Search Results: query

There are several books available on writing book proposals. My favorites are: Write the Perfect Book Proposal by Jeff Herman. I like this one because it contains ten real-life proposals that sold. The Literary Agent’s Guide to Writing a Non-Fiction Book Proposal by Andy Ross. This one’s short and to-the-point, and the last time I…

10 Tips for a Winning Elevator Pitch Continuing on our theme of pitching your book… today I’m going to give a few tips on creating a brief verbal pitch for your book. 1. Remember that you are going to be talking to someone. While many of these tips can apply to written pitches, pay attention to the fact…

Last week we discussed pitching your project to agents and editors at a writers’ conference. Today I wanted to address that a little more. One thing I’ve noticed lately in fiction pitches – verbal pitches or queries – is that some writers want to tell all about the theme or the emotional journey of the…

*And you could win a prize. Hey faithful readers, first I want to let you know how much I appreciate you visiting here, and I love the great conversations we have in the comments! I’m still trying to make the transition from the old blog to the new one complete. So here are a couple of ways…

(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…

“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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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.