Why publishers don’t like your query letter

You’ve written the best book ever, and you’re ready to get it published. The good news is that you’re really close. The bad news is that you are also really far away from reaching your goal of finding an agent or a publisher. In order to get published, you need to do more than write a great book. You have to create an awesome query letter AND send it to the right person.

It’s not a good idea to send your manuscript to only one agent. It’s probably best if you send it to a handful of different people. But if you don’t hear back from anyone, then there may be something wrong with your query letter.

You didn’t personalize your query letter

Did you address your letter to a specific person? If you use a standard “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To whom it may concern”, it’s quite possible that the recipient just threw it into the trash without reading the rest of it. Why would they do that?

For one, you didn’t do your research. If you didn’t want to take the time to figure out their name, then you probably didn’t read the submission guidelines, either. Or worse, maybe you’re sending your manuscript to every agent in the phone book. That’s not a good strategy.

Personalizing your query letter requires you to address it to a specific person. But you should also find out something about them. Why are you sending your novel to them and not someone else? Obviously, you need to do your research to make sure you found a good fit for your manuscript. An agent looking for surreal young adult books will probably not be interested in your Christian romance novel. And that’s why you shouldn’t send it to them in the first place.

You didn’t give them the stats

So you gave them a short outline of your story and a way to reach you. But you forgot to give them the stats about your novel. If you don’t let them know what type of book they’re dealing with, they have no idea whether they should read it or not. Most agents and publishers have very specific criteria. They look for books in a specific genre, but they also need to adhere to a certain word count. So you need to let them know these things about your book. And don’t forget to mention your book’s title and subtitle.

You didn’t bait the hook

Your query letter should let the reader know what your book is all about. But if you write a summary of your book that’s less thrilling than sliced bread, your manuscript will land in the garbage. That’s why you need to create a hook for your book. Don’t forget the bait. If you read the description on the back of a book at the bookstore, would you want to read the entire book to see what happens? If not, then it’s not good enough. Ideally, you should ask a few other people to read your hook to make sure it’s really up to snuff.

You grovel too much

If an agent or a publisher accepted your manuscript, you’d be ecstatic. But it’s not like you’re doing them a favor. After all, they’re in it to make money. So don’t grovel and beg in your query letter. The recipient is busy, but reading manuscripts is part of their job description. The challenge is that they can only read so many of them. Therefore, you need to make yours stand out from the rest of the crowd. Write an excellent query letter and don’t beg for a review of your book. It’s demeaning.

You exceeded one page

Your query letter should be well written. And while it’s necessary to send a query letter in order to get your manuscript into the right hands, you don’t need more than one page for your letter. There’ll be plenty of pages for the recipient to read should they decide to ask for your manuscript. But your query letter should be short, sweet, and to the point. If your biography takes up too much space, then you should only include the things that are relevant. Agents and publishers don’t care about how many dogs you have, but they may be interested to know if you already have a following on Twitter, Facebook, or your personal blog.

You talk about your friends and family

Some writers use their query letters to talk up their work. They gush over how much friends and family love their book. They talk about how long they’ve worked on the book. Don’t give in to the temptation. Agents and publishers don’t care about your personal life. They want to know if your book is worth reading. The fact that your friends and family certainly think so proves nothing at all.

You didn’t target the right person

We’ve already mentioned this a few paragraphs earlier, but it’s so important that we need to mention it again. You need to target the right person. Agents and publishers don’t generally accept any type of genre. Most of them are selective about what they publish. This means you need to do you research and find the one that’s the right fit for you. It’s quite possible that there is another agent at the same place you send your query to who may be interested in your genre, but you can’t count on the recipient to pass your manuscript along for you. Send it to the proper person in the first place!

You didn’t follow their guidelines

Writers aren’t always rule-followers. And that’s fine. But agents and publishers post guidelines that you should pay attention to if you want your novel to get published. These guidelines can be really annoying and detailed, such as specifying what type of font you should use for your manuscript. But it’s not going to be that difficult to comply with, is it? If you don’t, your manuscript won’t get read. If you do, you’re already one tiny step ahead of the people who didn’t read the guidelines.

What’s next?

Are you still getting rejections from agents and publishers? Maybe your manuscript isn’t as good as you think it is.