More on requested fulls, those problems we all want to have

With my third novel (a thriller), after two weeks of querying, I have 10 agents reading my full manuscript, and 2 partials out.

Question 1: I know you've addressed this a couple of times on the blog, but if I get additional full requests, should I let them know ten other agents are reading? More recently you said a writer should only reveal that information if an agent asks, but in a previous post a few years ago "When to reveal you're popular," you said it was okay to tell an agent if they request a full. I want to know if I can mention this without coming across as rude.

Question 2: Before I sent the manuscript out the first time, I believed it was completely ready, but after reading it again several times, I've found a handful of errors (for example, peak instead of peek). These happen after page 100, and I know you've mentioned that this is unacceptable, but I'm wondering if an agent will stop reading if they encounter an error or two past page 100.

None of the agents have responded so far, and I know you advise sending a revised manuscript, but I can't help but feel like the agent will think I would make a bad client if I do. Or will think it's annoying. If the changes are a few typo fixes is it worth sending a revised copy? If I do, how do I phrase that email?

Generally you only need to inform agents if another agent has made an offer.  I sometimes get those "another requested the full" emails, but they don't have any impact on when I read the manuscript.  If there's an offer, I will move that ms to the top of the list.

I caution all of you scofflaws out there who just had the bright idea of telling all agents that you've got an offer so as to get your ms to the top of the list. DO NOT DO THIS.  There are two reasons: lying is a TERRIBLE way to start a relationship with anyone let alone someone you will be working with long term.  And yes, you'd be amazed how easy it is to find out it was a lie.   Second, because I'm reading quickly I'm more likely to stop if I'm not totally thrilled. I'm Unlikely to offer any comments or revision suggestions.

The answer to your question is this: if an agent asks if anyone else is reading, it's fine to say yes, but it's almost impossible to inform everyone of full requests and not sound rude.

As to your second question: I don't stop reading unless the mistakes are frequent or egregious. If it's clear you didn't run spell czech I generally give you a chance to revise and resend.  I'm really not the comma police.

If you've got a LOT of homonyms I'll mark them until I lose patience, then send it back to you with a stern warning. Often I'll read a revised version if the author cleans up the ms.

If you've got a cleaner version of the ms, you offer to the agents reading the full.

Here's how to do that: Dear SharkForBrains, I found some errors that mortify me. I fixed them. Here's the cleaner version.  Yes, I consider myself gnawed. Love and kisses, woodland creature

I'd ALWAYS rather read a cleaner version. Every mistake yanks me out of the story. The fewer times that happens, the more I can concentrate of other things: pacing, tension, plot holes.

And none of that would make me think you'd be a bad client.
In fact, knowing the ms had errors and not caring? THAT's a problem.

Someone will always gleefully tell you how hard it is

(a)Word on the street is that diversity gets double the rejection rate of a story that's not diverse. Several of my friends who are People of Color reported rejection rates from 100+ before getting accepted, while the people who wrote say straight white (cis) (males) often report reject rates around 40-50 average. This doesn't seem to matter on genre either.

(b)Given the larger rejection rates for diverse and highly diverse manuscripts in the industry and me hearing that it sometimes takes 2+! years to get through all of the rejections before getting a hit, is it wiser or less wise to send in more than 5 submissions per round per month. I'm tempted to double it considering the higher rejection rate, but equally nervous about burning bridges while doing so.

(c)Also, I have a habit of writing outside of the usual American gold standard for "What makes a story good" by borrowing from the cultures I'm writing in (Of course with extensive research). I figure my primary audience should be the real life people that are represented by the characters. However, I also recognize that often agents and (white) readers won't recognize those conventions up front and say NO, that's a "wrong" way to tell a story. I'm also semi-frustrated because reports from College Lit class students report that the "World Lit" section only covers things like "Greek" and "Roman" which doesn't really help. (And most of the time they don't hit up the diversity within those lits either. Like the LGBTQIA.) I'm aware this results in a higher rejection rate for me as most people probably reading my stories while professing to want diversity, probably haven't say, studied what a Dream Record (Korea) is. I have no idea if the agent knows what Kishotenketsu looks like. Never gotten to read outside of American (and maybe European) Lit. Is there a professional way to battle this misconception in a query, so they don't auto-reject and give the story a fair shake just because it doesn't fit the gold standard American Mold?

Kinda trying to battle the systemic prejudice within publishing here and would love some tips on how to get through it in a less painful way.

Thanks for any tips you can give.

