The Query Letter

Writing a good query letter is almost as important as writing a good book. The reason is that your god book will never make it to an agent or editor's desk without being preceded by an excellent query.

The purpose of a query letter is to whet the readers interest in your book. Do NOT try to tell the whole story. That's for the synopsis. The goal is to capture the editor's interest in a single page, let her know a bit about you and your writing experience, and give her a taste of the fantastic book that prompted the letter. Notice, I said a taste. Not a mouthful.

Some things you should NEVER do for ANY reason:
Promise that your book is the next DaVinci Code.
Say that God told you to write it and told her to represent it.
Drone on and on about your personal life.
Make the query longer than a page.
Use tiny font so you can get more in.

The basics of query writing are detailed more clearly in my agent's blog. Click here, learn the ropes, and happy querying!
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-write-query-letter.html