So you can get a feel for a completed query, I’ve used mine as an example. The following is a query for my YA sci-fi novel tentatively titled, In the After. I have removed the spoiler bits.
Katherine Boyle
Veritas Literary Agency
601 Van Ness Avenue
601 Van Ness Avenue
In the After
Amy has not spoken in three years. Not since They arrived; creatures with incredible hearing, amazing swiftness, and a taste for human flesh. They hunt by sound and Amy has learned to survive in a world of silence.
In the After is a Young Adult novel that addresses issues teens face everyday, but places them in the context of a post-apocalyptic scenario. Amy struggles as her normal teenage life collapses around her, only to be replaced with a world full of danger and fear. Amy has to choose between doing what is easy and doing what is right. She must ask herself, is safety more important than freedom?
In the After, Amy’s parents are gone. All of her friends are dead. The life she knew Before is over. Along with Baby, a child she saved from the creatures, she survives day to day, focused on staying alive, and most importantly, being quiet. When they are forced from their home, their only sanctuary from the flesh hungry creatures, Amy is determined to keep Baby alive and safe. <Sentence Removed>
<Paragraph Removed> With her new found knowledge, Amy is forced to choose between the safety she so desperately seeks and the freedom that she craves.
In the After is completed at 96,000 words. I would be happy to supply sample chapters upon request. Thank you for your time.
I hope this is helpful! I’d be happy to critique any query…as long as you don’t mind me putting it on my blog.
Next week…a query critique and what comes after you’ve completed your query.
If you're seriously willing to critique queries, you might be my new best friend :).
ReplyDeleteYour book's premise sounds interesting, too. Hope it finds a home, I'd like to read it (I'm a sci-fi/fantasy girl myself).
Hi Bethany,
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm still editing right now and next month it's off to submission (fingers crossed).
I'd be happy to look any query you have. It's funny how people have critique groups for their manuscripts, but not query support groups. I think, just like with an ms, a second pair of eyes is vital...even if it's just to tell you what impression a person outside of your story has.