A query letter should be so good that it is fit to occupy the back cover of a book. That is the ideal scenario from everyone’s point of view. This is the single most important few words an author can write, aside from their book, and these words are also the hardest. How to encapsulate an entire novel in three paragraphs?

Not easy. Ok, so I didn’t need a query letter for Shadow Over Avalon, but I still needed a blurb, which is the same thing. Yes, I will admit there were dry runs behind the scenes. I came up with one, not my first attempt, that fitted the bill, or almost. My publishers tweaked it just a little to reduce the wordage to fit the back of the book. Loved it. I now have what I consider to be a wicked blurb.

Note, this comes after countless hours spent in workshops trying to perfect a query. This is not the result of getting lucky the first time. It comes with work. It also helps to have publishers who know how to tweak something to make it fit the space available in the very best way.