From the course: Sell Your Novel to a Major Publisher

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Customizing your query letters

Customizing your query letters

- [Instructor] Now that your agent submission list has been segmented and your first batch has been created let's talk more about step six of the Magic Query Maximizer, customizing your query letter for each agent. Customizing a query can be as simple as mentioning a book the agent represents that you like, congratulating them on a recent sale or bestseller, bringing up something on their website that caught your eye, or even just mentioning the reason you chose to query them. For example you could write something like, in researching agents I noticed that you represent The Big Day by Jane McAuthor. Not only do I love this novel, I feel as though my manuscript shares a similar tone and will appeal to the same audience. More examples on how to customize your query can be found in the Magic Query Maximizer handout. Obviously you also want to address the query to the agent by name and be sure to triple check the spelling of their name. Avoid using generic openers like dear agent or to…

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