Class Description
In this six-hour seminar, we'll learn how to write a query letter—the crucial component for submitting your work to agents and editors, be it a book-length novel, memoir, or work of nonfiction, or a short form article, personal essay, feature story, or op-ed for a newspaper or magazine. By examining the style and craft components of sample letters that actually worked, we'll break down the query's structure and go over different strategies for describing your project with catchy, sharp, focused, and original language. We'll look at how to customize your query to appeal to a specific editor or agent, and do exercises to help you fine-tune your query-letter writing skills. By the end of the seminar, you’ll have written the key elements and a draft of a query letter, which we’ll workshop in class for on-the-spot feedback. We'll also discuss any questions you have about etiquette and protocol in communicating with editors and agents. Bring to class a 100 word synopsis or summary of your book project (written similarly to what you'd see on a book jacket), or a 100 word description of your idea for an article/personal essay/feature story/op-ed. Also, bring a laptop or tablet device for in-class writing. (NOTE: This seminar is NOT about submitting poems, short stories, or literary nonfiction to literary magazines, or submitting screenplays or plays to agents and production companies.)
Part of GrubStreet's "Get Published" series, dedicated to helping writers navigate the publishing world. For more on this series' offerings, click here
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.