Get Your Novel Published: Write an Irresistible Query Letter
Blair Thornburgh, Multi-published author and editor
Watch this class and thousands more
Watch this class and thousands more
Lessons in This Class
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1.
Introduction
1:01
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2.
Query Letter Boot Camp: Lecture and Demonstration
29:54
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About This Class
If you're ready to submit your novel and land a literary agent, but feel stumped or unsure about query letters, this is the class for you.
Blair Thornburgh is a multi-published author with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Abrams Books and a former Senior Editor of NYT and international bestsellers at Quirk Books. This class will teach you to write the kind of irresistible query letter by getting to the heart of your story, characters, and marketability—all in a few short paragraphs.
Query letters—the letters that describe your novel, brag your bio, and hook an agent—can be intimidating. It’s easy to agonize over draft after draft and still not know if you’re nailing the form. But for writers who are serious about traditional publication, getting that query pitch-perfect is essential. A flabby query can lead to form rejections, submission limbo, and endless waiting.
Fortunately, they’re easy to learn! Join professional editor and multi-published author Blair Thornburgh (that’s me!) for a nuts-and-bolts class that will kick your query letter into overdrive with clear explanations, specific examples, and guided drafting to make your query letter irresistible.
Blair's critically-acclaimed books have received multiple starred reviews and appeared on Best of the Year lists from Publishers Weekly, the American Library Association, and Bank Street Children's Books. As a Senior Editor at Quirk Books, she was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Rising Stars for 2017. She received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University, and also hosts The Query Show, a podcast all about—you guessed it—query letters.
Course highlights:
- The basics of the query process
- How to draft a killer query quickly
- Detailed breakdowns of strong and weak queries
- The secrets of a captivating plot summary
- Top query mistakes to avoid
- Etiquette faux pas and how to avoid them
- How and where to find the right agents to query
Testimonials
I received 11 requests and an offer of rep last week! Thanks for your edits and being a part of the querying process. I appreciate it so much.
—Brian Z., YA Author
Working with Blair was great all around. She suggested various ways in which I could improve my query letter, several of which had not occurred to me over several rounds of looking it over on my own.
—Allie F., Fantasy Author
Meet Your Teacher
Hi, I'm Blair! I'm a published author of five books and a publishing professional with over seven years of editorial experience.
My critically-acclaimed books, including Ordinary Girls, Who's That Girl, and SKULLS!, have received multiple starred reviews and appeared on Best of the Year lists from Publishers Weekly, the American Library Association, and Bank Street Children's Books. As a Senior Editor at Quirk Books, I was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Rising Stars for 2017. I earned my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University, and I also host The Query Show, a podcast all about query letters.
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Hands-on Class Project
The class assignment is a query letter draft template that you'll complete to get a solid working version of your query letter. You'll tease out the individual elements that make your story special, then translate them to "query speak" so that they convey your book and hook the reader. At the end, you'll have a draft query ready to polish up and submit to agents.
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