Agents
| Agents
Random! Questions! Answered!
Over the weekend I asked my Twitter followers to send me questions. Here are some of them, with my brief answers. Kennectto asked:Do publishers sometimes accept queries and/or manuscript ideas from writers without agents? Some publishers accept unagented queries and proposals, but most of the majors don’t unless an editor met the writer at a…
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Help! An Agent Relationship Gone Bad!
Anonymous wrote: I recently fired my book agent for a number of valid reasons and her response was to say that I OWE HER thousands of dollars because she spent time on my project (never submitted it to publishers because we kept rewriting the book proposal because she kept changing her mind about what she…
Read More | Agents, Contests, Just for Fun
Writing Contests
First off (and before we get to today’s post)… HAPPY RELEASE DAY to Deborah Vogts, author of Snow Melts in Spring (Book 1 in the Seasons of the Tallgrass series). This is her first novel… and my first agented novel to be released. We’re both excited! Click the picture to buy the book, and visit…
Read More | Agents, Editing
How Much Editing Can An Agent Do?
Before I became an agent, I’d been editing and writing books for years, so I naturally approached agenting from an editorial perspective. Meaning: I look for excellence in the craft of writing, and I also use my editorial skills to help polish a proposal or a manuscript before we send it out to publishers. Because…
Read More | Agents, Submitting
Have You Written More Than One Book?
Katie asked: I have written three books that I’m hoping to finish revising this summer, all in the same genre. When I’m ready to start submitting, how do I decide which one to submit? And let’s say I submit a book to an agent, they say no. Can I query the same agent with a…
Read More | Agents, Q4U
Q4U: Advice for Literary Agents
Remember a couple weeks ago when we had Help Your Fellow Writers Day? Well, you stepped up to the plate and it was a rousing success. Since you all did such a great job of offering advice, I decided to let you do it again. This time, the theme is “Help your local literary agent.”…
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How Do You Become an Agent?
A whole bunch of people have asked me this question recently. I can’t figure out if it’s because they are interested in becoming an agent… or because they can’t figure out how the heck I became one. I suppose it could just be curiosity, and I think it’s valid. It makes sense that, as a…
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Which Comes First – Agent or Editor?
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…
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Now That You Have an Agent…
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.)…
Read More | Agents, Popular Posts
Getting THE CALL
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…
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10 Things to Expect from an Agent
(The Real Deal This Time) 1. Expect them to have a strong track record of selling books to legitimate publishers and/or experience in the publishing industry.→ Check Publisher’s Marketplace→ Ask around, ask other authors, ask others in the biz. Find out what books they’ve represented and check the acknowledgements page of those books.→ If they…
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10 Things to Expect From Your Agent
People are always asking me, What are the signs of a good agent? What should I expect? Always one to provide answers, here is my list of the 10 main things you should expect from your literary agent. 1. Expect your agent to have a cell phone from all four major carriers so no matter…
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The Zero Inbox Phenomenon
If you read Michael Hyatt’s blog or Twitter posts, you’ve probably noticed he frequently refers to his zero-inbox status. Awhile back he wrote a blog post on how to stay on top of email, and occasionally he Tweets about it. My good friend Mary DeMuth also regales Twitter friends with her own zero-inbox status, and…
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Why It’s Hard to Tell the Whole Truth
As I mentioned on Friday, I’m getting an awful lot of queries these days, and most of my agent colleagues are experiencing the same thing. It’s a lot of work going through them, but there’s nothing more exciting than finding a gem buried in the inbox. I know many of you get frustrated with agent…
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