Another four hours today, this time on the query letter. And I do believe it’s looking pretty solid now - as in, almost good enough for other people to read (though I’ve yet to add personalizations that speak to an understanding of individual agents’ preferences).
My shortlist of said agents is currently sitting at 110. Somehow I don’t think it’ll be enough. I only need to find one other person who likes this weird book, but my thought is I should pile the haystack as high as possible to guarantee a needle.
The reason I’m feeling more confident about the query, at least, is that while reading it, I want to check out the book. I figure that’s a good measure. If you can be completely objective about it, pretend the query is the back cover copy for your novel. Now ask yourself: do you want to open that novel, or put it back on the shelf? Be honest! There’s a big difference between “kinda interesting, but nah” and “must-read”.
I’ll tell you this. Reading the first version of my query over a year ago, I didn’t want to open my book at all. I was confused and annoyed. I found myself skimming words. My interest level has improved throughout subsequent versions, as the query gradually got better at getting to the truth of what the book is, in the simplest terms possible. It’s a tricky business, but it can be done. You have to drill the thing down to its core, its bare essence, polish whatever coal you find there into a pretty diamond, then hold it up to the light so we can see the whole of it clearly.
I should be careful when I use the term whole of it. The query can’t be comprehensive the same way the book is. It’s not even an outline. Still: turning that compacted, compressed and shiny diamond around in the light, we get a sense of its shape, see its edges, feel its weight. We can make a quick guess at its worth.
My query is less coal than diamond now. And it took more than two years of living with, writing, and starting to edit this story to get there. As the shape of the novel became more obvious to me over time, so too did the necessary shape of the query.
I feel good about that, yo.
But I won’t be querying for another several months, not until after I’ve ground through three drafts of the novel, run it through three separate gauntlets of trusted readers, and discovered what manages to make it out the other side.
Who knows?
I might have a whole different lump of coal by then. 
- Stephen Reese
