--- title: "Query letter format checker and builder" description: "Your hook, your housekeeping and your bio go in the boxes. Out comes a query letter in the order agents read one, with the usual mistakes flagged." source: https://usegalley.com/resources/query-letter-formatter --- [Home](https://usegalley.com/) [Resources](https://usegalley.com/resources) Query letter formatter # Query letter formatter Write the paragraphs. This puts them in the order an agent reads them, counts the letter, and names the phrases that show up in every slush pile. It runs in your browser and nothing you type leaves the tab. Agent The name, spelled the way their page spells it. Agency Title Genre Word count Rounded for you before it goes in the letter. Housekeeping Why this agent Comparable titles The pitch Your bio Your name Email Phone Words in the body 0 under 400 is the working limit The letter This runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, and there is no account to make. ## How a query letter is put together **The order.** Salutation, then the line about why you picked this agent, then the housekeeping, then the pitch, then the bio, then a short sign-off with your contact details. Switching the housekeeping to after the pitch moves one paragraph and leaves the rest alone. Both orders are normal, and an agent's own submission page beats both. **The word count is rounded on the way in.** Under ten thousand words it rounds to the nearest hundred, above that to the nearest thousand, which is the same rule [standard manuscript format](https://usegalley.com/resources/standard-manuscript-format) uses on a title page. 92,431 in a query reads as somebody who has not sent one before. Whether the number itself is in range for your genre is on [word count by genre](https://usegalley.com/resources/novel-word-count-by-genre). **What gets flagged.** A body over 400 words. A pitch over 250. More than one exclamation mark. An opening rhetorical question. "Fiction novel". "I know you are busy". "I hope you enjoy". Volunteering that it is your first novel. Promising a bestseller. A word count that puts the book in novella territory or past the point where a debut becomes a printing cost problem. None of these are rules, and every one of them is something an agent has read four hundred times this month. **What it will not do.** Write the pitch. Rewrite your sentences. Read the manuscript. Score the book. There is no model behind this page and no text is generated by it. What you get back is your own words in a known order with a count on top. **Nothing is stored.** No server, no account, nothing written between visits. The agent's name, your name and your contact details go into the letter and nowhere else, and the analytics on this site never see the contents of a form field. The manuscript that goes with it wants [Shunn format](https://usegalley.com/resources/shunn-manuscript-format-generator), and [Galley for querying writers](https://usegalley.com/for/traditional-publishing) covers the rest of a submission package. **For working things out, not for signing anything.** Printers and retailers set their own rates and specifications, change them without notice, and none of them is affiliated with me or with Galley. I checked these figures by hand in September 2026 against [William Shunn's proper manuscript format](https://www.shunn.net/format/novel/). Confirm on the official page before you commit money to a price, a print run or a contract. ## Questions How long should a query letter be? Under 400 words in the body, and 300 reads better. An agent reads the first line, the pitch and the word count, in that order, and decides from there. Length is the easiest thing to fix and the commonest thing wrong. What actually goes in one? Four things. A line saying why this agent. A paragraph or two pitching the book. A housekeeping line with the title, the word count and the genre. A short bio. Anything else is optional and most of it is padding. Where do the title and word count go? Either first or last, and agents differ on which. First tells them what they are reading before they read it. Last lets the pitch do the work first. Both are normal, so this lets you switch and see the letter either way. What are comparable titles for? They tell an agent which shelf your book sits on and who already buys it. Pick two from the last five years, in your genre, that sold reasonably and are not the biggest book of the decade. Comping a runaway bestseller reads as a sales projection rather than a comparison. Does this write my query for me? No. You write every word of it. This puts your paragraphs in the order an agent reads them, counts the letter, and flags the phrases that turn up in every slush pile. Nothing here generates prose, and nothing here reads your book. Do I send this as a Word file? Usually not. Most agents want the query pasted into the body of an email, which is why the copy button is there. The.docx is for the ones who ask for an attachment, and for keeping your own record of what you sent to whom. ## Next [Shunn format generatorThe manuscript that goes with the letter.](https://usegalley.com/resources/shunn-manuscript-format-generator) [Standard manuscript formatThe spec, and the pass to run before you send.](https://usegalley.com/resources/standard-manuscript-format) [Word count by genreWhether the number in the letter is the right one.](https://usegalley.com/resources/novel-word-count-by-genre) [Readability checkerWhat the first five pages look like from outside.](https://usegalley.com/resources/prose-readability-checker) More at [the resources index](https://usegalley.com/resources). Put all this into practice when you write your novel in Galley. 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