The Query Letter That Got Me My Agent
(and All Those Juicy Stats)
Confession: I didn’t know what queries were when I started writing my debut in 2016. Comp titles? Submission? Don’t know her. I had just graduated high schoolmy writing experience included college admission essays and angsty diary entries. It wasn’t until draft five or six that I started to seriously pursue a writing career. In 2022, I dedicated every second of free time learning about publishing. I obsessively read through Janet Reid’s blog, Query Shark. I lurked on the Reddit Community, r/pubtips, until I was ready to post my query letter there.
In March 2023, I entered the trenches. In the first query letter I sent, I forgot to change the name in the greeting. So my letter started with “Dear Agent.” I thought I would be sent to publishing hell. That agent ended up being the first to request my full.
But I knew the manuscript still wasn’t ready. I’d immersed myself in publishing Twitter to build my query list, and learned about pitch contests, and more importantly mentorship contests. I stopped sending queries and submitted to the Write Team Mentorship Program. I started writing something completely new while I waited for results. I found out I was a finalist that summer, and started a huge revision with my mentors. Except for a few short scenes, I completely rewrote my book.
Back into the trenches in February 2024. Rejections and requests came quickly. I received my offer around Valentine’s Day (AHHHHHHH!) My mentors helped me prep for the call. I gave everyone with my query (and pages) two weeks to throw in more offers, but I just knew that Miriam was the one.
The Letter
Dear [Agent]
I am seeking representation for my 75,000-word YA horror novel, ALL FOR GLORY. It combines the small-town ghosts and summer friendships of Ginny Meyers Sain’s Dark and Shallow Lies and the haunted lake of Sarah Glenn Marsh’s The Girls Are Never Gone.
A year after her older sister’s accidental drowning, sixteen-year-old Iris Garren returns to her family’s cabin in Bad Creek, Michigan. She’s trying to stay positive, but it’s hardly a vacation without Glory. Not even her summer boys, Aidan and Gum, can cheer her up. All their childhood traditions—mini-golf, bike rides, and drive-in movies—feel empty without their leader.
When Iris sleepwalks to an abandoned house near the lake, she believes it’s a sign from her sister. Glory had drawn the same house in her journal, along with dozens of sketches that look eerily similar to their rich kid nemesis, Hudson Clavey. Iris can’t shake the feeling that her sister’s death wasn’t an accident, and now Glory’s spirit is trying to guide her to the truth.
Before her family leaves at the end of the week, Iris is determined to find out what really happened last summer. But her best friends are keeping secrets. Aidan might remember more about the night of his ex-girlfriend’s death than he’s willing to admit and Gum hasn’t been honest about the “ghosts” he’s been seeing either. The only one who doesn’t seem to be lying is their number one suspect: the insufferable frat-boy-in-training, Hudson Clavey. As Iris continues to wake up closer and closer to the water’s edge, she starts to doubt if it’s Glory guiding her to answers, or something more sinister. She finds it harder to trust the people and the town she thought she knew so well, especially when she learns Glory wasn’t the first girl in Bad Creek to drown.
And she won’t be the last.
ALL FOR GLORY is a standalone novel inspired by my family’s summers in Northern Michigan. Five generations have rented the same cabin every year, but no one has been able to prove it’s haunted (yet). As a queer author, it was important for me to write about queer teens who challenge nostalgia and tradition. In 2023, I won the Write Team Mentorship contest and worked on revising this manuscript with my mentors.
Thank you for your consideration,
Peyton June Leatherman
(she, her, hers)
Stats
March - April 2023
Queries Sent 17
Rejections 13
Requests 1
No Response 3
Offers 0
Jan - Feb 2024
Queries Sent 22
Rejections 11
Requests 8
No Response 2
Offers 1
Conclusion
Even as the requests came in, the imposter syndrome didn’t poof away. I felt like a fraud sending queries, I felt like a toddler sending follow-up emails. Even now, as I talk with my editor, I feel unqualified.
Most writers send their queries out too early. But you can’t possibly be ready for all of it and that’s okay. You’re not a pastry; you’ll never be done baking. Go ahead and send those typo-ridden emails.
