What not to do when you query

Colleen Lindsay, who you may have met through an earlier post, and who is the newest literary agent to join FinePrint Literary Management, has been providing a fun rundown of her first few weeks of being an agent, including the number of queries she's received (massive amounts) and some of the other surprises along the way.

Recently she was asked by a fellow agent to sort through their 500-piece pile of mail while that person was out sick. After eight hours of letter-opening, she now has several tidbits of wisdom to pass on to us on what not to do when sending a query letter.

At the top of the list is:

• Naked photos of yourself will not distract the agent into thinking that your writing is better than it actually is.
• Do try to have a passing familiarity with the English language.
• Using the phrase "This is not representative of my best work" in the query letter will probably not help your cause.
  

Check out the rest on her blog.

I see that smile.