Query letter question

If you want! Just put it in your bio bit after the actual query letter. Style/story first, personal information after.

Unless your book is about a librarian, don't mention it. It's irrelevant to the ability to write a great book. Only mention facts that are relevant to writing. If you don't have any writing credits, don't worry about it. Agents love finding first-time writers to introduce.

Terie said:

Unless your book is about a librarian, don't mention it. It's irrelevant to the ability to write a great book. Only mention facts that are relevant to writing. If you don't have any writing credits, don't worry about it. Agents love finding first-time writers to introduce.

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this. every last bit of it.

Thanks for asking this - I was wondering about it myself.

I don't think it could hurt to mention it. But put it at the very end of the query, keep it short and tie it in to the book/make it humorous. Kind of "MY BOOK is a 75K-word romantic suspense. While I'm a reference librarian at XXX, I've yet to catch a murderer but I'm a stickler for no gum chewing. (yanno or something much better than that )

It's not going to hurt, though it won't necessarily help. There are some exceptions to the "don't mention if it's not relevant" rule, though I think that's generally if you work in publishing. I used to put that I was an editorial assistant in my query letters on the recommendation of my writing instructor at the time, who's also a published YA author, and it would occasionally get referenced in replies. I stopped mentioning it in my current queries because I'm no longer an EA, and I spoke to an agent on the phone this week who seemed surprised I hadn't included it when it came up. In that case, I think they want to know that you have an understanding of the publishing business (and that you're likely to be turning in a pretty clean manuscript). Mentioning that you're a librarian won't necessarily have the same effect, but like I said, can't hurt to mention it. I might even potentially get into agents' minds that you have an idea of what books are out there and what their audiences are like.

narmowen said:

And I've read to mention it because of a built-in audience?

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there was a part in Dinner for Schmucks where someone said "wow, you could sell, literally, dozens of those."

It was a snide cut on the market. The "librarian" market is similarly deep.



Look, the bottom line is every third day someone asks "can I put this in as a credit?" here, and I'm not a "use the damn search button" nazi, but I think folks are so desperate to show they have a qualification, they will try spinning anything out of thin air. It is OK not to have some unique qualification...really, it is. Hundreds of debut novels come out every year, the bulk of which are not written by elves, genteel professors who race against time to save us all from alien invasions foretold in Mayan scrolls, hit men, or psychologists specializing in autism.

At the same time, agents see a shit-ton of "no, really, here's why I'm special"....most probably learn to ignore it. A few probably learn to hate it. So, if it isn't gonna help with the many, why risk the few?

Just write well enough they want your debut.