- AI is useful for query structure, comps, and a reactable first draft.
- A query has a fixed anatomy: hook, mini-synopsis, bio, comps, housekeeping.
- AI helps most with comps and the housekeeping paragraph.
- Never submit an AI-written query as-is — agents recognize generic phrasing.
- The hook and voice must come from the author.
Yes — for structure, comps, and a first draft to react to, but never to submit as-is. AI reliably lays out a query’s anatomy (hook, mini-synopsis, bio, comps, housekeeping), suggests comp titles, and drafts the housekeeping paragraph. It is weakest where it matters most: the hook and the voice. Agents read thousands of queries and recognize generic AI phrasing instantly, so the author must rewrite the draft into their own voice.
Chapter i·Why it matters
The query is the single most important page in traditional publishing — it decides whether an agent reads the manuscript. AI can remove the structural guesswork and the blank-page paralysis, but a query that sounds machine-written signals a writer who cannot sell their own book. The leverage is using AI to scaffold and research, then making the hook unmistakably human.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A correct structure: hook, mini-synopsis, bio, comps, housekeeping.
- AI-suggested comps you verify are recent and apt.
- A housekeeping paragraph (title, word count, genre) AI can draft cleanly.
- A hook written and rewritten by the author, not the model.
- A voice pass that strips generic AI phrasing.
- Personalization per agent — never a mass-merged template.
Chapter iii·Example
A querying novelist asks AI for a query structure and three comp suggestions. It nails the housekeeping paragraph and proposes two strong recent comps she keeps. The drafted hook is competent but bland, so she rewrites it in her own voice over an afternoon. She personalizes the opening line for each agent. The structure came from AI; the sentence that earns the request is entirely hers.
WriteLoom’s Pitch studio drafts the query structure and suggests comps, then keeps the hook in your hands — so every agent gets a tailored letter that sounds like you.
See the Pitch studio