats, two horses, 60 goats, an emu and a rhea. When she is not working full time managing information technology personnel, she's writing, reading, and egging! Since she started writing, she and her sister have completed four manuscripts. Mary has also written a manuscript of her own and sold three romantic short stories. TO KISS A FROG by Elle James will be published in 2005 by Dorchester Books.
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