The Querying Playbook

Traditional publishing is famously opaque. It has its own language, customs, policies and procedures, and there is no one resource aspiring authors can turn to for help.

Enter: The Querying Playbook.

The Querying Playbook is a practical, no-nonsense guide to navigating the querying process — from working out what the heck a query letter actually needs to do, to researching agents and finally pressing SEND.

Written by fiction editor and publishing professional Lauren McCormack, the Playbook takes you through the complete query package step by step. You’ll learn how to position your manuscript, choose comparison titles that actually tell an agent something, turn your novel into a compelling pitch, write a synopsis without losing the will to live, and avoid the vague language and common mistakes that can bury a brilliant story.

Inside, you’ll find a publishing language glossary, real-world explanations, practical exercises and complete fictional query and synopsis examples designed to show you not only what works, but why it works.

We’ll cover everything from personalisation, housekeeping, genre and word count to protagonist goals, conflict, escalation and stakes — before taking you beyond the letter itself with guidance on finding suitable literary agents, following submission guidelines, tracking your queries, handling requests and surviving the inevitable rejections along the way.