Query letter writing isn’t easy. Last week on the blog I spoke about some of the things you should include in a query letter. So today, I thought it’d be neat to write about some of the things you shouldn’t include in a query letter.

Remember, the letter should be a product of your own, and different things will suit different writers and different agents and different stories. But this is some general advice I’ve learned at writing events and through agent interviews and articles.

Dear Sir/Madam…
Really? This will be the biggest query letter mistake you ever make. Sending out several queries at one time? That’s okay. Sending out the exact same query to a number of agencies/publishers? Not okay. You need to know who you’re writing to, and if your query is not addressed personally, by name, to that person, you will put them off at once…