Query Letters: Your Word Count

I wanted to address a small issue about the query letters I’ve been seeing lately.  Of the submissions I’ve read, I’d say word count gets left out of the query letter at least half the time. 

Word Count is not a superfluous detail, gang, it is a completely necessary element of the query letter.  Your word count enables the editor or agent visualize the book in terms of length and product specs.   It also allows them to determine whether what you are proposing is right for the market.  It is not worth their time to request the full manuscript if your manuscript is a work that is going to require a lot of time to cut it down to a more appropriate word count, or if the author needs to add a significant chunk of writing to bulk it up.  

And unless your hook has really stunned someone (which don’t bet on), it’s not usually worth the time to contact you back to find out.  Not when there are a cart full of submissions waiting to be read that might work just as well.

So add it to your final checklist, and take the time to go over those little details.  And speaking of little details, add this to your checklist too:

- Name & Address should be spelled correctly every place that they appear