Basically, what's the difference? A cover letter is the easy one, right? Just a 'dear whoever, here's my manuscript, ta very much' type thing, whereas the query letter is the one with your bio and mini-synop and what have you?
Cover vs Query letters
- Thread starter Mouse
- Start date
AnyaKimlin
Confuddled
Basically, I think and I'm not expert, it is the difference between what most UK agents ask for (cover letter which can include a mini bio/synop but is mostly just Dear so and so here is my novel, please, please, please read it). The query - mini synop, bio (not always) seems to be what US agents ask for.
C. A. Mitchell
Well-Known Member
I think queries are more like blurbs. Head over to the query shark website for some great examples.
AnyaKimlin
Confuddled
are they based in the UK?
AnyaKimlin
Confuddled
That appears to be the main difference. In the UK most ask for a cover letter instead of a query letter. They then specify what they want you to include in it.
Which is sometimes a total impossibility. I'm so sick of banging my head against the wall trying to place my novel, I'm going to say something really stupid like:
It's Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) meets The Valley of Horses (Jean M Auel).
And hope they don't bin it straightaway.
I'm still not understanding the difference at all. I've now read elsewhere a description of a cover letter that sounds exactly what I've been told a UK query letter should be. Why don't they just have one thing for everybody?!?
AnyaKimlin
Confuddled
That would be wonderful, Mouse. It is very, very frustrating. I think i have a cover letter and synopsis nailed, but then I read an agents website and their requirements are different from the standard asked for. Most do just ask for something businesslike - "Here is my book, please read it." However, the example in the Writers and Artists Yearbook is like a US query letter but with the word count at the bottom of the letter and ideas about whom the book is aimed at. After a year of this I am confused and I am sure that some of my rejections are because of inexperience with the letter rather than the story contents.
@Prizzley I agree with that one. Even with help on here the best I came up with was that because of his age and social position my main character tackled similar issues coming of age issues to Takeo/Tomasu in Across the Nightingale Floor. Although the world is modern and the setting very different.
@Prizzley I agree with that one. Even with help on here the best I came up with was that because of his age and social position my main character tackled similar issues coming of age issues to Takeo/Tomasu in Across the Nightingale Floor. Although the world is modern and the setting very different.
It would be so much simpler if they just wanted sample chapters and that's that.
AnyaKimlin
Confuddled
What peeves me is the number of agents/publishers who have poorly written and difficult to understand websites. They expect us to work hard to be perfect before they evaluate us but do not do us the same courtesy.
allmywires
Well-Known Member
I second that Anya! Hardly inspiring when they can't even use punctuation correctly, or set out formal guidelines for submission.
As I understand it, you have a query in the US because you're querying if they would like you to send them a "partial" -- ie synopsis + chapters, because all you send with a query is the first few pages. (Though I'm not sure if this applies in the era of email submissions: I'm basing this on Miss Snark's blog.)
In the UK, it's not really a query letter because you're already sending them synopsis + chapters, in most cases. So the cover letter is just that; it doesn't have to do more than introduce the submission.
To be honest, I wonder how crucial the content really is. It's likely, in my opinion (though I could be wrong) that unless you make yourself look an idiot in your query/cover letter, the agent is at least likely to have a peep at the material (pages or chapters) you've submitted.
In the UK, it's not really a query letter because you're already sending them synopsis + chapters, in most cases. So the cover letter is just that; it doesn't have to do more than introduce the submission.
To be honest, I wonder how crucial the content really is. It's likely, in my opinion (though I could be wrong) that unless you make yourself look an idiot in your query/cover letter, the agent is at least likely to have a peep at the material (pages or chapters) you've submitted.
That's true in the Uk, but I think for the US agents who don't receive any of the content, it all rests and falls on the query. I've had two who only want the query letter. Scary... two paragraphs, short ones, to sell 100k words on.
Anyway, I am doing a control, and have sent out a couple of very variant styles, to see which, if any, get the best response. To date, I've had very little response from the US (but I haven't queried that many across the pond yet), but the ones in the UK who have responded personally got a polite here's the book, here's the sum up, here's a little bit about me, thankyou very much.
Anyway, I am doing a control, and have sent out a couple of very variant styles, to see which, if any, get the best response. To date, I've had very little response from the US (but I haven't queried that many across the pond yet), but the ones in the UK who have responded personally got a polite here's the book, here's the sum up, here's a little bit about me, thankyou very much.
That seems bizarre. I assume these were email subs? How would it disadvantage them to ask for a few chapters as an attachment? That way, if they want to read some they've got it right there. Otherwise they have to reply, which would take time. I too would be scared trying to think how best to win over someone I couldn't trust to be rational.
AnyaKimlin
Confuddled
A lot in the UK ask for the sample first chapter to be placed in the body of the email and not to send attachments.
I know. The one I sent to this morning stated:
Please send us a one-page query letter by email to gauge our level of interest. If we are interested, we will send you a reply email with explicit directions on how to upload sample pages to our electronic submission database
And that was the second one in the US who I've come across, both major agencies, that stipulated the same.
I guess if they have an electronic submissions database, they've also got an automated reply system which means they only have to hit a button, so I suppose it does make sense. Except that by the time they get the submission they might have forgotten what the query said.
I still think the best way is to rescue an agent's child from a carefully staged "accident".
I still think the best way is to rescue an agent's child from a carefully staged "accident".
Warren_Paul
Banishment this world!
The main reason is they are afraid of getting viruses through attachments, so they don't want you to send anything attached to the email at first. Some get around this by asking you to include the sample in the email body, as Anya mentioned, and others have a private upload system that protects them from viruses and allows for a low labour - automated - process. Either way, they don't want to take the risk unless they know they are interested in what they are reading and can trust the sender more than somebody who just spammed them their manuscript.
I don't blame them, the internet world is getting to be an increasingly dodgy place.
I don't blame them, the internet world is getting to be an increasingly dodgy place.
