Sometimes a little investment goes a long way

Oh, querying. That lovely process that is required for most writers to go from writing a book to traditionally published. That same process that, at best, consists of a love-hate relationship for most writers, and in some cases, is a downright struggle. Querying is the bane of most writers’ existence, but it is a necessary step in the journey to becoming a traditionally published writer.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy by any means, though.

If you’ve yet to step foot into the querying trenches, you might be thinking to yourself “it can’t be that bad,” and you might, in fact, be right. For some writers, querying goes smoothly and they get requests from literary agents on their first try and snag an agent themselves with little trouble. For most, though, querying is a long, tedious process full of question marks, rewrites, frustration, and rejections (I’m sitting at 37 rejections right now — I would know.)

One of the most frustrating things about the querying process is the act of actually writing a query. Writers love to spin words into fantastical stories involving compelling characters and enchanting settings, but when it comes to query letters, most of us are stumped. That’s part of the challenge — simply writing a query letter that will catch an agent or editor’s eye. That’s where paid query letter critiques come into play.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let’s talk about what querying and query letters actually involve for any of you who are blessedly unfamiliar with both.

What is querying

First of all, what is this querying thing, anyway?

If you have hopes of being traditionally published (i.e., published by one of the big five publishers, one of their imprints, or a small press), then you must query your book to the so-called gatekeepers of publishing — literary agents.

Literary agents are pretty much what they sound like — the writing equivalent of modeling or acting agents. They pitch your work to editors (many of whom do not even allow pitches from the general public), handle your contracts, and navigate royalties. Depending on the agent, they might even help you edit your manuscript or schedule a book tour. They do a lot — they are your right-hand man (or woman) on your publishing journey and are a business partner who is meant to stick with you through your entire career. And in order to get an agent, you must query your book to them.

Querying looks similar to submitting work to magazines or literary journals, though there are some marked differences. To query a fiction novel, you must have a completed manuscript, write a query letter, write a synopsis, and write a pitch. Then send some combination of those four things to agents for their review.

As you might imagine, with hundreds of literary agents out there who represent every genre of writing under the sun, the process takes quite some time and there’s a definite learning curve.

What is a query letter

Part of the querying package you’ll send to agents is your query letter. While not all agents request pages from your manuscript or a synopsis, most will request some variation of a query letter.

A query letter tells the agent about your book, including details like genre, word count, and comparative book titles, and it tells the agent about you, including your writing credentials, why you wrote your book, and any other fun facts you’d like to share.

There is a variety of information on how to write a query letter on the internet if you look for it. Literary agencies, publishers, and traditionally published authors have all shared their recipes for the perfect query, and, for the most part, the ingredients don’t vary too much. A lot of it boils down to personal preference, though, which can make writing a query a bit tricky — and a bit nerve-wracking.

But it’s a step in the journey to becoming traditionally published that can’t be avoided in most cases, so learning how to write a query letter is valuable (and will come in handy if you embark on the querying process for future manuscripts!)

Why pay for query letter critiques

So now that you know what querying is and what makes up a query letter, you might be asking yourself — why pay someone to critique your query letter? Here’s where I’m going to expound a bit on my own querying process, because it hasn’t been a straight line — that’s for sure — and hasn’t yet resulted in my snagging myself a literary agent, but it has resulted in numerous query letter drafts, including one edited by a literary agent.

When I started the querying process for my romance novel last year, I was a complete newbie. I had never written a query letter before (all my other book attempts hadn’t quite made it to the finish line), and I didn’t know what I was doing. I wrote up a draft of my letter and sent it off to one of my writing partners, but it became apparent rather quickly that we weren’t going to be particularly helpful in evaluating each other’s query letters — we wrote different genres and had rather different ideas of what a query letter should be. So I did a bunch of research, read a bunch of sample query letters online, and re-wrote (again, and again) my query letter until it was as good as I felt I could make it.

Then, I started to send off queries.

I had some shocking success with my first pitch at a conference and my first actual query — two full requests! — so I thought my query must have been perfect. But then rejections to more queries started to roll in, and I realized that I should probably take a look at my letter one more time to see where I could improve it for my best chances.

I could identify a few things that needed sprucing up, but I was otherwise a bit stumped. So, after successfully using Fiverr to find beta readers, I thought I’d look for someone to edit my query letter. On Fiverr, many people offer their editing services for both your query letter and your synopsis, and I found a couple of people who were in my price range ($30) and had good reviews. I ended up accidentally hiring both (I only meant to pay for one query letter critique) and, to be honest, I ended up with less-than-helpful feedback that was pretty generic.

Nevertheless, there were a few tidbits of info and a few small edits that helped me improve the letter, and I dove back into querying with some wishy-washy results — a partial request here, a kind, personalized rejection there.

But there was a nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me that my query needed some more work.

That’s when I found The Manuscript Academy (note that I’m not even a member — I just found them online and liked what they offered.) Through The Manuscript Academy, you can book query critiques with actual literary agents — you know, the people who actually read query letters for a living. While purchasing a query critique through The Manuscript Academy was more than it cost to go through Fiverr, it instilled a lot of confidence in where I was putting my money to see familiar names from my “to query” list on the website of agents to choose from for my paid critique.

So I went for it — I purchased a written query critique from The Manuscript Academy (you can also opt for a Zoom call with an agent if you’d prefer to talk things through), and I got some incredibly helpful, actionable feedback.

Once I implemented this feedback and dove back into the querying trenches, I felt so much more confident in my entire query package — and, most importantly, I got several more requests!

When to pay for query letter critiques

I know that paying for edits and critiques of your unpublished work might be counterintuitive. I know that many writing experts insist that money should flow to the writer, not away from the writer (if you’ve read any of my articles before, you know that I don’t necessarily agree.) I know that budgets are tight and sometimes paying for gas or to get food on the table is more important than paying for an agent to critique your query letter.

I also know that you don’t need to pay for a query letter critique. As I mentioned, there are so many great resources online that can help you shape your query, and critique partners and writing groups are a great place to start. Many, many people have signed with a literary agent having never paid for a query letter critique.

But if you feel like you’re hitting a wall with your queries, or are so new to the process that you feel like you have no clue where your query stands, sometimes paying a bit of money to have an expert take a look at your query can help tremendously.

My recommendation is to start querying with what you’ve got. Edit your query until you feel like you can’t edit it anymore (plus one more time for good measure), and then send it out into the universe. Query strategically — a few agents at a time — so you can reevaluate if all you’re hearing is rejection. Get feedback from writing friends or those in your life who have managed to successfully query, and then send your revised query out again. At this point, after querying with a couple of different versions of your query letter and having little to no luck, consider paying for a query critique. The very least it will do is help you confidently know that the problem isn’t your query.

And then try to query again. And again, and again — until you get that one “yes” that makes all the difference.

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Querying is a long, nerve-wracking, and lonely process, and writing the query letter can be the most harrowing part. If you’re preparing to head into the querying trenches, or ready to reevaluate your querying materials after months of rejection, a paid query critique might be useful as you navigate the next steps of your author journey. While paying for someone to critique your query might not be necessary, it can undoubtedly be a useful investment into your future writing career. And what better investment could you possibly make?

Previously published in The Writing Cooperative