What Makes Agents Frown?

In a prior blog, I suggested for you imagine that you were an agent. You walked in agent shoes for a moment. You clicked and opened an emailed query submission that generated "WOOHOO" and a BIG smile.
Why? Because the query began on the very first line. No space wasted with date, address, greeting etc., etc., etc., No scrolling required to find the “meat.” There it was, right in front you. The query first paragraph.
But . . . now you sip coffee and scan the first paragraph. "Oh dratz!" The happy smile fades. You realize this writer had learned to format their query instead of learning how to write one.  As you discover with so many of the query letters you read every day, this writer and their work aren't ready for prime time.
Your finger hovers over the delete key for a nano second. Then taps. The query for which you had high hopes one happy moment ago, flies off to delete-ville. You move on. This is a scenario that occurs over and over again because writers haven't quite figured out how to shift from telling to selling. More information about the need for this is on my Query Page.

Thanks for dropping by. Write on!

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