The Query Monster and All Its Minions

What does a query, tagline, blurb, logline do?

Taglines are a tease in twenty words or less.

Melts in your mouth. Not in your hand. 

Got milk?

It is your first, your very first marketing tool. It creates interest, hooks your potential audience, and gives them a glimpse into your world.

You’re in good hands with Allstate. 

Don’t leave home without it.

Loglines. This is a bigger tease than a tagline. It tells the reader about your book in as few words as possible. It must have four elements: character, conflict, and stakes.

Tagline: In space, no one can hear you scream.

Logline: After the crew of the deep space vessel Nostromo investigates a distress signal, they discover that death has followed them back to their ship. No one is safe.

A query/blurb is an expanded view of the tease and can incorporate both the tagline and logline. It gives just a bit more information. 


During my week on Unicorn Bell, I will crit queries, taglines, and loglines. Send subs anytime to:

unicornbellsubmissions[at]gmail[dot]com with Loglines and Queries in the subject line.

If you can’t send this week, don’t worry. I’ll get to it next month.

Until then, keep this cheery thought in mind:

You will probably put more work into that tagline/logline/query than you did in your manuscript