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Let’s have a little fun today, shall we? And by fun I mean word fun, of course. A little writing exercise to start the weekend right. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Write about yourself in the third person. Tell us something we wouldn’t guess simply from the fact that you read this…

A lot of people think it’s a chicken-or-egg question: Do I pitch to agents or editors first? But it’s really not that hard. The truth is, if you want to sell your book to a commercial royalty-paying publisher, you’re going to need either an agent, or some kind of personal contact with editors. Since it’s…

Okay, first up: Allison went home. Awwww. Hard to believe, but I think we’ll be hearing that girl on the radio in a year. So that leaves us with Adam, Danny, and Kris. Remember when we made our predictions on the top three? (This post.) I was wrong on Kris—I had Allison instead. How did…

Last Tuesday and Wednesday I wrote about what happens when I decide I want to represent a project. I told you about THE CALL the agent makes to the writer, and many of you left stories in the comments about when YOU got the call. I loved reading those! (Go HERE if you missed it.)…

It’s the moment every writer dreams of: the day an agent emails or calls to say, “I’d like to discuss representation.” How does that work, anyway? Keeping in mind that each agent has their own style of doing business, and also that no two situations are exactly the same, here’s what happens. First, let’s back…

Have you noticed that agents tend to talk a lot about what not to do in a query, but less about what makes a great one? It think it’s because the good ones are each unique; it’s hard to come up with a formula that makes a terrific query. But the unexciting or badly composed…

Good morning and happy Monday! Let’s address some of the platform issues that have been coming my way lately: Q: If you have developed this wonderful platform and can do all the promotion you suggest, why would you want to give the lion’s share of the profits to a publisher? Why not use a Publish…

Okay, I know you think I hate you just because you write about zombies and martians and the apocalypse. I don’t hate anyone, I swear! And to prove it, I have a special gift today just for you. It’s a blog I found out about: “The Spectacle,” on which “Authors talk about writing speculative fiction…

Wow, I did not expect such a response to today’s post about rejection letters. Hmm, I wonder why writers are interested in this topic? 😉 I’ll spend some time mulling your comments, suggestions and questions, and will probably write a follow-up post next week. Meanwhile, thanks for your comments. This really helps me understand what…

Let’s talk about rejection letters! Lately I’ve been thinking about how writers wish they had a “reason” when agents reject their work. I’ve explained before (ad nauseum) all the reasons we can’t always give reasons. (And by the way, even though my policy states no response = no interest, I still respond to as many…

As you know, Friday was QueryDay on Twitter. I think it went exceptionally well. Lots of great questions from authors, lots of agents and editors chiming in with answers. An incredible wealth of information was passed around! Several people asked me to compile my tweets from the day. So here they are. Just a whole…

Okay, now that we’ve all had sufficient time to totally deconstruct QueryFail and AgentFail (and hopefully recover), I wanted to let you know that today is QueryDay on Twitter… and yes, I’m participating. Why, oh why, would I do such a thing? Well, here’s why. In the interest of grace, and second chances, and the…

(Oops, technical difficulties, my blog didn’t post properly at the scheduled time. Sorry!) If you’ve been reading agent blogs and you follow them on Twitter, you probably know by now that most agents want you to follow their posted submission guidelines when submitting. A significant proportion of rejections happen because the query doesn’t follow the…

I always get questions about manuscript submission services like Authorlink or Writer’s Edge or Christian Manuscript Submissions. (Also known as manuscript display websites.) These are services that show your writing to agents and editors through a website and/or monthly report that displays your logline, synopsis, and a sample of your manuscript. Most of these services…