Query Letter
Checker
Know before you send.
Score your query letter against 25 criteria literary agents use to evaluate any book submission: fiction, memoir, nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, and more. Automatic text analysis plus a manual checklist using no AI. Complete picture, no guesswork.
A query letter is the first thing a literary agent reads. It is also, for most writers, the hardest thing to write. You have spent years on a manuscript. You have 250 words to sell it.
This tool scores your query letter against 25 criteria drawn from agent interviews, submission guidelines, and industry standards. It checks your hook, your comp titles, your word count disclosure, your bio, and your format; These are the same elements agents use to make their first pass decision. It works for any book: literary or commercial fiction, thriller, mystery, memoir, narrative nonfiction, essay collections, and more. Writers in the Boston area utilize the Writers' CLC courses, coaching, and expertise to develop submission-ready queries. This tool helps you find out where yours stands before you hit send.
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Anatomy of a Strong Query Letter
A query letter is a one-page business pitch. Agents process hundreds per week, deviating from the standard format signals inexperience before they've read a single word of your manuscript.
Frequently Asked Questions
250–350 words. One page is the universal standard. Letters that run longer signal a writer who has not done the work of condensing their pitch, which raises questions about the manuscript itself.
Two published books that position your manuscript in the market. They should be published within the last 3–5 years, be in the same genre, and be recognizable to agents without being so enormous (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games) that the comparison seems unrealistic.
Focus on what makes you the right person to write this specific book. Relevant professional background, lived experience, research credentials, or community standing in the subject matter. Do not list hobbies, family details, or your day job unless it directly informs the manuscript.
No. It is assumed. Agents know writers query widely. Mentioning it unsolicited wastes space and signals inexperience with industry norms. The only exception is if an agent's submission guidelines specifically request disclosure.
The most common reasons: the letter is too long, the hook doesn't establish stakes, genre or word count is missing, there are no comp titles, the bio is irrelevant, or there are errors. Many rejections have nothing to do with manuscript quality.
Rounds of 10–15 at a time. This lets you refine your letter if the first round generates no requests. Track every submission in a spreadsheet. The average successful query process takes 6–18 months and hundreds of submissions.
Everything runs in your browser. When you paste your work, it never leaves your device. We do not store, log, transmit, or read your writing. You own it completely, before and after you use this tool.
This tool uses rule-based pattern matching and established craft criteria, not a language model. That means the feedback is transparent, consistent, and based on principles you can look up and verify. If it flags something, you can see exactly why.
The criteria behind this tool is drawn from agent interviews, submission guidelines, and industry standards. Additionally, the Writers' CLC experts contributed to the criteria development.
These tools identify patterns. They do not make creative decisions. A flag is a prompt to look at a sentence more carefully, not a mandate to change it. The best use of any diagnostic tool is to notice patterns, then apply your own judgment about what serves the work.
