Four Tips for Personalizing Agent Query Letters
Perhaps you’ve spent tens of hours developing a synopsis of your novel, or even more polishing a book proposal to pitch nonfiction or memoir to a literary agent. But when it comes time to figuring out the query letter, you’re not sure of the expectations, beyond developing a pithy, compelling recap of your work.
An important query element that can be tricky to negotiate is how to connect with the agent as an individual. Here are three tips for thinking through what that personalizing language might look like, as well as how to handle the salutation that tops the letter.
The Shared Connection Approach
An ideal way to connect with an agent is to name drop someone they already know and likely respect – when that’s true. For instance, you might write, “Saundra Johnson, who’s represented by you, suggested I reach out about my upcoming novel set in the 1800s.” If Saundra happened to say why she thought her agent might like the work, pointing that out would be icing on the cake.
How to build to this approach
But what if you don’t know authors who’ve worked with that agent? Maybe you have been building a network with other writers while learning craft, though, and attending events like online or in-person conferences. Directly asking fellow writers you’ve built a relationship with who are in your genre and have a similar writing focus for agent connections is one option. Or, if you don’t have that network yet, given that the querying process can take six months or more, consider focusing on that network-building step as you go.
What not to do
Authenticity is essential in in agent outreach efforts. So, don’t overstate elements like what a colleague said about your work, or use them as a reference if it’s not clear that they’re comfortable with that. It also could come across poorly to bring up non-literary connections, such as saying you have a mutual Facebook friend with an agent.
The Literary Universe Approach
Perhaps you’ve met the agent, or heard them speak, at a writing conference. Or maybe you’ve been following their publishing-related podcast for the past year. Pointing this out is great, especially when done in a way that also shows you are actively building your understanding of writing craft and the business of being an author. For instance, you might share at the start of the query letter, “I attended the Fallstaff Writing Workshop last fall where you spoke on a panel, and really appreciated your thoughtful share about writers deepening our understanding of genre expectations.”
Other connection possibilities
As you research an agent (which is essential to personalizing), see whether you can follow them on Bluesky or other social media routes to step into their universe – without being stalker-y. And then, keep an eye out for something there that you can reference, including if they note there that they are actively looking for pitches from authors with your background or content focus (if you see this mention within a month or two of it being posted, that is, and confirm that they’re still available through sites like QueryTracker; that free site also is a great place to find material on them all in one place).
The “I Want To Be in Your Universe” Approach
When you can’t find a way to connect with the agent as a person, showing how you align with the authors and content they represent is a good general connector approach. For instance, you might have learned from an interview of them that they love Germany, and your work is predominantly set there. Or perhaps you saw on Manuscript Wish List or elsewhere that they have a thing for self-help works written by underdogs, or some other preference that mirrors the type of author you are or your content focus.
Sharing this content connector in a sentence is a decent alternative to the direct connection options discussed above. Because this approach isn’t as direct, perhaps you’d add this sentence toward the bottom of the query letter, rather than at the top.
Personalizing the Opening Salutation
Agents will have different things that they either don’t care about, or get tweaked by. That can be true of salutations, which might explain why different authors who’ve discussed this have found success through different approaches. Here are the ins and outs of how you might greet a literary agent.
Dear first name last name
This is a middle-of-the-road approach in terms of formality, and can work well. An advantage of it is you don’t necessarily have to know what gender the agent identifies as.
Dear Mr./Ms.+ surname
This approach tends to be disfavored because of the gender identity concern above. That said, if you’re a very formal person, and you’re sure of the agent’s identity, it’s an option.
You could confirm what gender they identify with by looking for wording to that effect on their LinkedIn profile, if they’ve selected to display that information; or if you’ve attended a Zoom meeting with them, they may tag themselves by gender there or in other outreach content. Using “Ms.” is typically considered better than “Mrs.,” given that their marital status is irrelevant in this setting.
Dear first name
This approach is more often mentioned by writers querying literary agents based in the U.S., which tends toward informal communication exchanges. It does avoid the gender identity concern, but might not work as well for some agents, given that you would be developing a formal relationship with them before building an informal one. Sticking with a surname-including approach is also better if they’re based in a country where formal professional communications is the norm across the board.
What not to do
It is important that you show you know at least the name of the agent. “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam” suggests you haven’t done even a minimum of research. Neither is it wise to write “To whom it may concern,” even if an agency asks you to send in a query to an intentionally genericized email or a similar route; that is, you could instead write, “To the agents of Duck Sliver Literary.”
The bottom line is, personalizing a query letter involves walking the line between being overly personal, and coming across as disengaged from who they are. Success is most likely to be found by tapping into any shared connection points in the writing world as a way to help an agent get that you take your authorly journey seriously, including the process of finding an agent to navigate you on the traditional publishing journey.
By Barbra A. Rodriguez, who coaches developing authors on their works that help readers step into a more engaged life, whether with self-help, memoir, or other nonfiction, or with historical fiction. Guidance is provided at the book idea and outline stage, proposal development stage, or when ready for structural and voice/style, or manuscript feedback.
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Check out more guidelines on query letter etiquette here
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