Agent Process

Agent Priorities

First off, I’m still feeling like I need a vacation from my vacation. I’m working like crazy playing “catchup” and hope to be back to normal in the next couple of days. Phew! As for my micro-contest yesterday (yeah, the one with no prize), I asked you to guess how many unsolicited submissions (queries) were…
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Online Agent Listings

I am getting increasingly frustrated with people querying me, acting like they know about me and about our agency, while they’re pitching something we don’t represent. Usually this means projects clearly outside of a Christian worldview, like astrological self-help, or memoirs of drug abuse and debauchery (without redemption), but that doesn’t bother me. The frustrating…
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Ask the Agent: An Offer in Hand

If a writer sends you a query, even a few sample chapters, and you turn it down, but think the writing is good, and then the writer is offered a publishing contract with a large CBA publisher, would you reconsider your rejection? Should a writer reapproach an agent if offered a contract? I don’t think…
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Ask the Agent: Banking on Potential

I was so tempted to blog about the Olympics today… I can’t help it, I’m watching it as I write this! I loved all your comments on Friday, bringing out all the ways the Olympic journey can be compared to writing and publishing… or anything we work hard at and strive for. BUT… I’m not…
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Projects Under Consideration

When I reported my stats last Friday, you may have noticed I have 50 “Projects Under Consideration” and you may have wondered exactly what that meant. Well, I’ll tell you. But keep in mind, all agents do things their own way, and I don’t know if anyone else does this, so this is just ME.Basically…
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Endless Tinkering

Here is a typical email I receive from writers who’ve submitted a partial for consideration, or clients whose proposals are about to be sent to publishers:Dear Rachelle,I’m SO sorry to bother you and I hope it’s not too late. I was looking over my manuscript and I found a typo on page 3. I left…
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Getting an Agent… Later in the Game

I’ve just sold my second novel (unagented) to a major publisher, and have signed the contract. Would it be prudent to look for an agent? Do you think the publisher would mind one coming on board at this late stage? Do I need one? Good question. Since there are so many reasons people desire to…
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Off to Florida

I’m heading out to the International Christian Retail Show in the hot and humid city of Orlando, Florida. Thank heavens I’ll be inside with air conditioning most of the time. (My hair hates humidity.) Tomorrow I leave the house at 5am. When I arrive, I’ll head straight from the airport to the Chi Libris retreat…
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Ask the Agent: Rejecting Bestsellers

“How many bestsellers have slipped through reputable agents’ hands? I am curious to know how an agent deals with such a loss when a bestseller was in their hands and they rejected it.” This is an interesting question, because most editors and agents have passed on books that went on to success (if not bestseller…
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Agenting & Editing – Part Deux

Last week I explained that it’s not considered ethical for literary agents to benefit financially from the editing of their clients’ books. (Agents should not profit from their clients in any way except for selling the rights to their books.) As part of my mission to clear up some misconceptions about how WordServe operates, I…
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Simultaneous Submissions

On a panel at the PPWC on Saturday, one of the New York editors said, “It is so hard to get published these days, it doesn’t make sense not to do simultaneous submissions.” The panel went on to discuss how inefficient it is to send something to one agent or editor, then wait until they…
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To Call or Not to Call…

…that is today’s question. A lot of people wonder when it’s okay to call an agent or editor on the phone. The simple answer is: When they’re YOUR agent or editor. Let me start off by saying, if you’re my client, I LOVE talking to you. Don’t be afraid to call. Don’t get into the…
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Balancing My Work

Great discussion on “balance” in the comments yesterday! Everyone deals with this question and we all have our own challenges. Just to give you a little insight into the life of an agent, I wanted to write about how I try to organize and balance my work itself, separate from family and other considerations. This,…
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Switching Agents

I know a lot of you who read my blog are already agented. (Some of you by me, go figure.) So here’s something I want to say. Please, please please. If you are unhappy with your agent, and if you are thinking about making a switch: DON’T talk to a bunch of people about it,…
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