Last November I offered free query letter evaluations to members of the (former) Query Club in return for using their queries as teaching tools. Having never made this type of offer to a large group of writers, I was totally unprepared for the responses. Dozens and dozens of query letters flew into my email, reminding me of the pressure agents face every day.

It's daunting to discover an incredibly long list of queries, waiting to be read. Although the stories and projects described were diverse and fascinating, reading them required hours of time.

Welcome to AgentWorld. Every week agents read dozens, or hundreds of queries, hoping to find the next best-selling author. Small wonder they read just the first few lines, and not every line of every query. They don’t have time. (It’s rumored that some agents have lives outside of the business. They actually spend time with their kids, significant others, bowling buddies, etc.)

So, keep in mind the pressure to read to queries that agents live with every day. Do yourself (and them) a favor and write a query that helps them make a quick decision based on your fabulous writing skills and saleable manuscript.