For starters "word on the street" means writer anecdotes, and listening to those at all, let alone drawing conclusions from them will make you crazy. It's akin to "my cousin's hairdresser's boyfriend had his kidney stolen by organ brokers and woke up in the park with an ice pack and a note to get to a hospital." Unless you know the guy's name, and saw the note, don't be so quick to believe things.

There's simply no way to draw conclusions based on rejection rates. Those are not measurable, replicable numbers. And given "no response means no" has become the norm, you're using the absence of data as data.

My little math loving heart quivers.

What you CAN measure is books that are PUBLISHED. And yes, there is a stunning lack of diversity in published books. That situation is starting to change, but publishing moves at a glacial pace in every single way except author rodent wheels, so that change is going to take a while to see.

And there's NOTHING you can do about this other than buy and talk about books that are the kind of books you write and want to read.

Your question about increasing your submission rate from five queries a month to ten implies you burn bridges by sending queries out too fast. I can't imagine why you think that. Querying doesn't burn bridges. Querying gets your project in front of agent's eyeballs.That's ALL it does.

As to paragraph (c) I literally don't understand what you are trying to say here. You've got a reference to gold standard (which has nothing to do with writing or novels), college lit classes (which have nothing to do with trade publishing) and references to auto-reject (which is generally due to things like "fiction novel" not things we might have to google like Kishotenketsu.)


Bottom line: You're missing a key quality for someone who wants to be a professional novelist. That quality is die hard certainty you are the exception to all the stats, all the anecdotes, all the BBS denizens that say you will fail. You have to look at daunting stats (and while you haven't collected those stats properly here, the stats ARE daunting) and say "that will not apply to me."

Without that determination, you will always find a reason you didn't succeed.And there will always always ALWAYS be a cacophony of voices telling you how hard it is, how racist, ableist, out of touch; how the powers that be are stacked against you. And all of it will be true. That can't matter to you.

Every single time I read a query I'm not thinking "this won't be the one." I'm hoping just the opposite. Your job is to write the one that is.

And every single person in my office is looking diligently for underrepresented voices. I sit in those meetings, I beta read those manuscripts. If anyone tells you agents aren't looking for this, ask if they're in the meeting, or reading the manuscripts.Yes it takes a lot of rejection to get to yes. That's always been true. It will never change.

Here's the answer to your question (Kinda trying to battle the systemic prejudice within publishing here and would love some tips on how to get through it in a less painful way) at long last: There is no less painful way. This is the reality you're working in. It's going to be a battle. It's going to have very few victories. I don't know if it's better to know that going in, or discover the hard way via experience.

What I can tell you is this:  Don't listen to anyone who tells you that your book didn't get picked up cause agents are racist and insensitive and full of white privilege idiots. Yes, there are certainly some of those in the field. BUT, the biggest reason we don't take things we're actively looking for is the story or the writing aren't compelling.

Can I demand accessibility?

Equal accessibility is important to me, so I would want my book available in large print, braille, and/or audio-book formats, so it would be accessible to people w/ poor or no vision or w/ other conditions that would limit their ability to read a standard-printed book .

I know these formats can be expensive, and certainly many books are unavailable any of these ways. My question is, considering that this would be my first published book, and that I therefore have no clout at all, can I actually make this demand? Or would the publisher simply skip me for someone whose first book would be much cheaper to publish?

Should I mention I'd be willing to compromise elsewhere as needed, such as a smaller advance or giving up other rights, to make this happen?

And at what point in the query process do I tell my would-be agent how important this is to me?

The author is the seller of rights, and the publishers who acquire audio/large print rights etc. are the buyers. You can't actually force someone to buy something, (Oh how I wish you could!) even if you reduce the price to zero (your reference to smaller advance/other rights.)

Audio is the most likely subsidiary right to be licensed. Often the print publisher will acquire audio rights as part of their initial deal. If they do not, your agent can pitch them to an audio publisher. Whether an audio publisher is interested is entirely up to them. Even if it's hugely important to the author.

Large print rights are much more difficult to license. Large print publishers usually seek titles that are best sellers, and from established brand name authors. Large print rights are also often acquired by the publisher making the initial print deal. Of all the books I've sold, fewer than 10% have been licensed to large print publishers either thorough the initial print publisher or in a direct deal.

As for Braille, those rights are also addressed in the print contract. Most often they are made available at no charge to publishers who want them. It's a pretty standard clause.

That said, I've never seen a Braille book. But then again, maybe I'm just not looking in the right place.

