The query letter that got me an agent
There’s been a bit of talk lately about industry transparency because some traditionally published authors have charged vulnerable querying writers for courses on how to get six figure deals, multiple agent requests, and Big 5 contracts—obviously, this isn’t something you can promise anyone and it seems unscrupulous to charge hundreds of pounds implying you have some secret knowledge that can guarantee such success. Also, most of this information is available for free online. I wanted to share my own query letter a while ago but I was worried about spoiling too much of the plot. But after seeing the public blurb of the book online, it basically shares most of the same concepts, although I’ve redacted the climax. So, hopefully this is helpful! Here is the query letter I sent to my agent, Molly Jamieson.
I decided to use my own resources at Black Girl Writers and booked myself in for a query package assessment with Liza Deblock. It was her expertise that made this query letter so fantastic. It also received high praise from Juliet Mushens!
Stats for this query: 3 rejections, 1 full request + offer.
Please note, I’ve underlined the part of the letter that I had to quickly add in when the Penguin offers came through. So the 3 agents who rejected me did not see this part of the query.
Dear Molly,
Please find attached my synopsis and first 10, 000 words of THE REAPER.
The Grim Reaper and a Jamaican empath solve supernatural mysteries amongst the hidden magic community of London.
GETHSEMANE is an adult fantasy series for fans of RIVERS OF LONDON, THE CITY WE BECAME, and THE SAN ANDREAS SHIFTERS. I am submitting to you because I believe my work would be a good addition to your fantasy list and I am a big fan of your agency.
GERALD is a Reaper, a member of an ancient African family of assassins born with a killing curse, and AMY is the human empath who accidentally becomes his friend. When the names of two prolific criminals appear on Gerald’s hit list, he expects an easy kill. Little does he know that the witch-warlock duo is connected to a government conspiracy, a human trafficking ring, and a young anti-deportation activist targeted by the Home Office. After [redacted], Gerald must race against the clock to eliminate his targets before [redacted] meets an untimely end.
I am a writer and blogger from London and in my spare time I review anime and manga. In 2020 I founded Black Girl Writers, a mentorship programme that pairs Black women with industry professionals to help demystify the publishing industry for aspiring writers.
I am also a winner of Penguin’s WriteNow 2020 editorial programme and Penguin has first right of refusal for THE REAPER. As it stands, I have received two recent offers from two rivalling departments at PRH for THE REAPER. Del Rey Publishing has offered a three-book deal for £30,000, and Michael Joseph PRH has offered a one-book deal for £15, 000.
I would love for you to be my agent for this book as I believe you have the perfect touch to help guide me through the publication process as well as these recent offers, and to help steer what I hope will become a successful writing career afterwards.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I sincerely hope you like THE REAPER.
Kind regards,
Also, about the offers: in the end, Molly bumped up the money and I signed with Del Rey UK for £45, 000. If you relied on the big publishing stories you would assume everyone’s getting six figure deals, but I’ve since realised that 45k for a debut fantasy author in the UK is on the big side. I will do another blog post about advances and how they work because 2023 and the first few months of 2024 were exceptionally hard for me financially and I didn’t see any of this advance money (besides the initial pay I received upon signing the contract in 2022) until a couple months ago when Molly prompted them on my behalf. Advances are scheduled erratically!
Either way I’d love to sell out my advance and make royalties! So please consider pre-ordering THE REAPER :)