Episode 37: Interview with Jeff Kleinman – Query Letter Critiques (Part 2)

by Gabriela Pereira
published in Podcast

Hello and welcome to another episode of DIY MFA Radio! This is Part 2 of my interview with Literary Agent Jeff Kleinman, a founding partner of Folio Literary Management, and my awesome agent.

In this episode, Jeff and I will look at two more query letters and break them down line-by-line so you’ll see exactly what works, and what needs improvement. If you missed the first episode in this series, you can check it out here.

In this episode, Jeff and I talk about:

  • Query do’s and don’t’s.
  • How to ensure that your query gets read.
  • Why a strong platform is important.

As I mentioned with Part 1 of this series, one of the things I love about Jeff’s advice is that he approaches the query letter without a set “formula.” Remember: the only “best practice” when it comes to query letters is to write a great book and get the agent to read past the query and look at your pages. In other words, the best practice is the one that works for you.

Also, while A lot of Jeff’s advice can be applied universally, every agent has a different idea of what is important to them and what makes a good query. Make sure you know who you’re pitching and what they’re looking for. Submission guidelines are super important.

Listen in while Jeff critiques some more query letters for us!

You can follow along on the critiques by clicking these links and downloading a PDF of the queries we discussed.

“Books we read because we fall in lovewith the characters.” –Jeff Kleinman

Link to Episode 37

(Right-click to download.)

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

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