Before You Query: A Checklist for Novelists

Before querying literary agents, have a complete, revised manuscript, a clear query letter, a synopsis you can adapt to individual requirements, and opening pages ready to submit. Research suitable agents and check each agent's current instructions before sending anything.

This checklist is for adult and young adult fiction. Nonfiction proposals, picture books, and other formats have different requirements. Work through the sections once to prepare your materials, then repeat the final check for each submission.

A checked box records something you have done. It cannot tell you whether an agent will offer representation.

1. Finish the manuscript you are offering

• My novel is complete, including its ending.
• I have revised the full manuscript, not only the opening chapters.
• I have addressed the story problems I can already identify.
• My current file is clean, readable, and ready to send if requested.

Have your complete, revised manuscript ready before you begin querying. If an agent requests the full manuscript, you should be able to send the book described in your query.

Check whether later developments follow from earlier decisions, relationships change on the page, and the ending resolves the central story.

If you have received feedback, identify what you changed and why. You do not need to accept every suggestion. If you have had no outside response, decide which uncertainties another reader could help you examine. Paying for an edit or assessment is not a requirement for querying.

2. Describe where the book belongs

• I can identify the intended age category: adult or YA.
• I can name the main genre and explain any important crossover elements.
• My query gives the manuscript's current word count.
• I can explain which readers the book is for, using relevant comparison titles where appropriate.

Separate audience from subject matter. A teenage character alone does not establish a YA readership. Consider the perspective, concerns, and reading experience of the whole novel.

For comparison titles, name the connection you actually mean: narrative voice, readership, atmosphere, structure, or a particular genre experience. Read the books you are considering. Two titles that share your setting may promise very different stories.

Do not describe the manuscript as every genre it touches. Choose the clearest starting category for an agent researching and selling a book like yours. If you are unsure, compare its central story and intended audience with books being published in the categories you are considering.

3. Make the query work without an explanation

• The letter identifies the book and gives a focused account of its central story.
• The pitch makes the important conflict and consequences understandable.
• The details communicate what is distinctive about this novel.
• Someone unfamiliar with the manuscript can follow the pitch without extra context from me.
• My brief biography is accurate; I have not invented credentials or endorsements.

Ask a fresh reader what they think the book is about and what makes them want to read further. Listen before explaining. If they miss a crucial connection, revise the letter so that connection is on the page.

Clarity is one test. Interest is another. A pitch can accurately summarize events while giving little sense of the voice, tension, relationship, or premise that makes those events worth reading.

Keep a master query and save a separate copy of what you actually send. Personalization should reflect a real reason for approaching that agent, without turning the letter into a summary of their career.

4. Prepare a separate synopsis

• My synopsis covers the main story through its ending.
• It explains the important choices, turns, and consequences in a sequence a new reader can follow.
• I can adapt its length to the agent's stated requirements.

The query creates interest in reading the novel. A synopsis explains how the story develops and resolves, including the ending.

Keep the principal storyline visible. A list of every scene, minor character, and subplot can make the book harder to understand. Check the requested length and format before submitting; agencies do not all ask for the same package.

5. Check the opening as submitted

• The sample begins where the novel begins and follows the requested page, chapter, or word limit.
• I have read that exact sample separately from the rest of the manuscript.
• The opening gives a new reader enough grounding to follow it and a reason to continue.
• The sample and query present the same book, with compatible expectations about tone and genre.

Read to the submission cutoff. What does a reader know at that point? What matters to the character? What remains interestingly unresolved, and what is simply confusing?

A promising event in a later chapter cannot do the work of the pages being submitted now. At the same time, an opening does not need a chase or a disaster to hold attention. Notice what makes this particular story move.

6. Build a researched agent list

• Each prospective agent represents the age category and type of fiction I am submitting.
• I have recorded a concrete reason the book may fit their interests or experience.
• I have checked the agent's current agency and official submission route.
• I have checked whether they are open and the agency's policy on querying colleagues.

Use QueryTracker, Manuscript Wish List, book acknowledgments, and agency websites to identify possibilities. Publishers Marketplace can add information about reported deals if you choose to subscribe; it is optional.

Then verify the instructions at the source. Both QueryTracker and Manuscript Wish List tell writers to check agents' own websites. An appealing wish-list match does not override a closed submission window.

Related reading: How to research literary agents using QueryTracker, MSWL, and Publishers Marketplace.

7. Set up a record, then check every submission

• I have a place to record the agent, date, materials and version sent, response policy, and outcome.
• I have checked this agent's current submission instructions and policies.
• The greeting, email address or form, subject line, attachments, and pasted text are correct.
• I have saved any confirmation or status link provided.

A spreadsheet or QueryTracker can hold the record. Save enough detail to distinguish an unanswered query from a pass under the agent's stated policy. Do not treat someone else's response time as your deadline.

Choose a manageable group of suitable agents so you can submit carefully and keep track. There is no universal batch size that reveals whether a query works. Reassess when you have useful evidence, such as repeated reader confusion about the pitch, rather than revising every time you receive a form rejection.

Need another perspective on the materials?

When you lack an available reader, Request the Full offers timely, specific AI-powered feedback on the work you provide. Choose the scope that matches your question:

• Query Assessment: feedback on your query, with an optional pitch and first 5,000 words.
• First 15K Assessment: a closer assessment of your opening 15,000 words.
• Beta Reader Assessment: full-manuscript reader-response-style feedback on engagement, characters, confusion, and the ending.

These assessments help you examine the materials. They do not certify that a novel is ready or predict an agent's decision.

Already submitting? Read Querying but getting no requests: what to check.