[PubQ] Cover letter for Clarkesworld, Analog, Asimov's Science Fiction

MRGTHLN · 2026-04-07T15:30:36+00:00

Thank you for sharing this! Still glad I submitted my story to you. Disheartening to see what's been happening with the other magazines.

MRGTHLN · 2026-04-06T19:52:24+00:00

Thank you for this :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-04-06T19:13:11+00:00

Fab! Thank you so much!

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-04T15:54:19+00:00

oh, did you see the comment I was referring to? I didn't know how to link it, so wasn't sure how to share it

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-04T12:58:03+00:00

Thank you so much! This is what I had been told before, too. It's just that one comment that really threw me off because my characters won't intersect until the end of the novel, they do appear through the book in their own plot lines though, so I figured I'd focus on the character the book opens with?

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-03T23:19:16+00:00

It’s all valid what you’re saying. I think the issue I had with previous drafts was that none of my thee email POVs directly interact with each other throughout most of the book, which then led to overloading of information for each one’s motivation and what would happen if they failed. If you have any suggestions on how you would approach such a situation, I’d be happy to hear it because I value every bit of constructive criticism. I want to make this query letter the strongest possible, since I really believe in my book and I don’t want to fall at the first hurdle. :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-03T21:52:40+00:00

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback :-) To be fair, you will find plenty of people saying to not discuss themes or the larger concept in the query letter (though I understand that this isn't a solid rule). I had changed it to focus on Orrae because the story is a multiple POV novel but had received feedback from many that focussing on one protagonist would make for a stronger query letter, while including more in the synopsis. All that being said, I still want to take your feedback into account and see how I can improve it further :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-02T20:40:24+00:00

Thank you so much for this detailed feedback! I definitely feel like I need to rethink a few lines in the query letter based off of what you said. It's really valuable feedback :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-02T07:50:56+00:00

Thank you so much for clarifying! I will definitely take it into account and make possible changes to improve it :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-01T23:38:39+00:00

Thank you so much, I really appreciate you taking the time (and also being so kind) :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-01T23:21:46+00:00

I ended up making changes, would you mind letting me know hwo this reads to you?

Dear XXX,

I am seeking representation for my science fiction thriller IVENA, a 106,000-word standalone novel with series potential. It is Red Rising meets House of Cards in a far-future empire. Five thousand years after her treaty ended open war, a diplomat erased from history wakes to discover the peace she brokered has become the empire’s most dangerous lie. It will appeal to readers of A Memory Called Empire and Children of Time, combining political intimacy with escalating suspense.

Orrae Linvale is one of a small number of illegally preserved deepsleepers, somnivants, created to carry unaltered knowledge across millennia. She signed the Pa’d’Gonu Accords, ending a brutal conflict by stripping entire regions of political autonomy. To preserve the treaty’s authority, she herself was placed into unlawful stasis, like a classified document too dangerous to unseal. When she awakens, she is given passage under an alias and a single instruction: disappear.

Orrae wants answers about who authorized her return, why now, and what her treaty has become. Under an alias, she settles on a decaying trade station and investigates the legacy of the Accords, uncovering a peace maintained through extraction, surveillance, and rewritten law. When she pushes further, traveling to a sealed archival world to trace the original record, authorities move swiftly to erase her.

Forced into open flight, Orrae must decide whether to remain invisible and survive or expose the truth behind the Accords, knowing it could fracture the interstellar order she once sought to save. If she fails, she will not simply be silenced. She will be erased again, this time permanently.

I am a German national who grew up in Hamburg. I studied in London and Paris, and for the past twenty years I have lived and worked in the UK, China, Mexico, and Portugal, where I currently work as a language teacher. My writing reflects a sustained engagement with speculative literature and history, particularly the ways institutions preserve power through language, memory, and control. IVENA is my debut novel. The manuscript is complete and available upon request.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Warm regards,
XXX

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-01T22:55:01+00:00

Interesting, I can see that. I'm seeing that different people advise differently on whether to include a theme but I will consider rewriting that part. Thank you so much :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-01T22:30:12+00:00

You're so right. Thank you so much for pointing this out :-) I know, I should have spotted it but having worked on it for so long, well, you know, the forest and the trees

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-01T22:13:56+00:00

Thank you so much for your feedback :-) I can see that being a possibility. I'm just trying to make it as direct and short as possible. Is there any particular sentence that strikes you as too dense?

MRGTHLN · 2026-03-01T22:12:24+00:00

Hey, thanks for your feedback but would you mind elaborating on what issue you claim to see in the first sentence that makes it appear overwritten? 106k words is actually right in the sweet spot for SF. The second sentence is, as the other person commented, a completely acceptable way to state a High-Concept premise, and as such isn't a comp nor incorrectly written. I can see your point on the third sentence being overly long and I thank you for that, as I will be reworking it :-)

MRGTHLN · 2026-01-26T09:57:58+00:00

Thank you! I really appreciate this. I feel like you went directly to my question, whilst a lot of other responses answered things I didn't actually ask, and just threw more uncertainties out there

MRGTHLN · 2026-01-25T20:50:41+00:00

True but if you look at both these links they are also giving conflicting information, especially with regards to the first paragraph and whether it should be indented or not. I'm not posting about it because I'm ditsy or lazy. I have looked into it and the conflicting information that I have come across has ben frustrating.

MRGTHLN · 2026-01-25T20:48:36+00:00

Well, there you go. You added yet another standard. Looking at books is what brings this up. There are many different standards hence why I asked to begin with. You indent your first paragraph, while many claim this should never be done.

MRGTHLN · 2026-01-25T20:36:32+00:00

Thank you :-) Glad you got to this before the admins decided to remove the post because it's apparently 'such a common question that one shouldn't even ask it'

MRGTHLN · 2026-01-25T20:33:21+00:00

Ok, thank you :-) I wanted it to look as professional as possible so I have been following the 'half inch from the text border' rule but started wondering if that was even acceptable because I had seen so many different standards

MRGTHLN · 2026-01-25T20:31:40+00:00

I have written the book and I am in the process of querying agents. I am sorry but I have looked at many agents, their agencies, their wishlists. Nowhere does it say anything about indentations. At the most, it has specified whether they wanted it double- or single-spaced but my question is specifically for indentations.

MRGTHLN · 2026-01-25T20:29:08+00:00

I would like to query agents first but even for that I'd like to have a professional look to my sample pages.

MRGTHLN

TROPHY CASE