Opening of a Sample Query Letter

Below is an excerpt of a sample, two-page query letter for sending to relevant publishers or literary agents. Although I am going to start my own publishing company, I thought it might be helpful to actually follow Fry's exerice and write the letter anyway. So, here is the opening of the letter:

Since the mid-70s, there has been an overwhelming increase in the percentage of households where children are raised by someone other than their natural parents. In the United States in 1997, three hundred and forty thousand (340,000) grandmothers were raising their grandchildren without grandfathers or the children’s parents present. Ten years later, in the Southern region of the U.S. alone, over 1.5 million grandmothers were living with/raising grandchildren under 18.

Parental death, lack of financial resources and even immaturity – are three common reasons why parents are not actively involved in their children’s lives. However, the ever important question is this - What becomes of the child?

Does he/she grow up to be a happy, healthy and productive citizen or do they find themselves, emotionally depressed or emotionally needed adults who can’t seem to get a handle on “what it is to be an adult”. What becomes of their relationship (or lack thereof) with their biological parents or even their parent-substitutes? Does the child know who their “real parents” are? Are the natural parents allowed to have a healthy, on-going relationship with their own children despite the fact that they are not raising them? Or does grandma prevent the parent(s) from knowing their child’s whereabouts?

Even more importantly - What would happen, if you, as an adult-child who had a bleak outlook on life and who constantly struggled with unfair life experiences, finally learned the real circumstances surrounding why you were raised at “grandma’s house”? What then? How would you finally pick up the pieces of your life despite your lost childhood or dysfunctional upbringing?

I'd like to propose a 40,000 to 80,000 word book: Overcoming the House of Jezebel: How to Do It Right When You Learned It Wrong.

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