Speaking of 'how-to'

[Satyrical Raven]

I was wondering if anyone knew of a site where I could see (current) samples of successful query letters, ideally that could be searched/sorted by genre? I say current because tastes/requrements change and while there are samples of QL's here and there, they are often 5-10+ years old.

There are 100's of sites with 'how-to' guides for writing a QL but I know (at least for me) reading a good QL in my genre is more helpful than having someone tell me 250-300 words, 2-3 paragraphs etc. I understand the formula but I think I and others would benefit from the examples.

Cheers,

[Author Pendragin]

You'll get it Sat, keep up the diligent work.

[good morning]

Depends on if it is fiction or non-fiction. "How To" books are non-fics so their QLs look different to fiction QLs. For non-fic you need a book proposal, pretty wordy in itself & for fiction you need to show your creative-ness in your QL (so they say). No idea really, because if you just copy the rubrics than the reader (agent/editor) will know that you've just copied it out of a textbook. You're supposed to show yourself in your QL & since ev.body is different, ev. QL will be different too (supposedly).

Sample QLs are printed in trade books like the Writers & Artists Yearbook in UK & its sister books in other countries. Lots of agents/publishers actually tell you exactly what they want to see in a QL but nobody really bothers to read through their websites The important thing is not to lose your essence in whatever you're writing. If you aim for the ideal/perfect "out there somewhere", you will sound stilted and untrue.

[Satyrical Raven]

Sorry Good Morning,

I was neither asking for a HOW TO book nor for sample query letters.
I thought I made that clear in my post; perhaps not. I am more than able to find, and aware of, information sites, inlcuding sample query letters. I was interested to know if there was a site where one could read actual successful query lettters.

And just on the fiction/non-fiction issue. Again I thought my post implied it but again, perhaps not clearly enough, I was talking about fiction. Given non-fiction has a different proposal method, it would difficult to believe one could complete it in 250-300 words.

Also. I DO read through agents sites. I think you'll find most people that are serious actually do. It's the only way to know what the agent wants in the submission.

SO if you know of a site with ACTUAL query letters that got agents, that is free, please let me know.

[Victoria]

Raven,
Here are a few quick Google results...

Query letters that worked

Successful Queries

Is that what you were looking for?

[Satyrical Raven]

exactly!

The second one is especially useful!

Thnak you

[Victoria]

No problem! I've added these links (and a few for non-fiction proposals) to the Query Letter Resources sticky in the Query Letters forum.

[mar quesa]

Satyrical Raven,

What's your genre? I found some samples a long time ago but they were Romance. Would that help?

[Satyrical Raven]

Histroical-fantasy - trouble is, when you look it up you get Historical- Fantsy-Romance - it took me some time but I found useful sites/blogs

[mar quesa]

Okay, this is a link I found a while ago. It's not historical fantasy. It's Romance- I don't write Romance but I found it useful. I hope it helps you somehow.

Good luck!

http://www.charlottedillon.com/QuerySamples.html