How do you get your amazing book published? First, you must captivate and persuade an agent to read your manuscript. The query letter is the correct and professional way to do this. But getting past the intern, who screens all incoming submissions, is the first hurdle to jump. First pages are essential, but they’ll get deleted if you don’t write a fascinating and unique query letter. Trust me, as I was once a literary agent’s intern and sadly deleted thousands.

In this class, we will discuss the important components of the query letter (including the book’s premise, hook, finale, and what not to reveal), what an intern reads of your submission, and how they decide to either forward yours to the agent or delete it, understand the do’s and don’ts of the query process, touch on social media and what you should do before you submit, and share, write, and/or rewrite a query letter for querying. 

Angie Azur is a writer and artist living in Asheville, NC. She has seventeen years in the print and media industry as a content contributor, writer, editor, and magazine co-owner of Paleo Magazine. Before that, she interned for the Andrea Brown Literary Agency in San Francisco. Currently, she is in a Ph.D. program studying symbolism and the ways people heal through stories. Her studies have taken her around the world, meeting tribal storytellers, doctors, shamans, and professors. She is currently revising a stand-alone Middle-Grade novel. She’s been a member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) since 2005 and has taught writing classes for adults and children at conferences. Her blog, Teazurs.blogspot.com, contains interviews with fellow writers, agents, publishers, and illustrators, as well as helpful hints for writers in all genres.