The cover letter accompanies your proposal to an agent or editor. It is not so much a pitch, as it is a reminder of who you are and why you are sending your proposal. The same rules apply to the cover letter as far a likes and dislikes. At this point, the agent or editor has asked you to send them something, so keep it simple and don’t give more information than you need to.
The first example is a cover letter I wrote for an agent who requested my first three chapters. It’s a bit long, but it worked for me. A month later, she requested the full.
April 11, 2007
Mary Mary Quite Contrary
Mother Goose Literary Agency
555 Toadstool Way, Suite 100
Happily Ever After, CA 90000
Dear Ms. Contrary:
I enjoyed meeting with you at Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference. I appreciate your willingness to review my proposal for The New Recruit, a young adult novel of approximately 80,000 words.
The New Recruit pits the powers of darkness against undercover agents working for God. Teens love action and adventure and have eaten up similar spy projects such as; Anthony Horowitz’s Alex rider Series, Frank Peretti’s Veritas Project, MGM’s Agent Cody Banks, and Miramax’s Spy Kids.
When two strangers appear on his front porch, Spencer Garmond is certain that his Grandma Alice is sending him to military school for getting into too many fights. The men are Christian spies, however, who have come to recruit Spencer into their organization. He wants nothing to do with them, but Grandma Alice insists he accept his call to be a spy or enjoy life at military school.
Spencer travels to Moscow with other agents-in-training and stumbles onto a mysterious case. A local runaway betrayed the field office by selling information to a suspicious woman. When Spencer discovers the woman plans to infiltrate the field office database, he must stop her from exposing the secrets of his counter-cult organization.
My husband and I have worked with teens in the youth pastor role for eight years. I also run a website and critique group for teen authors. I participate in two online critique groups, Kingdom Writers and Christian YA Writers and Readers, both of which have extensively critiqued my manuscript. My work for teens has appeared in Brio, Brio & Beyond, Shine Brightly, and Devo’Zine.
Thank you for considering The New Recruit. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Jill Williamson
Now that i had a request for the full manuscript, I sent a much shorter cover letter. The agent did not need such a long reminder of who I was this time.
June 6, 2007
Mary Mary Quite Contrary
Mother Goose Literary Agency
555 Toadstool Way, Suite 100
Happily Ever After, CA 90000
Dear Ms. Contrary:
Thanks for your interest in The New Recruit. I’ve enclosed the full manuscript for your review. Should you be interested, I can provide you with a marketing and series proposal.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Jill Williamson
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