How to Write a Query Letter That Gets Read
A practical guide to crafting a compelling query letter — with real structure, comp title strategy, agent red flags, and what BIPOC authors need to know before they hit send.
What a Query Letter Actually Is
A query letter is a one-page pitch sent to a literary agent or small press editor asking them to consider representing or publishing your book. It is not a summary, a synopsis, or a cover letter — it is a sales document. Its only job is to make the agent want to read more.
Most literary agents receive hundreds of queries per week. The ones that get requests for full manuscripts are specific, confident, and immediately clear about what the book is and who it's for. The ones that get rejected are vague, over-explained, or focused on the wrong things. Your query letter makes your first impression — and in most cases, it makes it without you in the room.
The Four-Part Structure
The hook (1–2 sentences)
Open with the most compelling thing about your book. This could be a high-concept premise, a striking character situation, or a thematic tension. It should make the agent immediately curious. Think of it as your logline — the one sentence that makes someone say "tell me more." Avoid rhetorical questions ("Have you ever wondered what it would be like to…") — agents see this constantly and it signals an inexperienced writer. Start with your story.
The pitch (2–3 paragraphs)
Introduce your protagonist, their goal, the central conflict, and the stakes. Focus on the emotional core of the story, not the plot mechanics. Agents want to know what the character wants, what's in the way, and what happens if they fail. End with a hint of the climax — not the resolution. Do not summarize every subplot or secondary character. A query is not a synopsis. Focus on the main character's core journey.
The book details (1 paragraph)
State the title, genre, word count, and two to three comp titles (books published in the last three to five years that share your book's audience or tone). Keep this factual and brief. Word count should be appropriate for your genre — 80,000–100,000 words for most adult fiction, 50,000–80,000 for YA. State your genre clearly and early: agents specialize, and if they don't represent your genre, they need to know immediately.
Your bio (1 paragraph)
Include relevant publishing credits, writing community memberships, or professional experience that relates to your book's subject matter. If you have no publishing credits, that's fine — simply omit that part and focus on what makes you the right person to tell this story. Do not disparage yourself ("I have no writing experience to speak of") — show confidence. At minimum, give the agent a couple of lines about who you are and your writing history.
How to Choose Comp Titles
Comparable titles — "comps" — are the two or three published books you cite in your query to tell an agent where your manuscript sits in the market. They're one sentence of your letter and one of the most misunderstood elements. Agents use comps constantly: when they pitch editors, editors use them to pitch sales teams, and sales teams use them to pitch bookstores. A writer who comps well is demonstrating, in ten words, that they understand the business they're trying to enter.
The four rules agents expect
Published within the last three to five years
Comps prove there's a current market for your book. A 1998 comp proves the opposite. Older classics can work as a secondary flavor note — "a contemporary Rebecca" — but always pair them with something recent.
Same category as your book
An adult thriller should comp adult thrillers. Comping your YA manuscript to adult literary fiction confuses the positioning you're trying to clarify.
Successful, not stratospheric
The sweet spot is books that performed well — earned out, got review attention, found readers — without being genre-defining phenomena. Comping Harry Potter, Gone Girl, or Fourth Wing reads as naïve, because those are outliers nobody can predict, and because every slush pile is full of them.
Genuinely honest about the match
The comp must genuinely share something with your book — tone, structure, premise, audience. Agents know these books. A mismatched comp is worse than none.
Formulas that work
The X meets Y
"The Hating Game meets The Love Hypothesis"
Two titles whose intersection describes your book. The most common formula, and the strongest when each title contributes something different — one for premise, one for tone.
For readers of
"For readers of Emily Henry and Carley Fortune"
Comps by author brand rather than title. Useful when your book fits an author's whole shelf rather than one specific title.
The element comp
"With the found-family warmth of The House in the Cerulean Sea and the propulsive twists of The Silent Patient"
Names exactly what each comp contributes. Wordier, but precise and confident.
Where to find comps
If comps are hard to name, treat that as research to do — not a step to skip. The fastest sources: the "customers also bought" and editorial reviews sections of recent books in your genre; your genre's recent award and "best of year" lists; bookstore shelf-talkers in your section; and notable sales listed on agents' profiles. Read (at minimum, deeply sample) every book you comp. Agents ask about comps on the phone. "I haven't actually read it" is not a survivable answer.
Ten Mistakes That Kill Query Letters
Wrong name or publishing category
If you spell an agent's name wrong, or leave in the name of the previous person you queried, they may dismiss your query altogether. Also check the publishing categories of every agent you query. If your book falls outside their category, don't expect a response.
Major grammatical errors
Once an agent trips over errors hot and fast in the first few sentences, they stop reading. A clean, error-free query demonstrates that you can do the same in your manuscript. Take your time.
Incredibly short or incredibly long queries
A query that's two sentences tells the agent nothing. A query that runs three pages tells them you can't edit. Aim for 250–350 words of pitch content — two to four paragraphs at most.
Describing your future relationship with the agent
Lines like "We will have many years of successful partnership" or "when they make it into a movie we'll both get very rich" come off as presumptuous and naïve. Don't predict a future that may or may not occur.
Making outlandish claims about your book
"My book will become a bestseller" or "Like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, my novel will become a publishing phenomenon" — let your work speak for itself. Agents have heard every version of this claim.
Leading with a series pitch
"The first four manuscripts of my epic series are complete" signals naivety about the process. At the query stage, the first book is all that matters. Stop writing book six and go polish book one again.
Writing about something other than your book
Refrain from writing about how you wrote the book, where you wrote it, why you wrote it, or the detailed history of how you named each character. Write succinctly about the plot or concept. Shorter queries are best.
Obscuring self-published credits
There's nothing wrong with self-publishing. But be clear upfront that your previous books were self-published. Agents will find out, and discovering it after the fact damages trust.
Leaving out biographical information
Agents want to know who wrote the manuscript. At worst, give them a couple of lines about yourself, your experience, and your writing history. Omitting your bio entirely is a missed opportunity.
Comping only mega-bestsellers or mismatched titles
"There's nothing like my book" reads as "I don't read my genre." Every sellable book has neighbors. And if your two comps share nothing with each other, the intersection is unreadable to agents.
A Note for BIPOC Authors
You do not need to explain or justify the cultural specificity of your story in a query letter. You do not need to assure the agent that your book will appeal to "all readers." Write your query as if your story's cultural context is exactly as valuable as it is — because it is.
If an agent passes because your story centers BIPOC characters and experiences, that agent was not the right fit. There are agents actively seeking BIPOC voices. Amy Bishop-Wycisk at Trellis Literary Management explicitly seeks "mystery, thrillers and suspense from BIPOC/underrepresented authors featuring characters of color." Danya Kukafka seeks experimental and genre-bending work by writers like Akwaeke Emezi. Allison Malecha specifically notes she wants "more underrepresented voices" in nature writing and literary fiction. Use tools like QueryTracker, Manuscript Wishlist, and agents' public wishlists to target agents who have explicitly expressed interest in stories like yours — not agents you hope will make an exception.
One practical note on comp titles: BIPOC authors sometimes feel pressure to comp only white authors to signal "broad appeal." Resist this. Comping authors like Jesmyn Ward, Celeste Ng, Oyinkan Braithwaite, or Angie Kim accurately positions your book for agents who are actively looking for it — and filters out agents who aren't.
Download the Full Guide
The complete query letter guide includes annotated example letters, a pre-send checklist, and a curated list of agents actively seeking BIPOC voices in 2026.
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