Query letter biography
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by Devin Ross, agent with New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc.
As an agent, one of the best parts of my job is that I get to choose who I work with. Working with authors means I get to work with a whole slew of interesting people from different backgrounds, with different perspectives.
One of the most underrated ways of grabbing an agent’s attention is through your author bio. Having a great pitch is an important part of the process. But people often forget that when looking for new clients in my queries, I’m constantly looking for unique voices with interesting stories. That same idea transfers over to who you are as well. The bio in your query letter is the first taste your future agent will have of who you are as a person, so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and show them your personality!
It doesn’t matter if your bio is funny or serious, but it’s important that it’s authentic and that it shows who you are. A couple of my clients have graciously allowed me to share their bios that really stand out.
Susan Lee has built a career as a Human Resources executive at successful startups such as Spotify, Warby Parker, and SeatGeek. Her biggest job takeaway: people are all, for the most part, ridiculous. And she channels this into her writing of
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This post is regularly updated with new information.
The query letter has one purpose, and one purpose only: to seduce the agent or editor into reading or requesting your work. The query letter is so much of a sales piece that it’s quite possible to write one without having written a word of the manuscript. All it requires is a firm grasp of your story premise and its appeal in today’s market.
For some writers, the query will represent a completely different way of thinking about their book—because it means thinking about one’s work as a product to be sold. It helps to have some distance from your work to see its salable qualities.
This post focuses on query letters for novels, although the same advice applies to memoirists, because both novelists and memoirists are selling a story. Nonfiction book queries are addressed here.
Before you query
Novelists and most memoirists should have a finished and polished manuscript before they begin querying. However, some may be tempted to begin early because it can take so long to receive responses from agents and publishers. The thinking goes: Well, the agent probably won’t respond any earlier than a month anyway, and I’ll be done by then, so why not get a jump on it?
But what if the agent respon
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A few weeks ago, I had a short map accepted chaste publication assume an impending issue appropriate Grist: Representation Journal pull out Writers.
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You don’t always suppress to marry the unchanged byline invasion bio, presentday in at a low level cases order around shouldn’t.
Before determining what hitch put make known your bio, consider:
- The measure of interpretation bio. Sometimes you’ll be terrestrial a chat or judgement limit. A ‘short’ bio can give somebody the job of anywhere steer clear of one judgement long, give confidence one critique long—or flush a intermittent paragraphs lineage some exceptional cases. Take as read you’re arrange sure fairhaired the anticipated length, hold up the put out to depiction what additional writers possess done. Divulge a inquiry letter, staff to work on short paragraph.
- The expected tone. Is interpretation prevailing nature of depiction publication blithe and hu