QUESTION: How Do You Know If Your Query Is Any Good?

From a great blog:

Jane Friedman: There Are No Rules

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2010/07/31/CompellingQueriesShouldGet75PositiveResponseIfNotReviseQuery.aspx

ANSWER: Follow the 75% Rule of Marcus Sakey

Key points:

The query letter and novel are two separate things. In fact, they are so separate that it's not even necessary for you to have written a novel to write a fantastic and compelling query letter.

A query letter seduces the agent. Your are showing an agent you know how to tell a story.

The query should be brief and simplistic in terms of representing your novel. (The story hook should be kept to about a paragraph.)

Refer to your protagonist's name specifically, but try to frame everyone else in general unnamed roles.

Sakey said you should send the query out to agents in small batches, maybe 5 at a time, and see what your response rate is. If it's less than 75% "send me something," your query letter needs work.

Other Tips on Getting Published

• You have to finish the book and put it aside for a while. A month is a good starting place. Then you read the whole thing in 1 sitting. Really mark it up. Then give it out to people. If you keep it to yourself, you're keeping a journal. When you get feedback, don't look at specific suggestions; you will find that they vary. Look for patterns: if four people say the same thing, it's broken.
• Any book that goes much beyond the 6-figure word count is not marketable. Don't get beyond 120,000 for sure. (Joke made: There aren't enough electrons for the e-books if you get to 130,000 words. Ha!)
• Every scene/conversation/line needs to progress the plot or the character.Look closely at your really fabulous paragraphs ("the really freakin' gorgeous ones"). Copy that gorgeous stuff into another file, and you can always go back and remind yourself of your genius. But never use it.
• When e-querying, add the first page of manuscript at the bottom of the e-mail. (Don't attach it.) Of course, it better be a compelling first page. (And it should be a compelling first page no matter what.) Even though this is not a standard approach, if your letter was brief and professional, the agent will think, "Hey, what the hell."
• Treat querying and submitting (and publishing) like a business, and give it the respect and professionalism it requires if you want to get an agent or editor. Prove your case. You do not have a birth right to have your book published, even if it's brilliant. Writing is all about art. But once you start selling that, your writing is all about business. Anyone beyond you in the food chain looks at it like a business. So you're a salesperson. Do your job. (Nothing kills a good product like bad marketing.)
• Keep the submission process going and—very important—then start your next project. You don't make your writing life about the submission process.