Search Results: query
| A Writer's Life
First Things First
(Repost) If you’re a writer, here’s what I want to ask you today: Are you getting ahead of yourself? There are seasons in a writer’s life: Seasons for focusing on the art and craft of writing, and seasons for focusing on the business of writing. And seasons where it’s appropriate to do both. If you’re a…
Read More | Agents, Submitting
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…
Read More | Agents
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…
Read More | Contests
Poetry Contest Winners!
Thanks to the 100 people who contributed poems in Friday’s contest! They were all very entertaining and it was difficult to narrow it down. First, let’s start with some honorable mentions. In no particular order… Best Concise Overview of Publishing:Glynis No thank you, thank you no,We enjoyed the giggle,Now off you go. Best Brief Rejection…
Read More | About Me
Memoirs of Overcoming Adversity
Dear Rachelle, I’ve heard you talk about how difficult it is to sell a “personal story of overcoming adversity.” You’ve mentioned you won’t consider this kind of memoir unless the author has a significant platform and the story has built-in marketing potential and an obvious media hook. Would this include being a cancer survivor (two completely separate cancers) at…
Read More | Contests
Bad News Poetry Contest!
Whew, it’s been a grim week here on the blog, hasn’t it? All this talk about difficult conversations between authors and agents. I think it’s time to let you put your own spin on all of this. (And hopefully add some humor to the situation.) So I was thinking we should have a contest. How about…
Read More | Agents, Publishing
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…
Read More | Agents
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…
Read More Submission Guidelines
A list of submission guidelines. A must read if you're considering submitting your manuscript to me. Note: I do NOT accept snail mail queries. Email only.
Read More Contact Rachelle
Note: While I TRY to respond to all queries, our policy is that if you do not hear back within 60 days, you can consider it a "pass." IF you follow the guidelines and put "query" in the subject line, you don't have to worry about the email getting lost in spam.
Read More Submissions
To have your project considered, it’s important that you do two things: (1) Make sure you know if your project fits into what I’m looking for, and (2) Read and follow our submission guidelines.
Read More | A Writer's Life
Getting Our Hopes Up
Dealing With the Tough Stuff, Part 1 If you read my blog regularly, you might be tempted to think the pursuit of publishing is all rainbows and butterflies. (‘Cause I’m just so darn nice all the time.) But think again. Sometimes it’s barbed wire and snarling dogs. This week we’re going to talk about the aspects of being a writer…
Read More | About Me
What I’m Looking For
Updated January, 2012 I represent books for the Christian market (CBA) as well as for the general market, and I’m now accepting queries for both. Please note: Read our Submission Guidelines before sending a query! My query policy: While we would like to respond to all queries, our policy is that if you do not…
Read More | Publishing
Myth Busting – Day 2
Myths About Agents Myth: Agents don’t read submissions. Truth: Most agents who are accepting queries actually read and consider them. If they don’t want to read queries and they don’t need new clients, they’ll usually close to queries (like I have). Myth: Agents have reading software that scans query letters. If the query contains a…
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Rachelle Gardner
President & Literary Agent,
Gardner Literary Agency
President & Literary Agent,
Gardner Literary Agency
