When submitting your short story or article to a magazine or your novel or non-fiction book to a literary agent or publisher, you almost certainly will need to write a query letter. The goal of such a letter, also known as a query, is to pique the receiver’s interest so they’ll bother to read your work. That then could lead them to buying and publishing your writing.

While query letters vary in format, good ones always contain five brief paragraphs in which you pitch your writing. These paragraphs are:
• Opening – In a single sentence, tell why you’re writing. For example, if pitching a novel to a literary agent, you might write: I am seeking representation for my novel “Windmill,” the story of the Steinar family on the western plains of Nebraska.
• Hook – The second paragraph is like the back cover blurb for a book, a tagline that concisely summarizes the book to pique the reader’s interest. For example: For fifteen years, Carl Steinar and his sons, Peter and Lyle, have maintained a tenuous balance, keeping together their family and farm. Like blades in a well-oiled windmill, each works in harmony with the other – until Abbie Blaire, the new reporter in town comes to write a story about them, throwing a monkey wrench into their perfect machine: She is the spitting image of the wife and mother the Steinar men lost years ago.
• Synopsis – The third paragraph tells in a couple of sentences what the story is about. This is not simply a reiteration of the plot, though. For example: With Abbie Blaire’s arrival, the Steinar men find themselves on new trajectories in which their needs and goals can only collide. Resentment and jealousy between the brothers and with their father leads each to make difficult choices that can only lead to one of their deaths.
• Author’s bio – The fourth paragraph tells about you. Keep it related to your writing, specifically your credits, and if pitching non-fiction why you’re qualified to write this book. For example: Four of my short stories have been published, three in literary magazines and one in an anthology. Holding a master’s degree in English, for eight years I taught poetry and writing. I’m the award-winning author of several works of journalism and the author of two non-fiction books and a collection of poetry.
• Closing – You then would include a simple, single sentence asking the editor/agent/publisher if you may send them your work. To wit: Please let me know if you are interested in receiving a copy of “Windmill” for your further review.

There are some additional guidelines to follow when writing a query. First, be sure to write in formal business style. You are making a business proposition, after all, and you want to appear professional. Secondly, stick to a page. Anything more is too long. Remember that potential readers will have even less information to go on when deciding to purchase your book or read your story, so a page actually is a luxury for you. Finally, should you include a sample chapter (Some agents/editors/publishers oddly enough ask for this in their guidelines for query letters.) include a SASE if you want your manuscript returned.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Consider the following paragraph:

Fabio’s robust, bulging arms swathed themselves in a bronze casing about Shannon’s flawless, wilting body. Her velvety, wine-colored lips arched toward his as her sparkling sapphire eyes gazed into his brilliant, glowing emerald pupils and she in turn sheathed his body with her elongated, graceful, snow white arms. They were one at last.

Wasn’t that pretty?

Maybe, if you like pigs with lipstick. It’s a good example of fat writing.

Fat writing, a term coined by CSFW’s Sarah Smith, is “unnecessary and grandiose verbiage.” You may have heard writing instructors refer to it as “verdant greenery” or “purple prose.”

You want to trim the fat off your writing. If you stuff it with grandiosities, you’re just showing off, or demonstrating your writing skills not to advance the story but merely to prove you’ve got a way with words. Okay, so maybe you’re good at creating a clever image with consonance and alliteration, but what is the point of that image if it doesn’t advance the story? It’s just fat on your piece…and while your story can be lean, muscled or curvy, you don’t want flab hanging from it.

Fixing it is easy: Simplify your sentences and say exactly what you mean. For example, the first paragraph could be rewritten as: Fabio and Shannon embraced and gazed into one another’s eyes. They were one at last. Notice how all of the extra adverbs and adjective were deleted.

Giving your writing a good liposuction doesn’t mean it can’t be evocative or sensual. Quite the contrary. It will be more so after you’ve toned and shaped your sentences.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my craft of writing guidebooks:

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” – Orson Scott Card

“…everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath

“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.” – Willa Cather

“Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I’m writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is.” – Anne Rice

“If you look at anything long enough, say just that wall in front of you – it will come out of that wall.” – Anton Chekhov

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

One of the reasons authors suffer writers block is because their mind focuses on the perceived inadequacy of their writing. Most times, these perceptions are too harsh, going far beyond any constructive, honest self-appraisal. When this occurs, the mind shuts down, leaving the writer to say, “I don’t know what to write next” and almost any suggestion of what to pen is met with a “That won’t work.”

