Ok so most cover letters are sent via email, but no gimmicks is a good start. The agent may be reading your at the end of a long week, with a headache.
KISS.
If you want the agent to look like this after reading your letter
Read the guidelines. Most agent or publisher websites will have guideline for submission. Some in more detail than others.
Be personal- politely. use the agent's name spelt correctly. Scott Pack- not the most difficult of names to spell, but some people have. They did not get a request for a full manuscript!) If you have met them at a festival, read their blog, or chat to them on twitter, mention something. Not too long and always positive. But saying why you have chosen them.
Be succinct - NO LONGER THAN ONE PAGE.
What do you want for what? Representation for my 'genre' novel 'Name of novel'.
Completed at 'number'words.
Pitch- what is your book about (see previous blog)
About self- relevant info only. Agents do not care how many cats you have.
You might include why you have written your story.
One agent praised this in my covering letter -
'The story idea formulated while my
youngest son was travelling in Nepal at the time of an unexpected avalanche. He
had not begun the trek, thank goodness, but I imagined what it may have been
like. Through my tears a ‘What if?’ snuck into my head. What if someone could
sense people beneath the snow? Gracie,
the finder, was born.'
I will not share the rest of the letter. I am working on it.
Finally -
Use spell check.
Send it to someone else (or yourself) to make sure all attachments are attached, that you have remembered to write your name at the bottom, that the font is readable....
Have fun and good luck.
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