I commend your enthusiasm for making your book available to people with reading challenges. It contrasts quite favorably to the fellow who was peeved that Braille rights were being given away. ("I wrote it why shouldn't I get paid" was his position. He did not sign the contract and I was happy to sever my relationship with him--for that and MANY other reasons)

But, as with many parts of the publishing process, whether your book will be available in these formats is almost entirely out of your control. You can certainly mention it to your agent but under ZERO circumstances will you make this a deal breaker.

And I should remind you that many people use electronic books, which can alter the font size, in lieu of buying or borrowing (from the library) large print books.  Most publishers will produce an ebook simultaneously with print, so your desire to be accessible can be met that way.

Rant: Dear Ms. Reid

Ms,Mrs, Miss Reid, (Trying to stay politically correct),

No you're not.
You're being sarcastic about the use of Ms.

When people trot out "I'm trying to be politically correct" the subtext is you people who want to define yourselves, rather than be defined by others, are just too cute, and don't need to be taken seriously by the rest of us.

Maybe the very idea of "Ms" offends you; you think it's bizarre or wrong or something other than "the real world, deal with it like a human being."  Fine. Think that. Rant about it on your blog. Holler it to the stars if you so desire.

But do not make the mistake of assuming everyone agrees with you. Or that I agree with you. 

I don't care what you think; I care how you behave.

Now I can hear the prickly pears amongst you saying "jeeze Sharkly it's just a damn salutation" and you're perfectly correct. BUT it tells me something about you. Something I don't much like. And it's a HUGE red flag for a potential client, who in the course of what I would hope will be a long and prosperous career, will need to interact politely with all sorts of people, some of whom might prefer Ms. Or be gender fluid. Or transitioning genders. And I need to have confidence that you're not going to just bulldoze your way through those interactions with "well, you look like girl, why is your name Homer?"


Bottom line: I am very happy to coach you on the arcane practices of the publishing world, but you have to come fully actualized on basic etiquette.

The distinction between rhythm and cadence

Recently a twitter follower asked me.

That's a good question.

If you look in my new favorite dictionary, Merriam Webster you find:

Rhythm: the effect created by the elements in a play, movie, or novel that relate to the temporal development of the action

Cadence:  a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds in language the grand cadence of his poetry


The definitions aren't going to help much are they? This is one of the most interesting parts of being a word wrangler: really delving into the nuances of similar words.

I think the best way to talk about cadence is to read it or hear it.

This recent article in the WaPo has undeniable cadence: notice the short alternating paragraphs. It's almost like the call and response of the drill Sergeant calling cadence. 


 
 

or for those Bill Murray fans in the audience




Clearly cadence is rhythmic, but not all rhythm is cadence.

Here's rhythm that isn't cadence




Bob Fosse is probably the closest to a cadence style in his choreography (oh god, what a great artist he was) but it's still not the call and response and repetition of true cadence.


Here's why this is important to think about: you always need rhythm, and sometimes the rhythm you need is cadence. Rhythm and cadence are conveyed with word choices.  You can have flexible, flowy phrases and still have rhythm (think Faulkner) but cadence is going to use short sharp words. Think of the difference between marching and dancing.

Making these kinds of distinctions will help you choose just the right word which is a key element of compelling, interesting writing.  Here are some examples to start you out:

1. Pale and wan
2. Amble and saunter
3. Rage and fume
4. author and writer
5. trump and win (oh yes, I did that one on purpose)
6. hurl and toss
7. invective and insult
8. gamble and risk
9. pay and remit
10. shark and agent (ok, ok, that's just a joke)

Yes you can go overboard on this, much like you can on commas and other forms of rebellious punctuation, but I'd rather fish you out of the lagoon, than not have you dive in.

11. Chastise and upbraid
12. snarl and growl
13. nefarious and underhanded
14. the devil and the deep blue sea (ok, that's also a joke)



Now, marching off to the office:

I don't know but I've been told
Query No's are really cold

Sound off! Sound off! Three, four

Requested fulls are sent with hope
Waiting time will make you mope

Sound off! Sound off! Three, four.

Get "the call" and leap for joy
Ours is just to write and die!

Sound off! Sound off! Three, four

Lit mag subs before querying or publication

 I've seen a lot of literary magazines and journals that take submissions for novel excerpts. Are those typically published novels only, or is it okay to send in an excerpt from a finished, but currently being queried novel?

Also, if the excerpt was accepted for publication (likely with rights reverting to the author on pub), could that then be added to the query bio?

Generally excerpts are from UNpubbed novels. Check the submission guidelines for the magazines in question about what they take. It varies widely.

