Sample Query Letter

Rachael Grace's Desperate Distractions will be available June 2001
from Time Warner Books' iPublish imprint

October 18, 1999

Barbara Collins Rosenberg
The Rosenberg Group
2800 Harlanwood Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76109

Dear Barbara:

The brief but very pleasant cab ride that we shared in Chicago has snowballed into some wonderful experiences for me. First, thank you so much for connecting me with Eloisa James. That was incredibly kind of you. And I'm sure Dee Davis explained how we met. It was such a great coincidence to find out that she's one of your clients after I told her the story of how Eloisa and I met through you.

I spoke with your husband last Friday, and he suggested that I send you the enclosed synopsis and the first three chapters of my completed manuscript. As I mentioned in Chicago, I ran across the germ of the plot for this manuscript while I was working on my PhD in medieval and English Tudor/Stuart history.

Desperate Distractions is a single title historical (115,000 words) set in the 1620s. It is the story of a knight who has been betrayed by his previous wife. In order to gain an heir, sight-unseen he contracts a marriage with a woman famed for her piety. But he is maddened to discover that she is a beauty as well. Because of the authority the heroine has gained through her dedication to the Church, she is quite strong willed and refuses to allow the hero's cynicism to stand in the way of her determination to have a love match.

In addition, I have a proposal for a sequel to Desperate Distractions and have begun working on another manuscript set in the twelfth century. I would, of course, be happy to share these with you as well.

Thanks so much for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Rachael Grace