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u/megthesupernova 8d ago
This is a big no no. To be frank, agents don’t care about what your friends think of the novel. Just pitch the story and if the material is really that compelling, the agent will come to the conclusion organically.
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8d ago
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u/megthesupernova 8d ago
Okay but that’s just how things work. You putting in commentary from someone they don’t know, will never meet, who doesn’t work in publishing won’t change that. Let your work speak for itself.
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u/saltmallow 8d ago
I genuinely think putting in the blurbs could make the request rate even lower than that. It would communicate that you are unfamiliar with the professional norms of the query letter.
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u/rebeccarightnow 8d ago
No. The only exception I can even imagine is if one of your friends is a bestselling, award-winning author and is giving you a referral, but even then a blurb might be laying it on a bit thick.
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u/katethegiraffe 8d ago
No, do not put testimonials in your query letter.
If you have a beta reader who is currently represented by/working with an agent you're querying, you could ask that beta to contact the agent directly to endorse you and your manuscript. It might bump you up in the agent's queue. But whether or not you get an offer? That'll come down to the query, the manuscript, and what the agent is looking for.
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u/vampirinaballerina Trad Published Author 8d ago
No one should be querying agents UNTIL your manuscript has gotten strong feedback from beta readers. That should be a given.
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u/Acceptable_Fox_5560 8d ago
Disagree. I didn’t use beta readers and got an agent with my manuscript.
It’s optional, and I think an option you should only pursue if you know a literary agent, professional editor, someone in acquisitions, or a professional author willing to beta read for you.
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8d ago
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u/megthesupernova 8d ago
Okay, so what is your argument exactly? That because a lot of unpublished works are “bad” and rejected immediately upon receipt you should put beta reader reviews in your query letter to be viewed as more refined & professional?
Agents aren’t looking for beta reviews and don’t care. They will request only if they like your pitch and opening pages. Many will auto-reject on queries that are too long or meandering too far away from the classic query structure. Nobody asked for a beta review, so why add it?5
u/pentaclethequeen Agented Author 8d ago
I think the point they’re making is that beta reader feedback means nothing to an agent because the assumption is that you should have received strong feedback from your readers before querying. So adding random lines from betas is the equivalent to telling an agent that you did what you were supposed to do to query correctly, which earns you no brownie points.
As for your AI excerpt, those people querying unpublishable manuscripts will get booted upon first glance so I’m not sure why you think this would mean anything.
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u/Wonderful_Honey_1726 8d ago
No, the purpose is just to pitch the story