Time To Query

The time to query is here. This is a crucial process in getting your book published. While you can query publishers directly I, like a million others, prefer to query a literary agent in the hope that he/she would agree to represent my book. It’s wise to query a targeted list of literary agents instead of shooting off queries by the score to all and sundry.

My list is ready and the first queries have sped their way. I would like to share a sample. Remember it is important to personalize the query and you can’t possibly use the same for everybody,  Here is one, I sent recently:

“Dear Ms……………….

When a fascination for researching a new topic like schizophrenia meets with my passion for thrillers, the result is a character like Sneha Sridhar who seeks refuge in a fugue state in my 91,000 word psychological thriller, “LET THE DEAD STAY DEAD” set in contemporary India.

A brilliant scientist working on cutting edge research has an ongoing battle with The Voices ( primarily her late mother’s) that seek to control her mind. They goad her to take revenge on the lover who abandoned her. She finds herself accused of a murder she wanted to, but did not commit, of a man she thought was someone else. Has she inherited more than just her long dead mother’s beauty? But wait, all paranoid schizophrenics don’t behave the way you might expect them to.

Chuck Sambuchino’s post in Writer’s Digest on October ….. about your call for submissions brings Sneha Sridhar to your door.

I love every moment of my second career as a story-teller with social media savvy. “IT CAN’T BE YOU” (Cedar, 2010) and “LUCKY FOR SOME, 13” (Mahaveer, 2012) are my thrillers published in India. My dream now is to be published by a marquee name.

A brief synopsis, the first three chapters, and the author bio follow after my signature in this query.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response,

With best regards,

Prem Rao

( My address and contact details)