Eva's Newsletter for Writers

Eva's Newsletter for Writers

Query Guru

Query Guru: Contemporary YA

How to Query a "Quiet Novel"

Eva Langston's avatar
Eva Langston
Sep 25, 2025
∙ Paid

*For my latest free newsletter full of writing resources, go here.*

Query Guru

Hello and welcome to another Query Guru post! I haven’t done one of these in a while, and I’m wondering if I should continue doing them because so often my advice is the same: Be. More. Specific.

I give that piece of advice in today’s post, but I also give some (hopefully helpful) advice on how to query a “quiet novel.” Which I think is what we’re dealing with here.

Here’s the query letter and first pages, along with my feedback after every paragraph:

The Query Letter:

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Eva's Newsletter for Writers to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2026 Eva Langston · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture