You Know Your Query Letter Sucks When … You Don’t Grab Them in the First Sentence

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Agents are so busy nowadays they won’t even give a query letter an entire paragraph to grab them.

If you’ve passed the first test, what I like to call the scan test (meaning it looks professional at first glance), then you’ll be lucky to go on to the next test: the first sentence.

They might be patient enough to even give you the first few sentences, but Honey, if you don’t have it together by then, you can kiss your chances of landing that agent goodbye.  There are so many different ways to grab an agent.

These are five of the techniques I use for my clients. I’ve ghost-written over 100 query letters for clients successfully. In other words, use these techniques – they work.

You don’t need to use all of them, just choose one.

Top ways to grab an agent with your query letter in the very first sentence:

1) Start with a question that makes them ponder

2) Talk about a dramatic moment in your personal life that connects with the book you’ve written

3) Tell them immediately about your platform

4) Compliment them on a specific recent sale

5) Tell them who referred you

Use one of the five suggestions above and you’ll be one step closer to landing an agent.

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Guest post by Jeff Rivera, who is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com.  With over 100 clients to date, he has a 100% track record of getting at least 10 literary agents to request to read his client’s manuscripts and proposals.