Let’s go back to basics. Query letters. Here are ten opening lines from letters I’ve received or concocted.
Dear Betsy: I am a huge fan of your blog and The Forest for the Trees, which I recommend to everyone I know.
Dear Ms. Lerner: Your agency website says that you like the hard to categorize.
Dear Betsy Lerner: I have written a fiction novel of 130,000 words called The Lost Letter.
Dear Betsy Lerner: Have you ever been afraid, really afraid?
Dear Betsy Lerner: I am a Harvard graduate and a Buddhist.
Dear Ms. Lerner: I am a survivor.
Dear Betsy (if I may): I was about to give up writing until I read your book — I am the wicked child.
Dear Miss Lerner: Part memoir, part travelogue, this is the story of my return to Los Angeles.
Dear Betsy: My novel, The Launching of Fawn Roth, is about a young woman a lot like Lena Dunham.
Dear Betsy Lerner: I am writing to you because of your personal interest in mental illness.
If you were an agent, which one would you respond to?
Anyone want to float their opener?
Filed under: Agent, Authors, fiction, Literary Agent, Protocol, Publishing, Query, Writers | Tagged: literary agent, Query letters, writing | 51 Comments »
Betsy Lerner 