Query Letter....

I am still relatively knew to this publishing thing, but I can say that I've done enough reading and writing regarding query letters, to both agents and publishers, that I feel pretty confident in my querying abilities. As such, I've decided to post a copy of the form query letter I sent to both agents and publishers over the last several months. It goes without saying, of course, that I've changed my address and phone number so that they are not public information. If anyone else wants to write for fun, or for a living, this type of thing might help:

Timothy R. Geigner
1234 N. Damen Ave., Apt. #1F Chicago, IL 60647
lmstim@yahoo.com
Cell: 123.456.7890

Mr. (Name of Agency/Publisher Rep):

Gaia - Planet Struggle is the first novel in an epic that takes the reader through a fantastical world where evil corporations rule, governments are complicit figureheads, and resistance groups breed constant conflict and confrontation. All this is served on top of a background of an iminent disaster created by an energy company and a Wicca-type people who are determined to defend the planet at any cost.

Gaia - Planet Struggle, in the tradition of Orson Scott Card's "Ender" novels, is more specifically the story of an ex-soldier of one complicit government, who has been hired as a mercenary by one of the resistance groups opposing the energy company. Antillion Devore, dark and conflicted, wants desperately to absolve himself of his past by joining the PLF, a group based in his hometown and manned by past friends and enemies, niether of which fully trust him. The PLF, which opposes the energy company accused of raping the planet of its life force, called aurora, is aided by the Auralytes, a group of people sensitive to aurora and able to manipulate it to perform what others call magic.

After a long stint as a mercenary, Antillion returns to his hometown to discover that Ansling Corp. employees and PLF supporters have overrun it. The woman he had long ago promised to return to has joined the PLF and convinces him to come along on an assassination mission in the nation's far away capital city. An auralyte, who asks his protection on her own journey and seems to be familiar with Antillion for reasons unknown to him, also hires him. The two contracts coincide and Antillion begins a journey through a devestated countryside in which he rediscovers a former love, launches an attack on the company he used to protect, and uncovers the truth behind his abilities as an Auralyte.

Gaia - Planet Struggle is a completed 86,878 words. It is a fantasy with a naturalist twist that will appeal to anyone disenfranchised with large corporations and corrupt governments. It has a magic system that is competently explained as similar to the Wicca faith of Earth and an internal struggle that embodies classic Freudian Psychology.

I hold a degree in Psychology from the College of DuPage. I also have 35,000 words of the second novel in this epic completed, as well as a completed short story, set in the same universe and designed to create interest in this series through submissions to Fantasy Fiction magazines.

Sincerely,

Timothy R. Geigner