Does This Query Taste Funny?
It is advice as old as time: If you want to make a good first impression, open with a joke. Public speakers, job interview coaches, and your Uncle Jack will all tell you that nothing succeeds like getting a laugh.
But does that same wisdom hold true for a query letter? I asked a few dozen agents, each with more than 20 years of experience in the industry, and I received a resounding “oh-please-for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy-no.”
The consensus is that a query letter is a business communication and should be treated as a formal request.
“I don’t think authors should try to be funny in a query. This is a business letter, effectively soliciting a stranger to invest in your enterprise. You can be friendly and informal but keep it strictly business,” says Steven Hutson of WordWise Media Services.
“It’s only a good idea if you are truly a talented humorist and if the work you’re pitching is funny,” says Joëlle Delbourgo of Joëlle Delbourgo Associates.
But isn’t there room for personality and individuality in an industry as creative as publishing? Yes, of course there is. As in most things, the secret lies in hitting the right balance. Being clever and “voice-y” is very different from sounding like a cross between Fozzie Bear and Amy Schumer. What bothered the agents most was the number of authors who try to be funny.
Just last week, an author sent me a query letter that started with a joke. I had seen the meme across several social media platforms. Now, I could have told her that including actual jokes in her query or starting her letter with a one-liner was not a great idea. But using someone else’s joke in a letter that was supposed to convince me how creative she was? That was a terrible idea.
Just an aside—with humor? Less is more. With plagiarism? None is mandatory.
“Not being funny is not a missed opportunity. Trust the process. Your book idea and hook will attract the right agent.” —Amy Collins
Writer’s Digest
No matter how funny you are or how many laughs you get, your query letter is not the place for overt jokes or outrageous humor. “Funny” is just too subjective. Do you want to risk a “no” from someone who does not find you as funny as your friends do? What works from the stage or face-to-face does not always translate in an email or in a query form. Think about how many texts or emails you have received that landed the wrong way. Tone and meaning are so hard to convey (even for talented writers), and nothing is trickier to transmit across the page than humor.
Paula Munier from Talcott Notch shares this: “If you write a ‘humorous’ query, it better be funny. Humor is very subjective and potentially controversial, especially these days. Whether you are writing queries or fiction, I tell my clients to aim for irony as opposed to humor. You need to remember that what is funny in person is not necessarily funny on the page.”
So, when do you use your clever tone and voice, and when do you keep things professional?
My advice is to play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in your query.
Start your query letter on the straight and narrow.
***
Dear Amy,
I was pleased to see on MSWL that you were looking for parenting books. As a psychologist with more than 25 years of experience and a podcaster with thousands of listeners, I submit to you my proposal for TELL THEM TO SHUT UP.
TELL THEM TO SHUT UP is a tongue-in-cheek parenting book in the same vein as the THREE MARTINI PLAYDATE. It is for parents who yearn for the day when they can take the power and parenting choices out of the hands of school administrators, daycare staff, and in-laws, and put it back where it belongs, in the hands of the parents.
[Now you can let your Mr. Hyde start to slip in.]
Filled with executable, actionable (and somewhat passive-aggressively fun) steps to reclaim parental control and responsibility, this book is perfect for the moms and dads who find themselves running to Trader Joe’s at 9 p.m. for organic dried mango slices (when we all know Goldfish crackers would be fine).
Conversely, several chapters are dedicated to role-playing exercises that will prepare you for doing battle with grandparents who insist on feeding your lactose-intolerant child half a pint of ice cream and a bottle of Mountain Dew before sending them home with you at 8 p.m.
TELL THEM TO SHUT UP includes a state-by-state legal reference guide to combat the growing list of rules that come down from your child’s school and daycare each week and template emails to reply to your community soccer team’s request that all players bring “homemade” water to practice.
[Then go back to a formal tone (Dr. Jekyll).]
I look forward to hearing what you think about the proposal. Please let me know if I can supply more information or if I may be of help in any way.
Best,
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger
***
The query part of the query letter is clear and professional, but the description of the book has the same humorous tone as the book itself. This is one way to share your voice and sense of humor, but it only works if your book is humorous.
As Joëlle Delbourgo shares: “The query letter I received from my now long-time author Marilyn Simon Rothstein for her first novel, Lift and Separate, was very funny—but then, she writes novels that are humorous at least on the surface, while also dealing with more serious themes. So, it was entirely appropriate. But I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.”
Not being funny is not a missed opportunity. Trust the process. Your book idea and hook will attract the right agent. During the vetting process, there will be emails and phone calls where you and your potential agent will get to know each other. There is time for the two of you to discover a shared sense of humor. If your gut says you have found a good fit, you most likely have.
A few years ago, film producer Trevor Crafts queried me about a pop-culture photo book with a very niche focus. I had never done a coffee-table photo book before, but his platform and the book idea were solid enough for us to proceed. His query was very professional, and our first interactions were extremely business-like. Over the years, we have successfully worked on several projects together, and I am extremely grateful we both took the risk. What we did not know at the time was that we share a very similar (and seriously twisted) sense of humor.
I wish I could say that this story is unusual. But water seeks its own level. Over and over, I see the right agents matching up with the right clients. I say again: Trust the process. The process has a way of matching authors with the right agents. Time and again, I see professional query letters with great pitch hooks matching agents and clients without any flash or “Wocka wocka.”
You are funny; you don’t need to sound it. You are talented, so let that speak for itself. Trust the process.
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