Agents

women kickboxing

What Do You Expect?

I might be getting myself into trouble by asking this but… What is the most important thing you expect from a literary agent? (Let us know if you have an agent, or if you’re seeking one.) Have a good weekend!  
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stack of letters

When to Re-Query an Agent

One of the most common questions I receive is, “When is is okay to send another query to an agent who previously passed?” Sometimes people are talking about re-sending a query for the same book that was already queried; the writer has either improved the query or improved the book and wants another shot. Other times,…
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Michael Hyatt

In Which I am Interviewed by Michael Hyatt

Instead of posting here today, I’m sending you to another blog. Michael Hyatt interviewed me via Skype and the video is up on his blog today. Visit Michael Hyatt’s blog by clicking here. In the interview, Michael and I discussed advice for new authors looking for an agent, common mistakes new authors make in approaching agents, the importance of …
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business woman

How Do You Become a Literary Agent?

Believe it or not, I get emails regularly from people who want to become literary agents, and they want advice on how to do it. Typically, the people who send these emails are either right out of college or they’re looking for a career change, and they don’t have experience in publishing. It’s hard to answer…
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Shady

Questionable Practices by Literary Agents

This isn’t one of those posts that I’m excited about, but a few things have come to my attention recently that made me want to remind you all to beware of certain practices by literary agents that may be unethical, questionable, or represent a conflict of interest. Of course, every case is different, and just because…
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questions

Personalized Publishing Advice: Where to Get It?

Blog reader Stefne Miller wrote me: Part of the bonus of having an agent is the ability to sit down with someone and track a course for the writer’s career. The writer gets a professional opinion about what’s in their best interest and plans for the future can be made. For someone like myself who…
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Why Agents Don’t Give Reasons with Rejections

“Two Minute Tutorials” Ohmygosh! Another video! And guess what. I decided to name my video series “Two Minute Tutorials” and wouldn’t you know, today’s video is 3 minutes. C’est la vie, as they say. So this installment of “Two Three Minute Tutorials” answers the question, “Why Don’t Agents Give Reasons with their Rejections?” (I’m trying to get…
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Paranoia

Query Paranoia

Writers often get freaked out by all our blogs and twitter posts about “bad” queries and big mistakes people make that can make them look…less than professional. But here’s the thing. If you’re reading blogs and books and getting yourself educated about how to get published, then I’m sure you’re going to be fine. You…
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What are the Odds of Getting an Agent?

Dear Rachelle: You’ve blogged about how to write a good query letter, but what about the stage after a successful query, when several agents have requested partials or fulls? How many requested partials or fulls become clients? Could a dozen agents be interested enough to take a look, but none of them love it enough…
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Difficult Conversations, Part 1

“This book isn’t going to work.” I know many of you worry that agents gossip about writers behind the scenes. I don’t find this to be true, but what I’ve found is that agents often commiserate with each other about the hard parts of the job (like people in any kind of job). And one…
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The One Question Agents Can’t Answer

Agents get questions through email and in our blog comments every day. Most of us respond as we’re able, either on our blogs or via email. But there is one kind of question that an agent (who isn’t your agent) can’t answer for you. That question is: What should I do? I get this in a few variations:…
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Multi-Book Contracts

Do You Have to Sign One? In my May 3 post, “Will Your First Book Be Published?” I mentioned multi-book contracts, and blog reader Marion asked: “Do you have to sign for a multi-book contract?” Her concern was mainly that she wasn’t sure she wanted to be locked into deadlines since her first book took…
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When Agents Have Bad News

or… Don’t Shoot the Messenger Did you know that I invented publishing? Seriously—book publishers, agents, querying, marketing—the whole shebang, I thought of it, created the system and built it from the ground up. Wait—what? I didn’t build the publishing industry? You mean I’m not responsible for the lousy query system, and the difficulty getting published, and the…
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How to Get an Agent (NOT!)

13 Ways to Screw Up Your Query 1. Address your letter to Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Agent or To Whom It May Concern. 2. Write “I believe you are the perfect agent for me” even though it’s obvious the same email was sent to fifty agents. 3. Pitch a mainstream novel of 40,000 words… or 250,000…
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