WHAT IS A QUERY LETTER? Well, it looks something like this:

Mr/Ms. Big Time Hollywood Agent/Producer
Zillion Dollar Talent Agency
54 Paradise Road
Hollywood, California 90028

Dear Mr. or Ms. Big Time:

Since you sold/bought three romantic comedies over the past year including BOB'S DEAD BUT HE'S STILL A LOOKER to Paramount, perhaps you would take a look at my recently completed screenplay called BLIND DATE.

It's a romantic comedy about a couple on a blind date from hell who witness a murder and are whisked away by the FBI and placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program, where they have to live together as husband and wife.

In addition to this screenplay, I've written two others and I'm currently working as a reporter for USA Today. If you are interested in reading BLIND DATE, contact me at the above phone number and I'd be happy to forward a copy.

Best,
Suzie Screenwriter

AGAIN, the purpose of a Query Letter is to be short, to the point and to grab the producer's or agent's interest in wanting to request to read your script. This letter simply incorporates the use of the logline/pitch and can include a brief synopsis. It also includes any background you have in writing, education, or prior writing experience. If you don't have any, don't include it. The purpose of the Query Letter is to give the reader the sense of the genre, conflict, main character, and story in one or two lines. Not all producers want to produce the same genres as their previous projects, and they may want to branch out and try another genre after having just produced a comedy or drama. So, it's not always easy to predict what kind of project the producer is looking for their next project simply based on their latest work. There is a service I use called "ScriptBlaster" that will send out your Query Letter and will target specific agents or producers via different packages with various fees and prices. If they send your Query Letter out for you, you will get some response if it is written properly. So the main thing is to have a good and short Query Letter that gets the results you want.

See another sample of a QUERY LETTER below.

Subject Field: Query - "The Dark"

"A young woman wakes one morning to find herself blind and forced to confront her greatest fear: the dark."

Genre: Thriller/Horror

Emily Watts awakes one ordinary morning to discover that she is blind and that her greatest childhood fear, the dark, is now her waking nightmare. She is forced to rely on her only neighbor for support and finds herself at his mercy in this new solitary world.

I have studied screenwriting for two years at USC and have written four screenplays, two of which are presently under option. I would like to submit this screenplay for your consideration and can be contacted as listed below.

Thank you.

Amy Jenkins
1520 Beverly Street
Los Angeles, CA. 90035
Tel: (310) 555-1212
E-mail: amyjenkins@yahoo.com