There are two things I’m constantly stressing with writers:

(1) Mastering the craft of writing is crucial.

(2) Building a platform is important.

For fiction authors, the two are not equal.

If you’re writing a novel, your writing should be first priority. Spend most of your discretionary time writing and becoming a better writer. Read high quality fiction, read books on craft, get feedback from critique partners, edit and rewrite.

Get a head start on building a platform, yes. Learn Instagram so you’ll know how it works. Explore TikTok or any other social networks you enjoy. But as an unpublished fiction writer, spend 80% of your efforts on writing, 20% on platform building.

Things change when you’re about to get published. And things are very different if you’re a nonfiction writer.

But if you’re an unpublished novelist, your writing is top priority. If that’s not working, all the rest will be irrelevant.

The post Does a Fiction Author Need a Platform? appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

So you’re sending out submissions with no luck. Why? Well, your query may need work. The book idea itself may need work.

OR…

Your query and your book might be just fine. But because there are so many other queries in the queue, and perhaps bad luck and lack of serendipity and an annoying scarcity of fairy dust, agents and/or publishers aren’t biting. There’s just a lot of competition.

The problem is in being able to figure out which it is. You must do the work of figuring it out. Get a qualified critique partner. Hire an editor, someone who can address the big picture of your book: Is it interesting or is it boring? Does it feel derivative, or fresh? Does it make readers want to turn the page or fall asleep? Is it pretty good but have a fatal flaw?

Study your query letter, and read lots of resources on queries. How does yours stand up? Is it compelling? Does your book seem sellable?

This is where it’s helpful to be part of the writing community. If you have other friends who are writers, they can be of tremendous help in identifying where the problem might be. Unfortunately, friends who aren’t writers and don’t understand this whole process are usually no help at all.

There could come a point where you’ve done all you can, nobody’s biting, yet you have objective outside feedback that says your book really is good. What should you do?

Any or all of the following:

-Keep querying.

-Self publish.

-Write another book and query that one.

Just remember, the problem could be your book. Or… maybe not.

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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The post How do you determine the difference between heavy competition for agents vs. if your work is just not good? appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

A basic but important question: what do you put in your query subject line?

I’m sure there are plenty of possible creative answers to this, but I’m going to err on the simple side. I like a subject line that includes the word “Query” along with your book title, and possibly the genre.

Some examples:

Query: The Best Novel Ever (fiction)

Query: How to Write a Book (NF, self-help)

Query: My Life as a Novelist (memoir)

Tips:
*You may be tempted to use a click-bait subject line, but it usually backfires. (Ex: “Stephen King endorsed my writing.”)

*If you were legitimately referred to me by a client or publishing colleague of mine, you can use that in your subject line. (i.e. “Query — referred by Susie Editor.”)

*Avoid the temptation to include your book’s entire title and subtitle because it’s probably too long.

*You don’t need to include your name, i.e. The Best Novel Ever by Jane Jones, because your name is already visible on the email.

*Avoid the generic subject line, i.e. “Looking for an agent,” since the gut-level response to that is, “Hello Captain Obvious.” If we end up corresponding back and forth, your subject line with your book’s title is a helpful reminder to me.

Did I miss anything? Hope this helps!

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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Is there anything you should avoid in a query that would lead to an automatic rejection?

People ask me this question all the time, and I want to start by saying that every agent is different, and we probably have different things that make us immediately decline a query.

For many agents, failing to follow submission guidelines is one reason for a rejection. For example, most of us specify “no attachments” so if you include an attachment, it won’t be seen or worst-case scenario, your query will be deleted.

Of course, if your book is in a genre that the agent doesn’t rep and they clearly state this on their website, they’ll automatically delete it and may not send a pass letter.

But the more important things to avoid are probably things that you would never do. One of the biggest red flags for agents is when a writer makes grandiose or unrealistic claims. “There has never been a book like mine.” “This book is guaranteed to be a bestseller.”

If you’re writing a nonfiction book, especially in a popular category like parenting or self-help, and you don’t have any platform, that will be a pretty quick rejection. These are the ones that make us sad. We don’t want to say no just for the lack of a platform, but we can’t sell it to a publisher without one.

You can find practically unlimited advice online about how to write a query letter. I’ve got quite a few posts about queries on my own website, including in my submission guidelines because I want to set you up for success! Take your time with your query and good luck!

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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When you are looking for an agent, how many queries should you send?

The short answer is: as many as it takes!

There are several hundred literary agents out there. Once you’ve narrowed it down to agents who rep your genre, you’ll probably still have a pool of 100, 200, or more.

