Do I include the title of my book? The genre? Do I just say "query letter?" It seems like it should be easy but after I've heard how hard it is to get an agent I feel like it matters a lot.
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2 Answers
The subject line is often specified by the agency’s or agent’s guidelines. In the case of an agency with many representatives, the subject line indicates the specific agent you are submitting to.
In the cases where there is no guidance, or the guidance is vague, then being direct and succinct would seem the best practice: Submission for 'Your Novel Here' or 'Author's Name' and maybe the Month and Year.
They seem to use dedicated emails that slot them into the submission queue. So you’re are really just going to use the subject line for yourself to figure if you’ve already submitted to this agent or if an appropriate period of time has passed for you to follow up with the agency.
The advice that was given to me with query letters is don’t try to amaze the agent. That they receive so many queries and writers that waste their time by not getting right to the point are annoying.
It’s a business. They are trying to earn of living by finding books they can represent to publishers. Be your best approximation of professional when dealing with them.
So, there are a few options what you might write in the subject line of a manuscript submission:
- What it is: "Manuscript submission" or "Query"
- ... plus relevant invormation: "Manuscript submission, fantasy"
- ... plus the title of your work: "Query: 'Downbelow Station' (Science Fiction)"
- Logline: "A boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing - and then tragedy strikes."
- Advertising: "The most gripping thriller you will ever read!"
Now imagine you were an editor and your inbox would fill with manuscript submissions every day. How would you react to the different subject lines?
The advertising copy will likely irritate you. It will give the impression that the sender is loud and full of herself and difficult to work with. You will open that email with apprehension and try to find other reasons why you should reject their manuscript.
The "Manuscript submission (fantasy)" variants will appear factual and grounded. You will approach them neutrally.
An added book title would help you more easily distinguish this email from the other submissions, if you kept it in your no-immediate-rejection folder, but since you immediately reject 99% of all submissions that folder will be rather empty and most likely the author name will be sufficient to know which mail was which, so the added title will not sway you either way.
The logline, if well crafted, will show you the understanding and skill of the author. But will you appreciate that they try and cram it into an email subject line that may not even fully show in your email program (where it may appear as "A boy and a girl from different...")? And would you even be willing and ready to process the information in the subject line at the time you view it?
A person who receives a large number of emails in their inbox every day will look at the subject lines to understand what the email is and when it needs to be read. Urgent email will be read immediately, less urgent email will be read during the time slot you have reserved for it. While you, the editor, are skimming your inbox to decide when to read what, you don't yet want to deal with their content. All you want to know is what it is, so you can sort it.
There is some conjecture in this imagination exercise, of course, and the outcome will depend on the kind of person you are. But it seems to me that it is unneccessary – and might be detrimental – to try and sell your book through the subject line.
Most editors will read (or at least open and skim) all their manuscript submissions. That is the moment when they fully focus on your message, and that is the place where you can and need to grab their attention.
From everything I have read that agents or editors have written, they strongly appreciate writers to follow guidelines, that is, be conventional in their dealings with them. Every deviation from a sober professionalism is more likely to make them apprehensive than positively excited, because they have had to deal with too many authors who believe they are above such mundane things as formatting their manuscripts properly and who turned out to be a pain to work with.
So, if you want my opinion, I would:
Write "Manuscript submission" or "Query" (or whatever the appropriate term is in your language), specify the agent name, if all agents share the same submission email address (if not, not), add the genre, if the agent or editor accepts different genres, and the title of your work:
Query: MG fantasy, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"
Manuscript submission for Sarah Young: Fifty Shades of Grey (romance)
It would make me inclined towards you.