If the excerpt is published, even if the rights don't revert to you, you're fine. In fact, most short story
collections include previously published stories.

How to query for this: write "excerpts from this novel have been accepted for publication by The Good Taste Review" or "excerpts from this novel have appeared in The Better Taste Review and The Carkoon Review."

And yes, you really should include those with your publishing credits in a query.

When your book is sold, you'll include "an excerpt from this novel in a different form appeared in The Good Taste Review" on the copyright page.

You'll also make sure your publishing contract acknowledges that excerpts have been previously published. 
Your agent will know what to do.


Having excerpts already published is something I view as a plus. It means someone else looked at your writing and found it publishable. That's almost always a good thing to see in a query.

Any questions?
 

All the more reason to have a dedicated writer email

A friend of mine mentioned what she called "coping skills" in a recent email to me. I'd never thought about that idea before, but it instantly rang true.  Coping skills come from experience of course, which means that if you don't have experience with something it's harder to cope skillfully.

As it happened, I was replying to writers about requested fulls just about the same time I read my friend's email.

And of course:

Wile E Coyote and I have a bright idea

Getting a lot of rejection on your work is a part of the publishing process. Every writer endures it. You will not be the exception to the rule. You will NEVER stop getting rejections.

That doesn't make rejection any easier to deal with, but after a couple hundred of them, your coping skills are going to improve (a bottle of bourbon and watching Jaws to see the shark get blown up is a good start.)

At the START of your career though, those coping skills aren't as honed. And rejections tend to arrive, in the way of all bad news, at the worst possible time. And you take them more personally, which means it takes longer to regain your equilibrium.

So, here's an idea:

If you query from a dedicated author email that you do not use for anything else, you don't have to check the email if you know you're not feeling up to it.

There are a lot of other good reasons to have a dedicated email address: you won't include agents on some kind of send-all with your holiday cards; you won't spam agents if your regular email address gets hacked (this happens a LOT); you won't need to engage an away message when you're on your holiday in the Swiss Alps and I am at home reading your manuscript.

But mostly, the idea of managing the circumstances when you hear back from agents is a good idea. It gives you more control than if the email just shows up on your birthday, or Christmas, or any of a hundred other days you really didn't want to hear this.

Having an email you can turn off or ignore without losing contacts with the other parts of your life seems a pretty good idea for coping with this crazy industry.

What other tricks have you developed for coping with the query process?

When your life goes off the rails

All too often (because never is the ideal) a client will share news of devastating developments in their personal life. A death. A divorce. Illness. A child in dire straits.

Sometimes that curve ball from Life hits them square on the Muse.

Sometimes the client can say "I just can't write."
Sometimes they can't

Sometimes writing through pain is the only thing that will save you.
Sometimes it isn't.


It's ok to stop writing.
I can renegotiate deadlines.
Life happens to all of us and mostly I just want to make sure you're going to come out on the other end of this. Or your kid is.

If you're querying and something dire happens, it's OK to write to the agents who've requested your full and say "Yanno, Life has thrown me a curve ball and right now I need to spend time getting up and dusting myself off." Sometimes you can't share the details. Sometimes writing the details down is too painful to even think about. That's ok. Just tell me you're in dire straits. I've been there. We've all been there.

All agents you want to work with will reply "I'm really sorry you're having a tough time. Get back in touch when you can. You're in my thoughts."

All agents you want to cross off your list will say something else.

Agents who don't respond to an offer notice

I received an offer of rep a little while ago, and as any loyal Reider would do, I notified all the other agents with the manuscript (and those with the query less than a month, plus those with the query longer than a month but who said they responded to all queries).

I got responses back from most within a few days—either they would read and get back by the deadline, or they would step aside—but not from two of them with the full. Should I follow up in case they didn't see the first Offer of Rep email? I worry in particular because I did an R&R for one of them, and we've talked on Twitter from time to time, so I don't want to accidentally snub them if they didn't get the first email.

Am I overthinking things? To borrow a phrase, it's woodlands all the way down.

No, you're not overthinking things.

Just yesterday I got an email from a writer who queried before the date I showed on the blog as "caught up through" but not heard back.

I had no record of a query from her, and nothing in my spam file.

Where the hell was the email?
Who knows, but it sure wasn't here.
I was very glad she'd reached out again.

Given that you have a deadline, I would suggest you reach out one more time.

With the agent you've talked to on Twitter and done an R&R for, mention that in the email too. (Yes, sometimes we forget things.)

In the end though, you're not at fault if they don't reply.  You tried, more than once. That's all decorum requires.