You can keep sending queries until you get an agent. You can send to a lot of agents at a time — don’t wait for responses.

You’ll want to pay attention to the responses you’re getting, or the lack of responses. Ideally, you’ll want to see your responses getting closer and closer to “please send me your manuscript.” Sometimes you’ll get feedback that helps you tweak your query. Sometimes you realize it’s not the query, it’s the book concept itself that needs to change. It’s hard to know, but be open to changing things along the way.

Author TJ Newman of the thriller “Falling” said on a podcast that she received 41 agent rejections before she got her agent. That’s not a whole lot — it’s normal. So be persistent!

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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The post How Many Queries Should I Send Out? appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

First, it’s important to know that a memoir is not your life story (that’s an autobiography). Your memoir is a piece of your story, centered around a particular time or event in your life that sent you on a different trajectory.

Make sure you know your theme. Is it a coming of age story? Dealing with loss? Overcoming adversity? Or is it about something you had to persevere through to achieve one of your greatest goals? Be clear on the theme, and write your story in such a way as to convey the theme without ever crossing over to “teaching.”

A memoir that stands out is written in such a way that it completely captivates the reader. There are very few unique stories, so you can’t count on the uniqueness of your experience to sell the book. Thousands of others have overcome adversity, beat cancer, escaped an abusive relationship, or defied the odds to find success despite massive hurdles — and they’ve written about it. So your story has to be told in a way that is vibrant, page-turning, and evocative.

It’s always hard to put your memoir out there, because it’s so personal. Remember that if you don’t find success immediately, it’s probably because so many people are writing memoirs. You’d be surprised how many people are writing about experiences similar to yours. If you don’t find a traditional publisher, self-publishing can be a viable option.

Happy writing!

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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The post What would make my memoir stand out to a publisher? appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

If your goal is to publish your book with a medium to large traditional, royalty-paying publishing house—then you want to seek agent representation. Very few large houses these days accept submissions from unagented authors.

Getting an agent is one way to know you’re on the right track. If you get a yes from a reputable agent, then you know your book and/or your writing has promise with a traditional publisher.

An agent who has your best interest at heart will be honest with you about what you need to work on. That agent won’t fluff you up with fancy words. Why? Because your agent doesn’t get paid unless he or she sells your book to a publisher. So your agent will work with you to make your query, your proposal AND your book the best it can be so it will stand out in the crowd and not get sent flying to the slush pile.

If you have found the right agent, there will be NO upfront fees. Agents earn their income from a percentage of the advance and royalties you earn from book sales. You don’t pay them anything else.

It’s your choice whether to pursue an agent or go it alone. Everyone gets to choose their own path!

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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When she walked over, all the signs were there. I could tell that her smile was trying to say, “I am excited to be here,” but fear was hovering close. As she sat down, I could see the subtle shaking in her hands and the lilt of her voice that told me her nerves were winning. After we exchanged pleasantries, she took a breath and started telling me about her book project. I asked her some questions, and then, it happened. The moment that always comes—when the person sitting across from me pauses, hoping to hear the words: “I love this project and I want to publish your book.”

This conversation is typical to many that I have had over the years. I go to conferences and events in order to listen to writers share their stories and I offer guidance and direction on what they need to do in order to make their dream of publishing a book a reality. To help guide writers to that place, I must start with the importance of a book proposal and share the five most common mistakes first time writers make.

#1: Not Having a Proposal

Assuming that an idea, even if it is a great one, is enough for a submission and won’t require a proposal doesn’t work. Publishers need a full picture of your book in order to fairly evaluate a project’s potential.  A solid proposal provides all the relevant information such as marketing ideas, competitive titles, influencer and endorsement options, and chapter summaries that enable publishers to gain a clear picture of what your project is and how they can get it out into the marketplace for readers.

#2: Not Knowing the Audience

The fact of the matter is that we all want everyone to read our book and tell their friends, spouses, family, coworkers, and neighbors about it. But the truth is that what we want to write about is not for everyone.  So, when you submit a proposal, be clear and direct about who your audience is and why. The opportunity to broaden your audience is a possibility further down the line, but at the proposal stage it should be crystal clear that you know your reader and can help your publisher connect with them through your book.

#3: Not Knowing your True Competition

As part of a good proposal, not only knowing your audience but also showing where your book fits into the genre you are writing tells publishers that you have a strong market in mind for this book. Take some time, do the research, figure out where your book really fits and go from there. Your proposal will be much stronger and will get more attention if the three to five comparable tittles you include communicate your knowledge of your market, your audience, and the genre of content you are creating.

