Writer’s Digest recently re-ran an article that originally appeared in 1921 about the importance of a good, strong opening. While this piece is primarily about fiction, the advice is just as relevant to the opening lines of a query letter or book proposal today! Check it out, here: https://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/vintage-wd-opening-paragraph-the-first-hundred-words-are-the-hardest
The article references how often theatre critics will leave after the first act ready to write a review. Nowadays, I imagine the equivalent is how often I’ll exit a new show or movie on one of my streaming platforms just after a few minutes. If it can’t hold my attention, if it moves too slowly, or if it can’t make me care about what is happening in the first few moments, I will not waste my time committing to any more of it. *click*
The same holds true for query letters. When you’re receiving hundreds of letters a week (I believe we averaged around 300 unsolicited queries a week at the agency last time I counted), you better believe a great opener is one of the few things that prevents a query from being trashed. I know, I know, many queries get deleted or returned in their SASEs, too. But truthfully, if that first paragraph couldn’t get me to care enough to read the next few paragraphs, or better yet, get me to request a proposal or the first 50 pages of a manuscript to review, I didn’t waste my time on it.
There was no room for a MAYBE pile. It was always a clear YES or a clear NO. If it didn’t shout YES, then it was automatically a NO.
This is why a strong pitch, incorporated into your query and/or your proposal is so, so important. You need to be able to convey what’s so great about you, your story, and why anyone besides you should care. You can do this by creating intrigue. You can do this by appealing to the reader’s sense of self or sense of humanity. You can even do this by name-dropping. I fully admit to stopping anything I was doing when a CEO of a major company sent in a query to our slush pile wanting to write a business book.
The key is being able to take a step back from your work and honestly evaluate its strengths. Once you can identify those, you can create the perfect pitch, and the perfect opening lines.
When those first few moments turn out to be magic ones? Well, then look out! Because magic spreads like wildfire.