How long should a query letter be

Ya query letter examples
Author bio examples
Poetry query letter

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What is a query letter bio?

An author or writer biography (bio) in a query letter bio is a brief (brief being the operative word) summary of your writing credentials. It should give the literary agent a meaningful insight into your writing career, publishing credits, and perhaps your profession or hobbies—only if relevant to the manuscript that you’re querying. It is a single paragraph that usually appears at the end of your query letter, right before you thank them for their time and attention and sign off.

What should your query letter bio do?

Your query letter bio should:

Establish any writing credentials, including publications, awards, courses, workshops, or other achievements that show literary merit
Show that you are the best person to write this specific book
Be clear, concise, polite, but most of all, a professional summary of who you are as a writer
Show that you are a professional person, a decent human, and not a psychopath

Remember, your query letter has a single purpose: to get a literary agent to want to read your manuscript. Your query letter bio is just

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Write an Author Bio They’ll Remember

Sometimes it’s hard to believe how difficult it can be to write about yourself in a bio—after all, you’re a writer! But I understand it’s not as simple as that, so here are a few tips to make it easier.

Write your bio in first person for query letters, third person for most other purposes including proposals, book jackets, article bylines. Memoir writers can write the bio in first person if appropriate.

Make it professional but you also need to convey personality and writing style. Don’t try too hard to be funny, but include something that makes you seem like a real person.

What gives you credibility? What makes you interesting? What helps people connect with you? (When you’re on Twitter, Facebook or your blog, what kinds of posts seem to get the most comments?) These are things you can briefly include.

If your book centers on something specific—the Civil War, for example—are you a member of a Civil War society? Have you published any articles in historical journals? Include that.

Try not to include too much “re

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by Devin Ross, agent with New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc.

As an agent, one of the best parts of my job is that I get to choose who I work with. Working with authors means I get to work with a whole slew of interesting people from different backgrounds, with different perspectives.

One of the most underrated ways of grabbing an agent’s attention is through your author bio. Having a great pitch is an important part of the process. But people often forget that when looking for new clients in my queries, I’m constantly looking for unique voices with interesting stories. That same idea transfers over to who you are as well. The bio in your query letter is the first taste your future agent will have of who you are as a person, so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and show them your personality!

It doesn’t matter if your bio is funny or serious, but it’s important that it’s authentic and that it shows who you are. A couple of my clients have graciously allowed me to share their bios that really stand out.

Susan Lee has built a career as a Human Res