#4: Not Providing a Clear Description or Summary of the Book

Just as an idea is not enough for a publisher to decide if they want to publish your book, not including sample content won’t help them fairly evaluate your writing.  For a strong proposal, include a few options to summarize your book including a one sentence summary, a paragraph summary, and then a longer description of a few paragraphs that can showcase more details about your project. If you can’t communicate what your book is and what the takeaway is for the reader in a sentence or two, then there is still work to be done.

#5: Not Including Platform Information

The hardest part for new authors when it comes to platform is figuring out when they have enough followers, posts, and email subscribers. Social media has changed how readers interact with content. If publishers can see that you understand the complexities of platform growth, it helps them determine what kind of partner you will be as an author.

While sheer odds mean I am not able to accept most of the proposals that I receive, following through on these five points makes a proposal stick out to me right away. Doing the hard and intentional work of crafting a solid proposal is challenging—but it’s worth it for the writer who wants to pursue traditional publishing.

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Kara Leonino is a Senior Acquisitions Editor for nonfiction at Tyndale House Publishers. She has had the privilege of working with a variety of talented authors, including Gretchen Saffles, Ann Swindell, Valerie Woerner, Amy Seiffert, Nicole Unice, Alisa Keeton and Jeremy Camp. Kara has a bachelor’s degree in English from Ohio University. She will try most anything once, loves dessert, can often be found wandering through libraries, and can read a map.

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

The post Guest Post: 5 Common Proposal Mistakes – An Acquisitions Editor Shares Some Tips appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

Ah, the age-old dilemma. How to get an agent? Why does it seem like such an uphill battle? It even sometimes feels like agents are actively trying to keep you out!

Exactly WHY is it so hard?

First, let me be clear: we agents love nothing more than saying YES. Our favorite things are finding promising new authors and matching authors with the right publishers. But sadly, for every YES we have have to say NO dozens of times.

It’s a numbers game. There are limited publishing slots, and the number of authors we can represent is limited. But the number of people sending us queries or pitching us at writers conferences is seemingly infinite, so we have to make tough choices.

If you’re pitching agents and nobody’s saying yes, then your pitch may need work, or your book may need work (or both). OR… your query and your book might be just fine, but because there are so many other queries in the queue, and perhaps bad luck and lack of serendipity and an annoying scarcity of fairy dust, agents and/or publishers aren’t biting.

The task to figure out which category you’re in. Do the work of figuring it out. Get a qualified critique partner. Hire a coach or an editor, someone who can look at your query and your manuscript and help you figure out why nobody’s biting.

You might come to a point where you’ve done all you can, you haven’t found an agent or publisher, yet you have outside feedback that says your book really is good. What should you do? Any or all of the following:
*Keep querying.
*Self publish.
*Write another book and query that one.

Just remember, the problem could be your book. Or… maybe not. There’s just a lot of competition out there.

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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The post Why is it so Hard to Find an Agent? appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

Book proposals!

Who needs them, and when?

You need to prepare a book proposal if you’re pursuing traditional publishing (as opposed to indie) and you’re writing NON-FICTION (including memoir).

If you’re writing fiction, then you don’t need a full proposal, but you’ll need to prepare a synopsis, and probably gather some comps as well.

There are lots of resources on how to write a book proposal. I’ve got a lot of helps here on my website. Click here or look under “Resources” or “Submitting.” Happy reading!

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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The post Do I Need a Book Proposal? appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

You need to be able to tell someone what genre your novel is for a variety of reasons that all relate to the fact that you’re trying to make your art into a business. When talking to an agent or publisher about your novel, practically the first thing out of your mouth should be the genre. It sets the stage, sets up an expectation, and gets your listener in the right frame of mind to understand your story. Just like on Netflix or Hulu, where you can choose to search movies by category (thriller, action, romance, comedy, family), the genre is usually the first thing someone wants to know about your book.

So you really must be able to classify your book in a genre — you’re not getting away from it. Some genres are broad, such as “literary fiction” or “commercial fiction.” Others are more specific, like paranormal romance or western.

But what if your book is hard to classify because it has elements of several genres?

Here is my secret for figuring out what genre to call your novel: Find ten books whose readers will probably also like your book. When you’re thinking about the audience for your book, you should be thinking, “My readers are people who love books such as _____, _____, and _____.” What are those books? Now, what genre are those books?

That’s most likely your genre. The reason is, genres exist for the purpose of helping readers find the books they like. So if you’re having trouble identifying your genre, start with your intended audience and work backwards.

When identifying your genre, remember they aren’t cut and dried. People won’t always agree about which genre a certain book falls into. Just do the best you can to capture your book with a helpful genre description.