Dealing with unreliable narrators in a query

How do you mention your narrator is an unreliable narrator in your query? The current book I'm querying has such a narrator but it isn't revealed until the very end so I don't mention it in the query. I'm wondering if this is better mentioned in the synopsis (it is) or if this is something that needs to be addressed in the query right from the beginning.

While I am indeed the source of all wisdom in publishing (ow! LIGHTNING just hit me!) one good way to find the answer to questions like this is to see how other books with similar devices/plot twists  are handled.

That means you have to know what books have unreliable narrators which is a good thing since those are your comp titles.

And that leads you to the answer to your question:

You do not EVER tell anyone in the query that it's an unreliable narrator. That's akin to giving away all the plot.

You can however use books with unreliable narrators as your comp titles, and a discerning agent will think "aha! a clue!"

As for how unreliable narrators are covered in the query, here's  Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? by Agatha Christie:

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with a drug overdose.

But the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information. Unfortunately before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death.

Who killed Roger Ackroyd?

The query doesn't start with the hero (Hercule Poirot, the detective) or what he wants or what's at stake. It sets up the premise of the mystery.

Check out other examples, and find ones that are closer to your book than this one is. Use that as a template.

Query Timing

If you have a novel that is as perfect as it can be (in your eyes) and you're all set to go with a killer query letter and synopsis, is there a specific time of year that is best or worst to send out query letters? 

 

No.


Oh...you want more details?

A lot of well-meaning advice sites tell you to avoid querying in August. So you wait till September.Then you hear that September is very busy for agents because they're pitching client manuscripts after the summer break.


So you wait till October
And that's the Frankfurt Book Fair, and everyone knows all the agents are busy with Frankfurt in October.


So you wait till November.
Well, that's Thanksgiving, so you can't query then.


And everyone KNOWS you should not query in December cause of the parties and the holidays and Christmas.


So, January.
But January is busy cause of all the client manuscripts they're pitching for the new year, plus they're doing
the tax stuff for clients, so really better wait till February.


And February is so dreary and cold in New York that no agent can read queries, they can barely slog to work, so better wait till March.


Only March is spring vacation, and it's also Left Coast Crime, so clearly not a good time to query.


April! April is the ideal time to query. Except that it might be Easter that year. Or maybe the agent will be doing her taxes. She's certainly focused on the Edgars at the end of month.


So May. May will be great. Oh wait, that's BEA and all agents have to prep for BEA so May is out.


June! June is the perfect month to query. Except it turns out the agent is closing to queries in June for the rest of the year because she's got so many she's backlogged and wants to catch up.


And there you are....waiting.


Ok.

You get the point I'm sure.


This questions is based on the notion that agents READ the query close to the time you send it. That is not often, let alone always, the case.

If you send in April, it's entirely possible the agent will read it in May. Or June. Or, in the case of several of my slacker colleagues, August.

You have ZERO control over when an agent reads your query.

Thus, you work on the only thing you do have control over: the quality of the query.

Send it when it's ready.
Yes, you're going to hit some agents when they're doing their taxes, or prepping for Frankfurt, or planning an Edgars party. You won't know about it, and it WON'T MATTER. Good queries don't go bad if they sit awhile. Trust me.

Sending comp copies of novels to agents

 I've published three novels with an independent press. The third book even won a legitimate mystery award. Yet I'm struggling to find a literary agent for two completed manuscripts. I've queried over 250 agents & had some close calls (some on-the-fence responses, which are often more frustrating than regular rejections) but at the end of the day, I can't land an agent. I don't think going back to "fix" the manuscripts is the solution. I've nitpicked them to death already.

I've been considering mailing a copy of my award-winning book to the 300 or so literary agents on my list. Chances are they will probably just throw it in the trash. But I keep thinking - what if one of them reads it & realizes this is literary genius? Of course she would sign me. The practical side of me tells me this is a bad idea. But I'm running out of hope.

Can you tell me why this is a bad idea? 

Well, it's not the worst idea I've ever heard about how to snag an agent's interest. 

My first concern is simply cost. The cost of the book and the cost of postage is going to set you back a couple hundred dollars easily.

Querying by email is free.

That said you've already said your querying isn't getting you where you want to be.

Rather than send unsolicited books to agents, why not use that money to pay for some face time at a writing conference? Find out what's wrong.  It could be as simple as your books simply aren't plotlines/settings/categories  that are selling right now. Or it could be that the market is glutted with this kind of book.

The way to get face time with an agent is to find a conference with attending agents that you'd query. In other words, agents working in your category. 

