The Query Letter

Last night our company arrived and I gave them a copy of the rough draft of my query letter. They were here to pick up some furniture and they had two other stops to make so we didn’t get a chance to talk about the letter. I’ll see them Thursday night and get their comments. I’ve been thinking of posting the letter here and finally came to the conclusion that if this post is about my journey to getting my book published then I needed to include the query letter in the post. So here goes.

I contracted infantile paralysis, or more commonly referred to as polio, at the age of 20 months. When I was released from the hospital after three weeks in isolation I couldn’t move my legs, sit up, or move my head. My parents elected to take me to therapy three days a week and do my exercises at home the other four days rather than house me in a facility where I would receive therapy and schooling. After twelve years of physical therapy I walked with crutches, had a full leg brace on my right leg, and my left leg was just barely strong enough to no longer need the brace. I have never understood the words “I can’t.” It’s not in my vocabulary. If I had to tell you my philosophy of life, I would say that you live life by doing “Whatever it Takes.”

I attended public schools, I was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout, I graduated from college, and I have a wonderful wife and two grown daughters who share my philosophy. I have been an automotive machinist, a draftsman, a teacher in four public high schools, an instructor in a high tech computer company, a technical writer and trainer for a high tech oilfield down hole services company, the manager of a documentation department, and a national sales manager. My wife and I have lived in four states and I’ve traveled throughout the United States and in Europe training computer service engineers and customers. I’ve had an exciting life and if I wasn’t being challenged I changed it.

If that wasn’t enough, in the midst of the 56 years since polio I have become a Type 1 diabetic, I have arthritis, I’ve had two heart attacks, bypass surgery, and a heart stent. Does life get any easier? No, if it did I’d be dead. I'm going to write three books that chronicle my life from polio to diabetes, diabetes and arthritis to bypass surgery, and bypass surgery to the present. Each stage of my life has given me new and escalating challenges physically and emotionally.

There’s more to add to this letter but that’s the body of it. The question is, if you were a literary agent, would the letter cause you to pick up the phone and offer to represent me. If it would, then you think the book will sell and you will get paid for your efforts. If you have any comments about changes that would improve the query letter, let me know. I can use all the help I can get. One last thought. I forgot to mention that I started on a diet yesterday; a new blog and a diet all in one day. I was 130 pounds nine months after my bypass surgery and now I’m nearly 160 pounds. I looked like death warmed over at 130 pounds so I’m looking to get down to 140 lbs. At 130 pounds I was the same size I was in college; 29 inch waist and a size 40 jacket. It’s funny that I didn’t look like death warmed over then. I wonder what changed.