It’s okay to use two or sometimes even three words for your genre. Historical romance. Paranormal thriller. Medical romantic suspense. Sometimes people embellish a little: women’s fiction with romantic elements. That’s all fine, as long as you keep it simple.

If an age group is part of your genre, add another descriptor. YA paranormal. YA  romance. General YA. Middle grade adventure. Middle grade fantasy.

Here are some examples of fiction genres: fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, mystery, thriller, suspense, literary, historical, women’s, Christian, inspirational, horror, romance, western, crime-detective, action-adventure, commercial, or general.

Here is a post on AgentQuery that defines some genres.

Here is a Wikipedia page that has a bit more on genres.

What genre are you writing? Are you having any trouble identifying your genre?

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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The post Identify Your Novel’s Genre appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

One of the most common questions I’m regularly asked is, “How do I figure out what books to include in my comps?” People get all hung up on it, especially with fiction. Do I look for books with the same premise or plot? Same time period? Same writing style? How do I know what to include?

I’m going to make it easy for you.

Ask yourself, “Who are my readers? What are they reading right now?” Those are your comparable books.

Keep this line in mind:

“People who enjoy the following books are likely to enjoy my book.”

You can use that line in a proposal, then follow it with the comparable books, and for each one, a brief explanation of why your book would appeal to those same readers. This approach frees you from trying to decipher what an agent is looking for, and instead, use those comps to identify your audience.

If you can’t readily identify six to ten books or authors whom your potential readers are already reading, then you need to stop what you’re doing and get a lot more educated about what’s already out in the marketplace, and who your potential audience is. If you can’t identify your audience, then how will you or a publisher sell your book to them?

Providing “comps” is all about helping your agent, your editors, your marketing team, and your readers to capture a vision for your book.

Too often, writers tell me, “I’ve looked and looked, and I can’t find anything quite like my book.” You and I both know that’s a cop-out. Think about your potential readers, and figure out what they are already reading. It’s that simple.

To read a little more about how to create a strong Competition section for your book proposal, click HERE.

Do you know what books your potential readers are already enjoying? How do you research this?

If you should decide to invest in some personalized counsel, I offer coaching for unpublished authors here: My Coaching Services

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The post Finding Comparable Books appeared first on Rachelle Gardner.

Here are some things to consider when you’re deciding whether to work with an independent publisher:

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There are various scenarios to consider, so here’s an overview.

First, whenever you are going to re-query, it’s a good idea to open your letter with a brief mention of your previous interaction with the agent or agency, and an explanation of why you’re writing to them again. (BRIEF.) That way, if your name sounds familiar to the agent, they won’t be sitting their scratching their head trying to figure out why.

Let’s look at some different situations.

Sending the same query to a different agent at an agency that already passed:

• Most agencies address this in their submission guidelines. At many agencies, they prefer you don’t re-query, because the agents share information with each other. My general advice, however, is that it can’t hurt, as long as you do what I mentioned above—open your letter with a mention of your previous interaction with the agency.

A query to the same agent for a totally different book:

• Go ahead and re-query, but I recommend waiting three months or more before requerying the same agent with a different book. You don’t want the agent to tire of you or develop an overall feeling of “this writer isn’t right for me.” Mention that you queried before on a different book.

A query for a book that was previously rejected; but you’ve rewritten the book:

• Did the agent specifically say they’d like to see it again if you make some revisions? Then send it.
• Did the agent see any pages of the book, or just your query? If they only saw your query, then they weren’t impressed by the concept or the hook, and/or they weren’t impressed with the writing in the query itself. So it’s very likely they won’t be interested, even if you’ve revised the book. Go ahead and re-query if you want, but be sure to revise that pitch in the query letter, since it didn’t work last time. 
• In all cases where you’ve rewritten the book, go ahead and re-query if you like but be aware that some agents don’t like seeing the same project twice, even if rewritten.

A query for the same book to the same agent; you haven’t revised the book, but you’ve rewritten your query:

• If your original query included sample pages: I would not suggest requerying. Even if your query was poorly written, the agent also saw your actual writing, and that wasn’t enough to pique their interest. 
• If your original query didn’t include any sample pages:  Most agents can see through a poorly written query letter, and if it’s something they think they might find interesting, they’ll ask to see pages. If they never asked you to see more, then the query didn’t interest them. Go ahead and re-query if you really want to, but be aware many agents would feel like this is a waste of their time.

I’m on the laid-back side of this discussion. I don’t mind if people re-query as long as they are truly offering me something new and better. Other agents may not like it so much.

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