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How to Write a Query Letter: Yeah, yeah, yeah -- What's your platform?

By Jeff Rivera

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 14Oct2010
Word count: 482
Viewed: 331 time(s)

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I recently helped a client with his query letter and I decided to put his platform in the very first paragraph. He read the query and said, this is great but aren't we supposed to have a hook? Well, that WAS his hook. His story concept was interesting, not mind-blowing but interesting but even stronger was his platform. He'd been on national TV, had a huge database of emails from his company and had written countless articles.

If you've got a big platform you can write your own blank check nowadays. You don't even have to be that great of a writer. You just need a hot book proposal which someone can help you write. Even an agent who is blown away by your platform might be willing to do it for you.

Platform is king and nonfiction is much easier to break into than fiction if you're trying to get a break in the book publishing industry. Combine the two and you have magic.

See if you can get a hold of an advanced copy of a big novel and look on the back. It will tell you the marketing and promotion plans for the author. Now, that's a platform.

or go here: http://www.earlyword.com/catalog-links/ and you'll see a host of publisher's catalogs. It tells you their marketing plans for each of the book. That's what you need to create as a platform.

And here's another tip when writing query letters:

Good ol' Dr. Phil says, "Perception is Everything" and he's right, especially when it comes to query letters. One of the things you don't want to do is mention the genre. "Why Crazy Jeff, would you say that?" you ask me. Because you don't want to give the agent another reason to say, "No." Let them decide what genre it is. Maybe they represent thrillers but you think yours is a mystery. Well thrillers are the new mystery. If he doesn't represent mysteries, you've just shot yourself in the foot.

Same thing with the genre Chick Lit and Women's Fiction.

Just tell them who you are, what your platform is and what your stories about. Let them decide what genre it fits into.

The only exception to this is if they say on their website to mention the genre or if you discover upon your research that this particular agent is looking for a specific genre and if you can truthfully describe yours as such, mention it. That's what the agents care about, can I sell this? And with a platform like that, hell yeah!

Second is the story. Yes, you heard me right. Second is the story. I could have written that the book was about the life of turtles migrating to the East and they would have requested the manuscript.

Fiction is more difficult, they say to sell than nonfiction so your platform is crucial.

Need help writing your query letter? Visit: http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com

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