Query Clinic Week: The Espressologist Query Letter

Tip of the Day: I'm hanging out in Springfield, IL, at the Illinois Reading Council Conference for the next few days as a feature speaker. Are you there too? Here's my schedule. Find me and say hi!


I'm going to share my query letter for The Espressologist since it was my most successful one. A little background here: I started querying in early February of 2007, had lots of requests for partials and fulls, and had two offers of agent representation in April. I signed with an agent and in May had an auction with four large publishers, resulting in a two book deal.


Here it is:

Dear Ms. ______:

The Espressologist is In

 Fridays 6-10 p.m.

 Come in for a little latte and love. 

That’s the sign outside of a local Chicago Wired Joe's every Friday night when jerky boss Derek Peters finds out about 17-year old barista (and high school senior) Jane Turner’s unique talent to match couples based on their favorite coffee drink (which she calls Espressology). He decides to capitalize on it—turning Jane into the holiday promotion for the month of December. She’s never been wrong, sales are through the roof, and the line of people each Espressology night wraps the block. But can it be too much of a good thing? During an interview with a national talk show at the height of Jane’s fame, she is faced with a dilemma: lose her love or lose her credibility? Or possibly lose it all, including her best friend.

Light and a lot of fun, my young adult novel, “The Espressologist is In” is complete at 42,000 words.

In addition to my love for writing fiction (specifically YA), I am also a freelance writer and writing instructor at DePaul University in Chicago, IL.  I received my Master of Arts in Writing from DePaul and I’ve written for Writer’s Digest magazine as well a number of Web sites (including AbsoluteWrite.com, Writing-World.com, pregnancyandbaby.com, sheknows.com, CoolChyck.com, and a weekly ‘Net Love column for the former Relationship101.com for over a year).

I came across your name in my search for an agent with experience in the young adult market and I feel that you would do a great job representing my novel. Would you be interested in seeing a full manuscript?

Sincerely,

Kristina Springer

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Kristina, Miss Author in Action