Most rejections land before anyone reaches page two. Not because the prose fails, but because the covering letter around it gave the agent no reason to keep reading. In the UK, where most agencies work from a short emailed pitch and a sample, the query letter does a narrow, practical job: it tells a busy reader what the book is, who it is for, and why you are the person to write it. Get those things across in a page and you have done your part. Here is how to build that page, paragraph by paragraph.

Do the research before you write a word

Every agency publishes submission guidelines, and they are not decoration. One wants three chapters pasted into the email; another wants a synopsis and the first ten pages as a single attachment; a third wants a form on its website. Ignoring the instructions is the quickest way to be declined without a read.

Find a named agent who represents your kind of book. Agency websites list who handles what, and many agents post about the work they are looking for. Address the letter to that person and get the spelling right. A letter beginning "Dear Sir/Madam" tells an agent you have not checked who they are.

Paragraph one: the hook

Open with the facts an agent needs in a single line — title, category, word count — then earn their attention.

Example: Ragged Water is a 92,000-word work of upmarket commercial fiction. When a Hull trawler skipper inherits her father's failing ice factory, she has one season to keep it open and one rival who wants it gone.

That is the shape to copy: a character, a situation, a problem. Vague atmosphere will not do it. Neither will rhetorical questions ("What if your past came back to haunt you?") or grand claims ("This novel will appeal to every reader of literary fiction"). Both are common, and both read as filler.

Paragraph two: the story, briefly

Give the agent 100 to 150 words of story. Name two or three characters at most, describe the central conflict and what it costs the protagonist, and signal where the book is heading. You do not have to give away the final twist, but you cannot hide the premise. A pitch that keeps its central idea secret gives the agent nothing to judge.

Keep subplots out. Keep theme out unless the theme is the conflict. If you can read your paragraph aloud and hear a description of a book that already exists, rather than a book you hope exists, it is doing its job.

If you are writing non-fiction

Replace the story paragraph with the argument. What is the gap, what will the reader know or be able to do by the last page, and why are you the person to write it? Add a short chapter outline only if the guidelines ask for one.

Paragraph three: the bio

Three or four sentences. Lead with anything that proves you can write and finish: publication credits in journals, magazines or anthologies, a previous book, relevant professional experience. A paramedic writing a medical thriller, a former teacher writing for young adults, an estate agent writing about the housing market — all worth a line.

If you have no credits, do not apologise and do not pad. Say what is true: this is your first novel, you have completed and revised it, and you have had feedback from a writers' group or a developmental editor. Then move on. Agents take on debut writers constantly; a missing bio is not a missing book.

For non-fiction, add platform: the audience you already reach, the newsletter, the podcast, the professional body. Numbers help, but only if they are real.

Comparison titles that actually help

Two recent titles, ideally published within the last few years, that sit alongside your book on a bookshop shelf. The point is positioning, not ambition. A comparison tells the agent which shelf your book belongs on and which readers will pick it up.

Use the formula "for readers of X and Y", or "X meets Y" if the blend is genuinely descriptive. A cosy crime set in a Highland hotel might be pitched for readers of Richard Osman and Janice Hallett, with a note on what your book adds to that shelf.

Avoid mega-bestsellers of the last twenty years, which every agent has seen compared a thousand times. Avoid classics. Comparisons that show you read current books, in your own genre, do far more work than comparisons that flatter you.

UK submission etiquette

The practical details matter as much as the prose. Work through this list before you send anything:

• Read the guidelines twice. Note word limits, sample length, attachment rules and the stated response time.
• Send to one named agent per agency, unless the agency says otherwise.
• Keep the letter to roughly one page, around 250 to 350 words.
• Use a clear subject line: the word "Query" or "Submission", your title, genre and word count.
• Paste the opening pages below your letter if that is what is asked; attach a .docx if the guidelines specify it. Not both.
• Simultaneous submissions are standard in the UK. You do not need to announce it, but keep a record of who has what, and when.
• If an agent asks for exclusivity, respect it, and ask how long they need.
• Wait the stated response time before following up. If none is given, three months is a reasonable point to send one polite nudge.
• Never phone, and do not pitch by social media unless an agent has invited it.

Before you hit send

Read the letter aloud. Check the agent's name, your book's title, the word count and the genre — those four details are where mistakes hide. Ask someone who reads your genre to tell you what they think the book is about, then compare that with what your letter says. If the two do not match, you know which one to fix.

Then send it, log it with the date, and start the next piece of writing. Agents are readers with full lists and limited time; a rejection usually means the book was not right for them on the day, not that it is unpublishable. The writers who get signed tend to be the ones who kept sending careful letters and kept writing new books.

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