Sign up for a pitch session.
Don't pitch.
Bring your query.
Ask for help.

I reviewed queries at three conferences this summer: MidWest Writers,  ThrillerFest, and Writers Police Academy.  In all three places, it took only two or three revisions to help a writer get a better query.

If you're willing to listen to some hard truths, you'll be able to learn a lot.  It's not easy to hear some of this, and your (anyone's!) first reaction is to say "balderdash" but most of us will tell you the truth if you ask us to. And you're not carrying a box of ripe tomatoes.

If you do elect to send the books, PLEASE include a neatly hand written, or typed note telling me why you're sending it. Include your contact information.

Do NOT just put a sticky on the cover saying "hope you like this."  Assume I do like it, how the hell do I find you?

And be forewarned: I am an unrepentant book snob. If the cover is ugly, or the book's interior is badly laid out, I won't read it.  Life is too short for ugly books. Even prize-wining ones.


Also: you're trying to get attention for your NEW book/s, not the old book. You need to focus on why your querying for the new stuff isn't getting you what you want, rather than seeking attention for a previous book.I may love the prize winning book, but that doesn't tell you much about whether I'll love the new one.


And if you elect to follow my advice, I'll be at CrimeBake this year.  

 

Query question: legality of pseudonyms

Recently, a white man revealed that he had been publishing poetry under a pseudonym that sounds like an Asian man in order to be published more. At least one of his previous publishers said they had no idea that he was writing under a pseudonym.

I come from a nonfiction background, where fake names are a very dicey business, so it blew my mind that a writer would not inform his editor that he was writing under a pseudonym. But a friend argued that in fiction, pen names don't carry the same baggage as in nonfiction. And many write under names that are not their legal names (trans writers, those who have been married or divorced, etc.) Putting that man's deceptive intentions aside, what's the legal situation around pseudonyms?

Am I just out of touch/wrong to believe that all writers inform their editors and agents of their legal names? What happens if they sign a contract in the fake name (not an LLC/DBA situation, but posing as a nonexistent individual) - isn't it unenforceable? What if someone were to get lawyer-y about a work of fiction and the publisher finds out they signed a contract with someone who doesn't exist?

I'm not going to weigh in on the situation with the poet using the pseudonym. There are enough raised voices about that now.

From a non-fiction standpoint, the name you write with is much more important since the book's gravitas is partly a function of who you are.

Writing a book about the Buttonweezer family and using the nom de plume "Felix Buttonweezer" is going to create some problems if you're not actually Felix.

With fiction, not so much.

Publishers don't sign contracts with someone who doesn't exist. You exist, no matter what name you use. Your concern is getting PAID. I can't pay you unless I have an authentic tax ID and a name to match.

More important, you can't cash a check unless you have an account and ID to match the name on the check.

The problem sorts itself out not in legalities but in practicality.  

I have had several clients who write under names not their own. With one of them, I wouldn't have known unless she'd told me.  Fortunately she likes to err on the side of propriety so she did tell me. We paid her under her pseudonym because she'd set up her bank account to handle those payments.


 Which brings us back to the poet using the pseudonym. My only question is how did they pay him?
 

Query question: including awards

 A little while ago I won a Gold Key and a few Silver Keys for a novel and a few short stories I submitted to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. I didn’t get paid and the stories in question weren't published, but is it worth mentioning this in a query? I might be grasping at straws here, but I guess every little bit counts.

I understand that overwhelming desire to put something in the pub credits paragraph, particularly when you're just starting out. 


I had the same problem when I'd sold zero books. And then only one book, and then only two books.




This is the kind of award that you can certainly mention if you feel the need to. 


The awards you do NOT want to mention are those crazy, semi-phony awards that cost $75 to enter per title and have seven hundred categories, and first, second and third place. In other words, where everyone "wins".

And semi-finalist in the Amazon breakout novel contest was a big one for awhile. There were 200+ "winners' there.

The contests to mention are ones that you've actually won, have a degree of independent judging, and those with some actual value.

Hopefully you'd never enter any other kind of contest, but writers get hornswoggled into those things left and "write".

Duy nIS tlhIngan paq**

How do I go about querying for an American agent, if my book is written in Portuguese? Should I go after a bilingual agent or such a thing would probably be impossible to find?

Thank you again for you attention.

You don't.

There are many bilingual agents (I myself speak Jawsanes of course) but generally we're not the ones doing the translating.

If you want to pitch your book to an American agent, you're going to need a book in English. Whether that means you translate it or someone else does is your call.

There are exceptions to this; sometimes the book is published in another language first, then it does well enough (sales or review wise) to garner the attention of an English language agent or editor.








** this would be funny if the damn translation was consistent.
It's supposed to be "I need an agent for a book" in Klingon.
It's not. 

Query Question: YA or adult?

I'm having a hard time determining if my audience should be YA or adult fiction (and, subsequently, which agents to target when querying). I tend to write coming-of-age stories with younger protagonists and an upmarket/literary bent. My current manuscript is about a teenager trying to shape her identity while struggling with a chronic illness in the wake of 9/11. Because of the style, themes, setting, etc, I intended for this book to be for an adult audience. Now I'm not so sure, as the general consensus seems to be that if the main character is a teenager and the book is told from a first-person perspective (which it is), then it's YA. (To be clear, I have no problem if it's YA or adult so long as there's a market for the work, and I know part of determining that is figuring out who to pitch to.)

I know that I'm probably trying to seek out a definitive answer when there isn't one, but the blurred lines between YA and Adult have me so confused as to who I should be targeting for my queries, especially if there's the possibility of crossover later down the road. My concern is that I might be limiting myself when it comes to querying by choosing agents who rep one or the other.

Do you have any advice or additional thoughts on the YA/Adult debate?

If you query someone who rejects you because s/he "doesn't  rep This/That/The Other" what do you fear will happen?

1. You will be strung up in the town square and pelted with tomatoes, wearing a sign that says "I thought my novel was for adults; boy am I stupid!"

2. You will be exiled to Carkoon, there to dwell among the kale plants forever

3. You will be added to the Super Secret Agent Blacklist of Writers Who are Foolish and Stupid and whose queries will be spurned forevermore

4. All of the above

5. None of the above



I'm sure you've figured out that the answer is #5.

What this means for you: Query Everyone.

Since most agents have devolved into "no response means no" you'll just hear more silence.

BUT if you have a good query and great pages, agents are looking for good stuff to sell.

One hint: please do NOT put YA or Adult at the start of your query. You're just increasing the chances that you'll get ignored by an agent skimming her queries.

Engage their eyeballs before you mention the category.

I would venture to guess that at least three out of every ten queries get the category wrong in my incoming query mail.

I don't know whether this is YA or adult and I don't really care. I care about reading a good story. I'm pretty sure most of my ilk are too.


Then, once you've landed a slithery agent, you discuss with her where you'll find readers.  She will have read the book and if she's any good at her job, she'll know the market better than you (and certainly better than I do.)

Your job right now isn't to decide which shelf you'll be on, it's to write a book that's shelf worthy.

Query Question: more on waiting time

I am a contemporary romance writer and have been submitting my third novel to agents.

I'm delighted to say that I have had 6 Full requests and 2 Partials (the most positive responses I have ever had) since 25 May but have not heard a thing back from any of these agents so far.

Could you tell me please what the "average" process is when an agent might be considering offering representation to a writer and how long these things can take?

I'm trying to keep busy with other writing (and planning Book 4) and the last thing I want to do, is come across as impatient! I have only "checked in" with one of the agents so far (after 10 weeks) and she apologised, saying she was swamped and would get to my MS asap.

I suppose I'm just apprehensive that all 8 are going to reject my work!

Of course you are. You are a writer. Worrying about things you can't control is pretty much #1 on your To Do list each and every day.

The industry standard for full manuscripts is 90 days. That means you don't utter a word till August 25.

After August 25 you can email ONCE every six-eight weeks, very politely, asking for a status update.

I will tell you that I'm running VERY late on requested fulls right now because I've had a lot of client work come in, and that comes first.

I think everyone is running long right now except those efficient elves AWESOME AGENTS and FIERCE WORD WARRIORS, KICK ASTERISKS AND TAKE NAMES Sarah LaPolla and Jessica Faust

I see those tweets and I look more like this:

I know you're anxious, but the very best thing to do is keep sending out queries, and work on your next book.  The pace in publishing is glacial for the most part.  Time to fortify your coping mechanisms.

Query question: there are two of us

Is it true that agents are less likely to say yes to queries for collaborated books? If so, why is that? 

Well, I don't think it is, but I will say that two authors means twice the hand holding, twice the email communication (mostly) and twice the work.

Each author is a client of the agency, thus each author has to be signed to a representations agreement, fill out their tax forms, get their 1099 at year end etc.

And books with two authors don't earn twice as much money.

That said, I've never turned something down because there were two authors.

On YOUR end however, you're going to want to make ironclad sure you've got a collaboration agreement in place before you do anything permanent like sign a contract.

Sorting out credit, payment, and promotion responsibility is something you want to discuss sooner rather than later.

I know that three-author anthologies are increasingly common in romance, but that's not collaboration. That's three separate authors writing three separate novellas. Three agents involved too.  The one time I've watched that kind of cirucus unfold was pretty entertaining but mostly ok, since all the agents were good at their jobs.

It can go south VERY quickly if one of the authors is repped by a goofball. I've heard tell of that too.


If you intend to query as a duo, you BOTH sign the query:

Felix Buttonweezer
1 Kale Row
Carkoon 1 

Colin Smith
2 Kale Row
Carkoon 1

Please direct email to: Colin Smith

And you query from the email address you want the agent to use for the reply.

 

Query question: will an agent be willing to work with me on developmental things?

I have a three book (so far) fiction series published through (book one) Amazon Encore and (books twos two and three) Booktrope Editions. I also have a novella with Booktrope as well as another one which I've self published. All have excellent and predominantly verified reviews on Amazon and sell well. I also edit fiction and nonfiction and am a published freelance writer.

My question is, given my writing experience (I am not bragging. I realize there are many more authors with more experience) would an agent (in general) be willing to work with me with a piece of fiction I'm working on but is not finished? I'd like to present a story synopsis and wonder an agent would be willing provide insight etc. to create a mutually beneficial fiction piece to then have that agent submit to publishers.

I suspect the answer is some version of, "Absolutely not", but I've had many peers send in manuscripts an agent has turned down because they weren't the right story. I thought maybe it would be advantageous for both to work on a concept together.

No.

Here's why: a query letter (regardless of publication credits) that says "here's some of a novel, can you give me some insight on how to finish this to make it something publishers will snap right up" demonstrates a severe misunderstanding of what my job actually is.

My job is to sell your work.  It's NOT to edit, proofread, copy edit, fact check, develop, bounce ideas off of, or anything other than sell, and then advocate for you during the publishing process.

Yes, I do all those other things, but they're generally for books that were sent to me as full, finished books.  Books I loved and wanted to sell, and thus wanted to spruce up a bit before going out.

It sounds like what you want is for an agent to help you figure out what will sell.

If we knew, we'd tell you.

Well, no we wouldn't. We'd look for it, sign it and sell it and keep our mouths shut.

The best thing I can tell you here is write the book that only you can write. Write the book that you're passionate about, that if someone tells you it's not the right story, you know they're wrong.

Query Question: I'm not sure you're good enough, when do I tell you?

 Your Imperial Toothiness,

I have a question for the blog, if possible, which is sort of related to the recent theme of incomplete information.

Suppose Agent A has your full, and after that request you discover some former clients saying concerning things about the practices at the agency to which Agent A belongs (not specifically about Agent A, but about the leadership team there and other agents).

For example, some former clients are telling really similar stories about different agents at the agency just spraying your MS at everyone with no thought or targeting, and then being evasive about giving clients their submission information. If true, these seem like big warning signs about the agency, no matter how cool Agent A seems. On the other hand, obviously you don't have the full story, only tales on the internet.

Is this the sort of thing that is OK to hold off on acting unless and until you get an offer? That is, should you just wait and see whether you get further interest and then raise the issues directly with Agent A so that you can decide once you have better information?

Or is it unethical to just wait and see, and potentially waste Agent A's time reading your full if in the end you're unwilling to take the risk that the rumours/reports are true? If you feel like there's a good chance you're just not going to be comfortable with the agency, should you just withdraw the MS?

Oh man, I love the interwebz! For all the good this new transparency has done for authors, it's also a source of the worst kind of gossip, backbiting and just plain vile lies. Also known as "the other guy's opinion."

For example, a former client says "she just sprayed my manuscript out there with no thought of targeting" is also what I might call "submit widely on the first round."

"Evasive about giving submission information" can mean "she wouldn't tell me which editor saw it at which imprint" --and after a former client called editors on their submission list, I'm a whole lot less likely to share that as a matter of course now, myself.

There are two sides to every sundered representation agreement, and both of them are completely true.


To the nub of your question: I think you're not wasting anyone's time if you have a good manuscript and an agent wants to read it.

If you've got concerns about how an agent submits manuscripts, ASK HER.  Don't EVER believe anything anyone else says. Some of the outright lies I've seen on author bulletin boards and discussion groups are flat out actionable, if anyone actually cared about what is said in those places.

Honest to god, some of the backbiting and ugly gossip reminds me of the most recent meeting of the Imperial Storm Troopers Ladies Aid Society.