Query Letter Mistakes UK Authors Make: A Beginner's Guide to Fixing Them
Most query letters fail for small, fixable reasons. Here are the common mistakes UK authors make — and...
You get one email, maybe two, to convince a radio producer, a festival programmer or a bookshop events manager that you are worth half an hour of their time. Nobody will chase you for a headshot, a synopsis or a publication date. If the basics are missing, the answer tends to be a quiet no — or silence, which somehow feels worse. A press kit solves that. It is not a glossy vanity pack; it is a tidy set of files that lets someone else do their job quickly. Build it once and you can reuse it for every pitch, festival application and bookshop enquiry for the next year or two.
Here is the full list before we go into detail. Most authors already have half of it scattered across their laptop.
Text files are where most kits fall down. Not because authors cannot write, but because they write the wrong length for the wrong reader.
Write it in the third person, present tense, and keep it concrete. Where you live, what you write, and one detail that makes you memorable — a former career, an unusual research method, a connection to the book's setting. Two versions, please: a tight 50–70 words for a festival programme, and 150–200 words for a press release or event listing. Retire any sentence that could describe a thousand other writers.
The blurb is the hook: roughly 60–100 words that set up the premise and the tension without explaining the ending. The synopsis is the working document, up to 300 words, that tells a journalist or events programmer what actually happens and why it matters. For non-fiction, use that space to say who the book is for and what it helps them do. If you are pitching a series, add a line about the other titles.
One page, dated, with a headline you would be happy to see in print. The opening paragraph should answer who, what, when, where and why in plain sentences. Add a short quote from yourself that a journalist can lift directly, then the supporting detail, then your contact block. If the pitch is going to one specific person, write a two-line opening that proves it.
Choose something self-contained — the first chapter or the opening pages — and label it clearly as an extract. Note the word count and flag any content warnings. Editors will often run an extract verbatim, so make sure the file is the final, proofread text rather than a draft you have since edited.
Images are the most common reason a pitch stalls. A cover screenshot from a phone, or a headshot cropped from a wedding photo, cannot be printed.
For your author photo, aim for a head-and-shoulders shot taken in decent natural light against a plain background. Supply a file at least 1,200 pixels on the longest side, saved as a JPEG at high quality, and include the credit exactly as the photographer wants it: Photo: Name. If you paid for the shoot, check whether you have permission to supply the image to third parties for publicity — most photographers are happy, but it is worth asking.
For the book, provide the flat front cover with no added shadows or mockup effects, at the highest resolution you have, plus a smaller version under about 500 KB for websites and newsletters. If a designer produced a 3D mockup, include that too as a separate file rather than instead of the flat cover. Credit the cover designer if you have one.
A one-page document that answers the questions you would otherwise have to answer five times by email.
Keep the language plain. This page is a reference tool, not a sales pitch.
Producers do not want a topic; they want three or four angles they can turn into a segment. Write those headlines yourself. If your book is about a coastal town's fishing industry, offer: what changed in forty years, the one myth visitors always believe, and what the trade looks like now. Bookshops want a different take again — what your event looks like, who it appeals to, how long you speak and whether you can run a workshop.
Prepare eight to ten interview questions with answers. That sounds odd, but it gives a journalist ready-made quotes and shows you can talk in soundbites rather than paragraphs. When listing reviews and endorsements, quote them accurately with the source and date. Never paraphrase someone else's words into a compliment they did not give. If you have no reviews yet, say so, then list what you do have: a competition longlisting, a guest article, a reader response you have permission to use.
A press kit is not a scrapbook. Every file should answer a question someone else is about to ask.
One folder, three subfolders: Words, Images, Extras. Name files so they make sense outside your own head — AuthorName_Bio_Short_2025.docx, AuthorName_Headshot_HighRes.jpg — and send documents as PDFs so your formatting survives whatever software the recipient uses. Then put the whole kit on a single page of your website with a clear download link, and send that link rather than eight attachments.
Keep the folder under about 10 MB for email purposes; anything larger belongs behind a link. Review it once a year, or whenever a new book appears, so the publication date on your fact sheet is not the one from three years ago.
Do that, and your pitch reads as professional before anyone has opened a single document. Keep the kit updated, reuse it without apology, and spend the time you save on the actual writing.
Most query letters fail for small, fixable reasons. Here are the common mistakes UK authors make — and...
How trade and indie publishing change your blurb length, metadata, target reader and marketing tone — plus...
Seasonal angles and ready-to-adapt copy prompts for promoting books around Christmas, Valentine's and...
