Two of my friends work for literary agencies. Their advice is to keep your query short and sweet (like 400 words or less). Don't try to be gimmicky or cute by writing your query letter in the voice of your character or anything like that; it just annoys and/or confuses most agents. Make sure your comps are current (like within the past 3 or 4 years) and make certain that they tell the agent something specific; comp tone, vibes, feel. Ex: my book is a slow-burn romance in the same vein as X author meets the same, high-stakes whodunnit vibes of Y title. Also include a unique selling point, and your book's complete word count, genre, and if it's a standalone novel or the first in a series. Keep your bio short and the info you share relevant to the project you're querying. The first line of your query, however, is where there's more room to play. Maybe this is where you share your log line/hook. Maybe this is where you choose to instead share specifics about why you're querying said agent (Personally, I'd only do this if I met the agent at a conference, if I have a referral, or if the agent has specified that they want to know why you're querying them specifically). Some people choose to put their synopsis next; others choose to share their title, word count, etc before the synopsis. Either way, your synopsis should include clear stakes and rising tension; tell them who this book is about and why they should care as readers. Give them enough to tease at your book's primary external and internal arcs. Agents are thinking not only about if your premise is unique and engaging but if your book itself is marketable; indicating that your book has clear stakes, rising tension, and a complete narrative arc communicates your competence without giving away too much of the story (because you want them to want to keep reading/request more of your story). Hope all this helps!

@Gabby Martini I agree—including something of your authorial voice in your query is helpful! But that's different than writing to the agent from the POV of your character.

@Anna Pearl Thanks for sharing more about your services! Yes, let's do connect; I often share referrals. Are you on LinkedIn? You can find me there, or you can feel free to share your contact through my website.

I don't have a Fiverr account. If you want to contact me, feel free to do so through the contact form on my website and we can connect that way. https://www.inksationaleditorial.com/contact Do you have a website outside of Fiverr?

ManuscriptWishlist.com also offers paid agent one-on-ones, which in my experience have proven both encouraging and helpful. QueryTracker.com is a great way to both research agents and get a bit more info on their query stats (for example, how many other users have queried them, how many reported rejections vs full or partial requests, and their average response time for a query). It is also 100% worth it to pay for a publishersmarketplace.com membership (if even for a month or two!) while you're gearing up to query. You can look up agents you're considering querying to see if they've recently sold any comparative titles (which you can then include in your comps when you query that agent).

@James Blair That's great! Now what's your goal for THIS week lmao?? Mine is to keep working on my manuscript for at least 1 hour every morning and to edit and resubmit a short story I'm still trying to sell.

@Petra Glover I hope you get that request! But I'd caution you against setting that as a goal, given that you can't control an agent's response to your pages. I'd make goals off things that you CAN control, for example sending out small batches of 10-15 queries at a time (which allows you to learn and tweak your query as you go), or crafting a few different versions of your query to see which works best.