What Is The Writing Sample

Created by Eric Sorrells, Modified on Sat, 24 Jan at 3:23 PM by Eric Sorrells

Agents often ask writers to include writing samples with their queries. When an agent is intrigued by a query letter’s hook, they’ll want to see your unique writing style.


However, some agents request the first chapter. Or two. Or three.


Other agents ask for the first 1,000 words. Or 10,000 words.


And still others might want the first page, the first 50 pages, or anything in between.


That’s a lot of tedious counting—not to mention copy/pasting!


This is where Querier comes in. Enter your writing samples one time, and Querier will calculate the correct writing sample for you (rounded to the nearest paragraph). Whether an agent requests a certain number of chapters, pages, or words, Querier takes away the pain of adding your writing samples and inserting them into the body of your email or attaching them as a file.

 

A few notes:

  1. Do your best with formatting, but don’t worry if you can’t get it exactly right. Online formatting is notoriously difficult, and agents are understanding.

  2. IMPORTANT: Be sure to include headings (e.g., “Chapter One”) at the start of each chapter. Querier uses these headings to correctly format attachments.

To add your writing sample/chapters:

  • Select the project from the sidebar

  • Select “Query Template”

  • Expand the “Add Writing Sample/Chapters” section

  • In the dropdown, select the chapter you want to add

  • Use the “Paste Text” button to add the text to the input field

    • This button removes any formatting that email providers won’t recognize

    • You will need to reapply styling. We know this is tedious, but you only have to do it once, and it helps prevent errors when sending emails

  • IMPORTANT: Add headings (e.g., “Chapter One”)

Was this article helpful?

That’s Great!

Thank you for your feedback

Sorry! We couldn't be helpful

Thank you for your feedback

Let us know how can we improve this article!

Select at least one of the reasons
CAPTCHA verification is required.

Feedback sent

We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article