If you want to get a novel published, you're going to have to get really good at writing query letters. What's a query letter? It's the letter or e-mail that you send to an agent or publisher, to get them interested in your novel. Gone are the days of sending unsolicited manuscripts in the mail. I'm not sure if those days were ever here, anyway.
A good query letter is a quick note that gives the agent an overview and the flavour of your novel. A great query letter gets the agent hooked. They'll send you an e-mail straight back that says, "Please send me a copy of your manuscript, I'd love to read it." Or, something like that.
Bad query letters appear to be the most common. This is a shame. If you've spent the last few years of your life writing a novel, I think it's worth spending a bit of time learning how to write a letter that's going to pitch that novel for all that it's worth.
One way to get good at writing query letters is trial and error. This is slow, frustrating and may lead to depression. The best way to learn is from others' mistakes. It's fine read examples of good query letters, but having the mistakes high-lighted in not-so-good queries is even better.
Enter: Query Shark, a blog where people submit their queries for a serious pounding. I haven't read all the entries yet, but I've found two important ingredients for a great online writer's resource at Query Shark: this blog is very informative, and very funny. I'm not going to waste my time learning stuff without having a bit of a laugh along the way.
If you want to get your novel published, you'll need to send out some great query letters to literary agents. Read Query Shark to find out how not to write a query.
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