I have finally honed my query letter from the fat blob of a creature it started out as to the sleek, informative, and straightforward form a query letter ought to have. Hopefully this will increase my chances of capturing the attention of a literary agent, which is, of course, my ultimate goal at this point in time. However, if I am to succeed in enticing agents to read my full manuscript, I will eventually need more than a query letter-- I will need a synopsis that condenses the story without robbing the reader of any enjoyment the story may hold.
A helpful article on writing the synopsis for your manuscript can be found in the Guide to Query Letters, chapter 4-- and specific instructions for compiling a synopsis for fantasy and other forms of speculative fiction can be found on page 139. A piece of information that I learned from the author, Wendy Burt-Thomas, was the importance of starting off with the setting and a few sentences of backstory that would be superfluous for other genres. But when writing a synopsis about a speculative world, it is important for the agent reviewing your synopsis to get a sense of what this world is all about before you tell her about the story designed to take place within it.
Unfortunatley, while I would love to finish my synopsis tonight and submit my completed package to a few more agencies, I need to spend the rest of my night signing up to take the GRE-- and finding out how to study for a test that might get me into grad school. PERFECT 800 VERBAL SCORE-- fingers crossed. I've got to get that M.A. in Creative Writing...it would look so much better than my bachelor's degree.
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