Sample Query Letter

Sample Query Letter

February 2, 2004



250 Washington Avenue
Portland, Maine 04112
[phone]
[e-mail]


Ms. Elvira Buchs
Editor-in-Chief
Bestselling Books, Inc.
680 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Dear Ms. Buchs:

I'd like to submit GREENBACKS, a mainstream thriller in the John Grisham tradition. Here's the novel's premise:

Sarah Lee, a junior auditor in New York's Federal Reserve Bank, discovers that an embezzler has stolen millions by playing accounting tricks with the Susan B. Anthony dollars in the Fed's vaults. When she reports the discovery to her boss, she is warned not to meddle in affairs that are outside of her jurisdiction.

Sarah refuses to back off. With the help of her lover, a one-time computer hacker, she uncovers a plot to divert funds into the campaign war chest of a neo-Nazi Presidential candidate. Sarah is then forced to go underground, gathering evidence to document a conspiracy at the highest levels of the U.S. Treasury and the Wall Street establishment while Secret Service agents and corporate security officials make repeated attempts on her life.

My credentials for writing this book include:

An accounting degree, with a minor in creative writing.
A summer internship in a Federal Reserve Bank.
Three years as a bank auditor.
Articles for Independent Banker and CPA Journal.
Fiction reviews for my local newspaper, the Sawbuck Times-Dealer.
Attendance at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, where my manuscripts earned compliments from Salman Rushdie and Jackie Collins.
To see this 90,000-word manuscript, please check "YES!" below and return this letter in the enclosed reply envelope.

Sincerely,



Delores Wentworth


[ ] YES! I'd like to see GREENBACKS.
[ ] No, but thanks for asking.
[ ] Please query _______________________ at my firm and say that Elvira Buchs sent you.


Enclosure:
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