To overcome this problem, focus less on the problems you’re having writing and more on how the act itself benefits you. Uppermost among these benefits is that it is pleasurable. Writing for the pure enjoyment of it can relieve the pressure of writing with the aim of publishing or to sell a book. Another benefit is to simply exercise your skills. An athlete does not aim to perform as if in the championship game but instead uses training and practice to develop his skills and strength and speed. Likewise, you should not try to pen a bestseller at every writing session but instead develop your ability to plot a story, to write engaging dialogue, to show rather than tell, and so on.

In a sense, you want to say to yourself, “I’m just happy to write.”

Adapting this mindset will help motivate you. You are now writing simply because you have the freedom to write.

And as you look back at some of the writings from those sessions, you likely will be surprised: much of it is better than what you’ve previously written; much of it is publishable; and much of it will sell.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

One great way to sell books online – especially if you write nonfiction – is by commenting on posts at high-traffic blogs related to your book’s topic. That’s because you’re targeting an audience that is highly interested in the topics you’ve written about.

Begin by identifying the high-traffic blogs. Pick one or two words that best describe your book(s)’ topic. Then, in your favorite search engine, type “top (topic) blogs”, with the (topic) being the word or two you’ve selected; for example, if you write books about camping, type “topic camping blogs”. Usually you’ll find blog entries or articles that list such blogs. Check out each of the listings, learning your way around them and seeing if they best relate to your book. From this search, create your own list of the10-20 top blogs.

Next, on at least a couple of them a day, leave comments that don’t directly promote your book but instead offer something valuable for other visitors to read. You’re establishing yourself, via the comments, as an expert on the topic.

Eventually, other readers will come to recognize your name and see you as an expert. As they do, they’ll look up info about you, or even better the owner of the blog may ask you to write a guest commentary in which an author’s bio tells who you are. Side note: You can boost your standing with the blog owner by posting links to the blog entry via retweeting, posting a pic on your Pinterest board, making a Facebook shout out, and so on.

While leaving comments and publishing a blog entry may only lead to the sale of a couple of books, in the long run it offers a number of cumulative benefits – you probably will add people to your mailing list, gain link backs to your website that boost its visibility, and develop a network that can lead to later sales.

To be ultra-efficient, write comments that can be used in a book you plan to write so that way you pick two flowers with one swipe. For example, if your next camping book is about tents, focus your comments on blog entries related to tents. Be sure to add the posted paragraphs in your notes for the tent book.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional book editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of 80 books including the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my book marketing guidebooks:

Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine. To that end, try this tip:

Spend an hour in a place that you would not normally go to but have always wanted to visit. Write down what you see, hear and smell there. Are there any interesting tastes or textures that you can add to your notes?

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

When developing your story, you’ll want your characters to face a number of challenges or conflicts. One of the most basic of them is man vs. nature. In this conflict, the characters find their goals jeopardized by the natural forces of the universe: the cold of an ice age, dangerous plants and animals in an alien jungle, or the vacuum of space.

This conflict can truly test the characters’ stamina, and in a Darwinistic way, show who is the fittest. There’s virtually nothing that a character can do to change the weather or his environment, but he can through physical strength, willpower and intelligence survive it. Exactly how the character does survive – whether by forcing himself to stay awake for three days until he can march out of the desert or by using his wits to kill a beast and sleep in its belly to stay warm – says a lot about what characteristics the author values.

The man vs. nature conflict can take on a thematic role in ecological disaster stories. A good example of this is Larry Niven’s novel “Legacy of Heorot.” Set on a colony world, the story centers on how nature is “fighting back” against the ecological changes that the colonists have engendered. The story examines the issues of what happens when humans interfere with the natural order of a world and if the notion of “protecting nature” is rational.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my guidebooks for plotting your story:

“People do tell a writer things that they don’t tell others. I don’t know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.” – W. Somerset Maugham

“There is creative reading as well as creative writing.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” – J.D. Salinger

“Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to those who have none.” –Jules Renard

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks: