Janet Reid, Literary Agent

  This framed poster sits on my desk where I can see it every day. It's an ad for the New School.  You might wonder why I framed an ad f...

  Thanks to all the men and women who've served our country. And thanks to all the families who also served.

These are the reasons your queries from August-October got a deafening round of silence rather than a reply 1. Attachments (15) I don...

       There's a new post over on the QueryShark blog.

  I'm re-releasing my first book with a new cover, some minor edits, and bonus content but I'm getting tripped up with whether I ne...

Color me surprised when I received notification yesterday that my short story will be published in an online literary magazine. My new qu...

I have written a book that is intended to make readers laugh occasionally. That is a deadening description, I know, but one can hardly call...

I am finally ready to query, only to discover that three of the agents I consider the best matches are closed to queries...

 Is this a good idea? Should I write a proposal for it? Devil, meet the deep blue sea! If I say yes, this sounds great, write a proposal an...

Hello Chums! What's the name of your main male character?  Felix Buttonweezer?  Of course it is. What's the name of your main female...

  So, what are you working on today?

  Is this enough coffee?

  I was digging around in my files for some notes I KNEW I had on world building and came across this reading list and questions that I copi...

It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that genre is a fixed concept—that thrillers always look and feel like thrillers, or romances al...

I write under a pen name for the fiction imprint of an educational publishing company.  I write high interest, low reading level books for...

My wife and I have been discussing if there can be too many POVs (technically PsOV but let's all relax about that) in a novel.  I'...

What do you mean follow the directions? Which ones? (1) What if an agent asks for a partial and is then closed to queries when the manuscr...

  Here's the link to connect

 

  Excuse me, but I think you forgot something. I've been caught up watching movies for film pitches on a couple clients. I have a very t...

  Have you ever received a query from Mongolia by someone who originally wrote their book in Mongolian, self-published that book in Mong...

I recently visited a good friend who is a multi-published best-selling author. She very generously worked with me on my verbal pitch if meet...

  Isn't something missing today, SharkForBrains?

    Is now a good time to query agents in NYC?   First day of public school is September 13. I would imagine agen...

No matter where you are in the publication process, knowing about publicity and marketing is a requirement. One of the best ways to get star...

I read your blog post "Content Warning in a Query Letter." My manuscript explicitly discusses child abuse as a subplot, which d...

This is probably a ridiculous question, but here goes. Does the "score" or "grade" from an online edi...

  It's pretty quiet here in the city in August. Although we do get some interesting visitors from out of town. I'm on the couch read...

I'm curious what the "rules" are for italicizing foreign words, from an agent/editor perspective. According to my research, th...

    I’ve just started to look for agents for my novel. Based in Austria (and I have to emphasize that this is not the co...