You should want to sing “the end” from the rooftops, not vomit in the sand between the back of a portaloo and someone’s million-dollar Cape Cod-style McMansion.
The why factor tells reader things about your characters. Readers learn who people, and they connect more deeply with the story, such as in “The Gift of the Magi” when writers show instead of tell.
Query letters lacking the right information distract agents from your story’s salable qualities. Avoid making my first query letter mistakes when writing your query.
While the publishing landscape has changed in the last two decades, these are three things I wish I’d done differently when I started my writing career.