Writing a Query Letter for a Romance Novel
by Irene Vartanoff
Publishers and agents are constantly deluged with manuscript submissions. Most do not accept unsolicited manuscript submissions, so a would-be romance author must go to the effort of creating a winning query letter and often a synopsis to accompany it. If the query letter does its job, the author then receives permission to send either the complete manuscript or a partial manuscript to the publisher or the agent. There is plenty of advice available about writing query letters, but much of it is not relevant to romance writing. Here are the generally accepted principles of querying if you want to submit a romance novel. You won’t go wrong if you follow them.
The query letter should be a one-page letter on standard business-size bond paper with or without your personal letterhead. It should be straightforward, never coy. There’s not much space in which to accomplish a lot, so you need to be succinct and on target. Your job is to identify what you want, what you have done and who you are. And right in the middle of that, you must sell your story concept.
If you have met the editor or agent at a writers’ conference or have a friend in common or the like, start with that information. If you haven’t, cut to the chase in your opening paragraph. Say that you have written a romance novel that is targeted at their audience, or that is aimed at a particular line they publish, or that is like a certain book they recently published (or agented). Give the number of words and say whether the manuscript has been completed. Identify the genre and subgenre of your manuscript.
The second paragraph of the query letter is the tough one. You must give a brief, sales-oriented description of the story, using sentences that are the most polished in the letter. There should be no hype. Tell who the characters are, including their professions if significant, and make them sound appealing. Briefly describe the locale. You must explain the major conflict of the story, as well as the arc of the plot, including how the story ends. Although this paragraph is basically ad copy, it must not leave the editor or agent with questions. Do not dangle a carrot, so to speak.
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