A query letter for a nonfiction book isn’t all that different from a fiction query: you’re still trying to get an agent or editor interested in looking at your work, but that may mean a book proposal and sample chapters, rather than the full manuscript. (Nonfiction is often sold on the basis of a proposal.)

Unfortunately, there’s a bit of complication when querying a nonfiction project; it’s not as straightforward and formula-driven as querying a novel. With a novel, you’re always trying to craft the perfect hook that encapsulates the essence of your protagonist and the conflict—and it doesn’t matter what type of novel it is. All novels are narratives with character, plot, setting, conflict, and resolutions (of some kind).

With nonfiction, you may be pitching:

… and so on.

There isn’t a single formula that can cover all these categories or types of books. But for our purposes, to provide some kind of roadmap, we’ll split up nonfiction queries into two types:

  1. Narrative-driven nonfiction (including memoir, biography, and narrative nonfiction)
  2. Prescriptive nonfiction (information driven or benefit oriented); this also is the best approach for most illustrated books unless it’s like a graphic novel

Before you begin the query process

You should have a finished and polished book proposal ready to go, which should include at least one sample chapter, if not more. ******It should be the best you can make it.

It’s also important that you give some thought to your author platform, or your ability to market and promote the book to an existing audience you can reach, without the publisher’s help, through online or offline activities. Your query and book proposal not only have to present an effective argument for why your book should exist, but also should reflect your authority and platform as a book author. (This is not the case for novelists.)

The appropriate length for a nonfiction query is somewhere around 300 to 700 words. Usually the shorter, the better. If you can send the book proposal along with the query, you should. In such cases, the query really ends up being a cover letter and doesn’t have to be labored over that much. (The good news: just about every agent/editor will flip through a book proposal if it’s in front of them.)