How to Write Attention-Grabbing Query & Cover Letters

by John Wood

John Wood sees it with numbing the query letter that comes close to making a sale - until the writer makes some fatal, but avoidable mistake. So the Modern Maturity senior editor wrote this letter-writer's guidebook. Read it, learn from it, use its secrets to write queries that get accepted.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Education

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 1996

About the author

I'm an author, writer, and former magazine editor based in Los Angeles. A UCLA grad, I'm a Vietnam vet who served in Japan and Vietnam from 1966-1969.

I was the senior articles editor for Modern Maturity magazine for 18 years, and in 1992 a special report I edited was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

I’ve sold travel and humor pieces to such publications as National Geographic Traveler, Islands, Expedia Travels, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Newsday, and the lead piece in Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (Travelers’ Tales, 2000).

In 1996 I published How to Write Attention-Grabbing Query & Cover Letters (Writer’s Digest Books).

In 2010 I joined the Peace Corps and taught English in the Philippines for two years.

In 2014 I published my Vietnam memoir Saigon Tease: So, What Did You Do in Nam, Dad? (Amazon Kindle). In 2015 it won the Silver Medal (Nonfiction-Autobiography-Memoir category) in the Global Ebook Awards competition.

In 2014 I published a collection of my humor articles from around the world: How I Killed Off My Ex-Wife and Other Far-Flung Misadventures (Amazon Kindle).

In 2020 I published a memoir of my two years in the Philippines as a Peace Corps teacher: Dispatches from Paradise: Two Years in the Land of Smiles (Amazon ebook and paperback).

Reviews

[Sarah Mudaliar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most books I read about query letters have a paragraph that is helpful in the entire book, if I am lucky a whole paragraph. The information they provide I can get from a quick Google. Also, most books as with this one are not about querying for a novel, which I am interested in; however the ideas that John Woods has are as relevant to what I need to hear as any other query and when it's not relevant he points that out. Well written and a great insight to the other side of the query letter!

[Liza Robertson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is pretty standard, but not all that helpful.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book turns 10 years old this year but still had some good relevant information that I added to my personal notes on publication.

John Wood offers "10 Query Commandments" and "10 Query Sins" which can help aid the author in saying the right thing the right way. Nothing really new here but it was a nice validation of the advise I'd read in the Writers Market and online research.

The parts I enjoyed the most were John Woods examples of the emotional delivery of a pitch. Below are a few examples.

The query is like a movie poster to generate interest. The synopsis in the movie trailer to generate anticipation, excitement, and sales. A query letter should read with the same emotion you have when telling your friends about a movie you just saw and love.

The editors look at you as a calculated risk, with anticipation and anxiety, much like a bank looks at a small business hoping to get a loan. You need to make them excited to sell your product.

Agents and editors are not in the novel development business, they are in the novel selling business. Do not give them a manuscript until you are 100 % satisfied with it.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this book out at the library as to not have too many writing how-to books. Having a copyright of 1996, I'm glad I didn't buy because the query examples are dated and sometimes comical. I hope the author, John Wood, will release a revised edition. This book was helpful with a lot of examples of what to do (Ten Query Commandments) and what not to do (Ten Query Sins). Easy to read, easy to understand. Clear and concise. If you want to learn to send out magazine queries, non-fiction book queries or you are writing that next best selling novel, check this book out.

[Lyn Jensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this book consists of actual samples of query letters written by actual writers (and editors) and I did learn some new things about the world of publishing. However, being written in 1996, it's very dated now. There was e-mail in 1996, but the most high-tech this book gets is an occasional reference to faxing when time is short. What I want--and need--most is a book that discusses how to handle e-mail queries and cover letters. Does anybody have one to recommend?

[Ashley Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't know how this book is-just started it! But I am excited to get some motivation to write my Query and cover letter and get started on my project of getting my story published.