You have a finished manuscript, a synopsis you can bear to look at, and a list of agents. What you need now is a query letter that gets your pages read. It is a short, practical document — usually between 250 and 350 words — with a job to do rather than a mood to create. UK agents read hundreds of them, so clarity beats cleverness every time. Here is how to build one.

What UK agents want from a query

Agents read submissions looking for answers to three questions. Can I sell this? Is it finished? Is this someone I want to work with for the next few years? A good query letter answers all three without strain.

Most UK agencies now take submissions by email, and most ask for a set amount of sample material pasted into the email or attached as a separate file. Read the guidelines on each agency's website before you write a word. They vary more than you might expect, and they change. If an agency asks for the first three chapters, send the first three chapters — not the scene you happen to like best.

• Genre, category and word count, stated plainly
• A hook in one or two sentences
• A short plot summary that reaches the ending
• One or two recent comparable titles
• A few lines about you and anything relevant you have published
• The sample material requested, in the form requested

The letter, paragraph by paragraph

Opening: say what this is

Dear Ms Okonjo,
I am seeking representation for The Salt Harvest, a 92,000-word work of literary fiction set on the Lincolnshire coast between the wars.

Use the agent's actual surname and spell it correctly. Title, word count and category belong in the first line or two, so the reader knows immediately what they are holding. Choose the category the agent lists on their own website: literary fiction, historical crime, book club fiction, romantasy. A missing word count suggests you have not looked at the genre's conventions.

The hook

When seventeen-year-old Nell discovers her father has sold the family's fishing rights to a man she once trusted, she has one season to prove the boats can still pay — and to decide whether the town that raised her deserves the truth about what she did last winter.

Character, pressure, stakes, in one sentence. Resist rhetorical questions ("What if everything you believed was a lie?") and invitations to imagine ("Imagine a world where…"). They delay the information the agent is waiting for.

The plot summary

As the season turns, Nell takes work on the very boats her father gave away, and finds an ally in the buyer's daughter, a woman with secrets of her own. When the catch fails and the town turns on her family, Nell has to choose between the story that protects them and the one that sets her free.

Two or three sentences in the present tense, keeping the main character in view, and include the ending. This unsettles some writers, but agents need to know the shape of the book before they commit to reading it. Teasing — "you'll have to read it to find out" — reads as amateurish. Keep the emphasis on events rather than themes; "a meditation on grief" tells an agent nothing about what happens.

About you

I grew up in Grimsby and now live in Sheffield. My short fiction has appeared in two literary magazines, and this is my first novel.

Three sentences is plenty. Mention anything genuinely relevant: publications, a creative writing MA, a job that lends authority to your subject, a platform if it is substantial. If you have no credits yet, say what led you to write this book and move on. Never apologise for being unpublished, never list every manuscript in your drawer, and never mention what your family thought of the draft.

The sign-off

The first three chapters are pasted below, as your guidelines request. The full manuscript is available immediately. Thank you for your time.

State what you have included and what you can send next. One or two lines, then your name and contact details. "I look forward to hearing from you" is harmless; "Thank you for considering my work" is just as good.

UK details worth getting right

• Spelling. Use British spelling and punctuation for UK agents. If your novel is set in America and written in US English, say so rather than converting it.
• Word counts. Write 92,000 words, not 92k. Round numbers look considered; "about 140,000" in a debut crime novel looks like a problem.
• Comparisons. Name books published in the last two or three years that a UK bookseller would stock. "For readers of…" is safer than "the next…".
• Series. If the book continues, describe it as "a standalone with series potential". Agents want to know you can write a satisfying ending.
• Attachments. Send none unless the guidelines ask. Paste sample pages into the body of the email, formatted plainly.
• One agent per agency. If an agency permits submissions to more than one of its agents, follow its process exactly and mention who else has seen the material.
• Simultaneous submissions. Querying several agencies at once is normal in the UK. Just say so if you are asked.

Mistakes that get a query deleted

1. Addressing it to "Dear Sir/Madam", or to an agent who left the agency last year.
2. Opening with a paragraph of flattery that could be sent to anyone.
3. Typos in the agent's name, the agency's name or your own title.
4. Hiding the genre, or claiming it sits between four categories at once.
5. Links to a personal website instead of the pages that were asked for.

Before you press send

Write the letter, leave it overnight, then read it aloud. Anything you stumble over will trip a tired reader at half past nine on a Monday morning.

1. Guidelines read, sample material prepared exactly as requested.
2. Agent's name, agency and title spelled correctly.
3. Title, word count, category and comparisons all present.
4. Letter under 400 words, with no paragraph longer than four lines.
5. Contact details and any requested files checked.

Send to a small first batch — three or four agents you would genuinely be pleased to work with — and see what comes back. A run of identical form rejections may point at the letter rather than the book, while requests for pages mean you are close. Silence for several weeks is normal; check the agency's stated response time, nudge politely once after it passes, and then get back to the real work. Agents sign writers, not letters, so the strongest thing you can do while you wait is start the next book.