Query Letter Examples: 5 Samples by Genre

Subject: Query: DEAD RECKONING, contained thriller (logline inside)

Dear [Name],

I loved how tight and single location your client’s last thriller felt, so I hope you will consider DEAD RECKONING, a contained thriller complete at 98 pages. When a ferry loses power in fog with a killer on board, the one crew member who can navigate without instruments has to keep 40 passengers alive until dawn, knowing the killer is one of them.

Nell Varga was demoted to deckhand after a collision she still blames herself for. Tonight the captain is dead, the radio is smashed and the only way to shore is the old way: compass, clock and her own nerve. Every passenger she asks for help could be the one who cut the power, and the closer she gets to the harbour, the more the killer needs the boat to stay lost.

I worked eleven seasons on passenger ferries before I started writing, so the boat, the fog and the procedures are all real.

May I send you the script? Thank you for your time.

[Your name]

Subject: Query: THE QUIET FLOOR, horror, 92 pages

Dear [Name],

THE QUIET FLOOR is a horror feature, complete at 92 pages. A night nurse on a hospice ward notices that patients stop dying while one new orderly is on shift, and that someone else on the floor always dies instead.

Ama has buried her mother and her marriage in the same year, and the ward is the only place that still makes sense. When the death rate drops to zero, the hospital calls it a miracle. Ama keeps the count anyway, and the count points at the people she cares about most.

The script was a quarterfinalist in a national screenwriting competition this year. I have also written two short films that played regional festivals.

I would be glad to send the script if it sounds like a fit. Thank you for reading.

[Your name]

Subject: Query: BEST MAN, WORST WEEK, comedy, 101 pages

Dear [Name],

BEST MAN, WORST WEEK is a comedy, complete at 101 pages. A wedding planner who has never lost a wedding takes on her own brother’s, then learns the groom is the man who left her at the altar six years ago.

Dana has seven days, one budget and zero intention of letting anyone see her flinch. She plans the perfect wedding while quietly trying to sabotage it, and the harder she pushes, the more she has to admit the groom has changed and she has not.

I write and perform sketch comedy with a weekly improv group and I have a second comedy feature ready if this one is not for you.

Can I send it over? Thanks so much.

[Your name]

Subject: Query: LOW SEASON, family drama, 104 pages

Dear [Name],

LOW SEASON is a family drama, complete at 104 pages. When the family motel is about to be sold, three estranged siblings come home for one last winter season and find their late father left the place to the one guest who never checked out.

Rosa, the eldest, wants the money. Teo wants the motel. Little Jo wants to know who Walt is, the quiet man in room 6 who knew their father better than they did. As the snow closes the road, the siblings learn what their father was doing all those years he was too busy to call.

I grew up in a family motel on a lake town highway, and I wrote the first draft in the off season behind the front desk.

I would love to send you the script. Thank you for considering it.

[Your name]

Subject: Query: SECOND SUNRISE, sci-fi, 108 pages

Dear [Name],

SECOND SUNRISE is a grounded science fiction feature, complete at 108 pages. On a mining colony where the sun rises twice a day, a shift supervisor discovers that the second sunrise is not the sun, and that the company has known for twenty years.

Kito Mensah has one year left on his contract and a daughter waiting on Earth. When a crew member disappears into the light, he is ordered to call it an accident. Telling the truth means losing his passage home; staying quiet means the next shift walks into it too.

I am an electrical engineer, and I wrote the colony systems the way I would build them.

Would you like to read it? Thank you for your time.

[Your name]