When Query Letters Don't Say Enough

I really hate posts on query letters since so many other agents do posts on these so often, but this topic really needs to be addressed.

I know we tell you to keep your query letters short and to the point, but there still needs to be substance in the query.

Over the weekend, I had a ton of queries with nothing going on in them. These authors spent hours crafting words and phrases that said absolutely nothing. There is no sense of the genre, the plot, the word count (and yes, in some cases) the title.

The deal is this. We have a ton of submissions coming in all of the time. For me alone, I just logged manuscript number 1,257 in the data base (and that is just romance and women's fiction). If we get that many submissions, taking the time to ask you to send us more just so we can make a decision is not worth it. For those of you not getting a response from an agent, you might want to check what you are sending.

The basics:

1. The Basics - Title, genre, word count
2. The Book - High concept, the character(s) the premise
3. The Bio - Something about your and your writing.

I don't care about the order. I don't care where you put it. Just give us those basics and we can do something with it.

Scott