You have found the market and tracked the submission. This is the artefact that actually gets sent. Fill in each part and a correctly ordered query letter assembles live on the right, with a copy button and a why-this-order note on every block. Your draft is saved in this browser so you can come back to it.
Dear [Agent name],
[One or two sentence hook]
[Mini-synopsis: who your protagonist is, what they want, what stands in the way, what is at stake]
[TITLE] is a [word count]-word [genre] manuscript.
It will appeal to readers of [Comp title one (year) and Comp title two (year)].
[A short bio: credits, relevant background, or expertise behind the book]
Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, [Your name]
The letter assembles in your browser as you type. Bracketed text marks a section you have not filled in yet. This builder structures what you write; it never writes the hook, synopsis, or bio for you.
The letter is assembled in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, and your draft is saved only in this browser's local storage.
This builder structures what you write. It never generates your hook, synopsis, or bio, because a letter that sounds like a machine wrote it is the fastest way to a pass. For v1 it targets the standard fiction query to a literary agent. Short-fiction and magazine cover letters are a different, shorter form: for those, follow the one line rule below and keep it to a paragraph.
A query has a small number of parts, and they sit in a sensible order. Here is what each part does and why it goes where it goes. Every figure below is verified against a published source, listed with its date in the sources ledger for this page.
Open with the agent's name, spelled correctly, and address one agent at a time. A personalisation line, a single sentence on why you picked this agent, is optional and only helps when it is specific, such as a book of theirs you admired or a stated wish-list they match.
Lead with a logline: one or two sentences that name your protagonist, the trouble they are in, and the choice that drives the book. This is the line the agent reads first, so make it the sharpest sentence in the letter.
The story description does most of the work of the query. In roughly 150 to 300 words, one to three short paragraphs, show who your protagonist is, what they want, what stands in the way, and what is at stake. Stop before the ending, and keep it to three named characters at most.
Guide: 150 to 300 words.
State the essentials in one line: title, word count, and category or genre. Most debut novels land near 80,000 words, and agents grow wary above roughly 120,000, so a count that sits inside your genre's range signals a writer who knows the market.
Name up to two comparable titles, ideally published within the last 3 to 5 years, and include each book's year. Comps show an agent where your book sits on the shelf. Two is usually enough and four or more clutters the letter, so skip mega-bestsellers, classics, and films.
Keep your bio to roughly 50 to 100 words. Lead with publication credits, relevant profession, or special expertise behind the book. A short honest line beats padding when you have no credits yet.
Guide: 50 to 100 words.
Close with a short thank-you and your contact details. Then follow the agent's submission guidelines exactly for what goes below the letter, whether that is the first pages, a synopsis, or nothing at all.
A query letter runs about 200 to 450 words and fits on a single page, single spaced. Get in, make the pitch, and get out.
If you printed it, a query should not run past one page. When a query spills over, the pitch usually has not been tightened yet.
Leave out the years you spent writing, praise from family and friends, your rejection history, and what you spent on editing. None of it moves an agent, and it costs you the space your story needs.
While the mini-synopsis inside your query letter acts like a back-cover pitch (the sourced 150 to 300 word band in the builder above, stopping at the central crisis), a standalone book synopsis lays out your entire plot from opening status quo and rising action to the final resolution, spoilers included, in third-person present tense.
The query is the last piece of a workflow you can run end to end here. Find the agent or market, write the query above, then record where it went and when a reply is due in theSubmission Tracker, which keeps everything privately in your browser.
A book synopsis is a one-page to two-page summary (typically 500 to 800 words, single-spaced) of a novel's entire plot from opening scene to final resolution. Literary agents and editors read a synopsis alongside your query letter and sample pages to verify that your story arc holds together, your character motivations make sense, and your ending lands.
Yes. Unlike a query letter pitch or a back-cover blurb (which withholds spoilers to tease the reader), a professional book synopsis must reveal every major plot twist, midpoint reversal, and the exact ending. Agents need to see how you resolve the central conflict before requesting the full manuscript.
Most literary agents ask for a 1-page synopsis, which comes to 500 to 800 words when formatted single-spaced in a standard 12-point serif font with one-inch margins. If an agency asks for a 2-page double-spaced synopsis, the target word count is still roughly 500 to 700 words. Inside the query letter itself, your mini-synopsis (pitch paragraphs) should be much shorter: 150 to 300 words.
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