A query letter (usually).
How important is a query letter?
Very!
How long should you spend working on your query letter?
First off, everyone's different. Some people can get a perfect query letter in one day of writing (if you're one of these people, we really should meet up) others it can take weeks. In my case, two months. And I'm still not finished yet, though I think I'm close.
The thing is, unlike my last three queried books (unsuccessfully, might I add), I'm not in a rush to send out my letter. I want to take it slow and get things right. Which, in turn, will get me an agent (I hope!).
How am I so blase about querying? Let me tell you my recently discovered method via a step-by-step diagram. I was a business major, after all.
1. I wrote These Wicked Waters.
2. I did a quick edit of These Wicked Waters.
3. I wrote the query letter for TWW.
4. I started planning/writing another book.
While writing my other book, I go back to my query letter and make changes, then I send it out for other people to edit. I've got about 12 different drafts of it. Currently I'm on my 13th.
Honestly? It's the best query letter I've ever written. We'll see if the whole process works come June 29th, when I plan to start querying. Fingers crossed!
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