Query Letters
Query letters are the gate between a finished manuscript and a literary agent willing to represent it, and the gate is narrow. An agent at a major agency might get a thousand queries a month and sign two new clients a year. The query is the half-page of cover-letter text where you try to be one of the two. Most queries fail — not because the book is bad, but because the query itself is weak, poorly targeted, or doesn’t match what that specific agent is actually looking for at that specific time. The Query Letters subtab is Ishvana’s attempt to make the query process feel less like a numbers game and more like a series of individually-targeted pitches. Not because a model can write better queries than a good human writer, but because the mechanics of managing 30-50 agent submissions — each with its own personalization, its own requirements, its own response deadline — are soul-crushing when you do them in a spreadsheet.
The subtab handles three concerns: drafting the query itself, personalizing it per agent, and tracking submission status across your whole query round. It’s specifically for fiction authors pursuing traditional publishing. If you’re going indie, this subtab is not for you — you can hide it in the sidebar or ignore it.
The anatomy of a query letter
Section titled “The anatomy of a query letter”A standard query letter is roughly 300-400 words structured as:
- The hook (1-2 sentences). The high-concept pitch that makes the agent want to read more. Usually the strongest line from the book’s log line or tagline.
- The pitch (3-4 paragraphs). The extended version of the blurb — who the protagonist is, what they want, what’s in the way, what’s at stake.
- The book info (1-2 sentences). Title, word count, genre, comp titles, and whether it’s standalone or part of a series.
- The personal note (1-2 sentences). Why you’re querying this specific agent — often pulled from their Manuscript Wishlist (MSWL) or their previous sales.
- The author bio (1-2 sentences). A short credential or personal note. Don’t overdo it.
- The closing (1 sentence). “Thank you for your consideration.”
The query draft editor in the subtab has slots for each of these sections, with character count guidance and content suggestions. You can draft from scratch, pull the hook from your Copywriting taglines, or have Hawken generate a first pass based on your manuscript and Market Intel comp titles.
Per-agent personalization
Section titled “Per-agent personalization”One query letter is not one query letter. You query each agent with a version of your letter that’s personalized to them — specifically, the personal note paragraph — and the rest of the letter stays stable. Getting this right is the difference between “dear agent, I’m querying you because you represent fiction” (obvious form letter, rejected) and “I’m querying you because you represented [specific comp title] and your MSWL mentions [specific interest] that matches my book’s [specific element]” (specific, researched, much higher response rate).
The subtab manages this by storing your master query letter separately from your per-agent variants. The master is the 90% of the letter that doesn’t change between submissions — hook, pitch, book info, bio, closing. The per-agent variants are the personal-note paragraphs, each tied to a specific agent in your submission tracker.
When you submit a query, the subtab assembles the master plus the agent-specific personal note into a final document that you then copy into the agent’s submission form (or email).
Submission tracking
Section titled “Submission tracking”Every query round has a tracker — a list of agents you’ve identified, your submission status for each, the date you submitted, the date you expect a response (based on the agent’s stated response time), and any communication history.
Status values:
- Researched. You’ve identified the agent and their preferences, but haven’t submitted yet.
- Queued. You’ve drafted the per-agent variant and it’s ready to submit.
- Submitted. You’ve sent the query.
- Requested. The agent has requested more material — partial manuscript or full manuscript.
- Offered. The agent has offered representation. (Celebration phase.)
- Rejected. The query was declined.
- No response. The expected response window has passed without reply; you may consider this a soft rejection or follow up.
The tracker’s most useful view is the “pending response” list — every agent you’ve submitted to who hasn’t responded yet, sorted by expected-response date. When the expected date passes, the agent’s entry flips to “no response” status and you can decide whether to follow up, assume soft rejection, or let it go.
Managing the round
Section titled “Managing the round”Most authors query in rounds — a batch of 10-15 agents submitted within a short window, followed by a pause to evaluate responses before sending the next round. The rationale is that if your query is getting zero responses in the first round, you should revise the query before burning through your remaining top-tier agent list.
The subtab supports rounds explicitly. You create Round 1, add agents to it, submit, wait, and evaluate. If Round 1 goes poorly (say, zero requests from 15 queries), the subtab prompts you to reconsider the query before Round 2. If Round 1 goes well (three requests from 15), you can move forward to Round 2 with confidence.
The round structure matters because without it, authors tend to either spray queries too fast (burning through their whole list before getting feedback) or stall out after a few rejections (not sending enough queries to actually reach agents). Rounds force a structured cadence.
Comp titles
Section titled “Comp titles”Every query letter needs two or three comp titles — books that are similar enough to yours that the agent can place your work on the right mental shelf. Good comp titles are recent (within 3-5 years), commercially successful (not niche indie titles), and actually similar to your book in tone or structure.
Comp titles live in Market Intel because they’re not query-specific — they’re positioning-wide. The subtab pulls your comp title list from Market Intel when drafting query letters. If you update the comp titles in Market Intel, future query drafts use the updated list.
The most common query mistake is picking comp titles that are too big (“my book is the next Harry Potter”), too niche (“my book is like this self-published fanfic with 12 reviews”), or too old (“my book is the next Lord of the Rings”). The subtab doesn’t catch all three mistakes — it can’t tell you that Harry Potter is too big to comp — but it does flag comp titles that are older than five years or have very low sales data, which catches the out-of-date and the niche cases.
What the subtab doesn’t do
Section titled “What the subtab doesn’t do”A few things deliberately out of scope:
- It doesn’t submit for you. Every agent has their own submission system (QueryManager, email, Submittable, specific web forms). The subtab doesn’t integrate with any of them. You copy your query from Ishvana and submit through the agent’s own preferred method.
- It doesn’t research agents for you. The subtab tracks the agents you’ve identified, but it doesn’t find new agents. For agent research, use Query Tracker, Manuscript Wish List, or Publishers Marketplace. The subtab stores the agent data after you’ve found them.
- It doesn’t grade your query. Hawken can generate a draft and you can iterate on it, but there’s no “your query has a 73% chance of success” score. Nobody can give you that honestly. The only real feedback is actually submitting and seeing what happens.
- It doesn’t handle contract work. If an agent offers representation, the negotiation and contract review are handled elsewhere (and usually with a lawyer). The subtab tracks the offer as a status; the rest is outside its scope.