Five Top Tips When Querying An Agent

So you've done it! You've completed your masterpiece, fine-tuned it, added a few things here and there, now your finally ready to query and start looking for an agent.

Below, I've posted five helpful tips on what to do when querying.

1. Write a good book. One line I like to use is don't be sloppy. DO NOT just throw a bunch of words together just to get it finished. I know. I know. You're excited and sometimes that makes writers impatient. Slow down... Take a deep breath. Let everything flow. So what if it takes you a little longer. Most of us will still be here.

2. Again be patient. Agents get flooded with queries. Sometimes it may take us a while to respond.

3. Be able to take constructive criticism. Let's face it, nobody gets to be J.K. Rowling over night. And nobody is perfect. There are going to be specific areas of your manuscript that need to be re-written whether your agents suggests you do it or editors do.

4. Be prepared. Don't go into your agent search blindly. Have everything you might need prepared. Query. Manuscript. Partial. Synopsis. If you get that magic hmmmm I'd like to read this, I usually request the partial and synopsis first. That's just me, though, but you never know what we're going to want. Maybe we'll want everything... So it's always good to have everything in order.

5. Never be afraid to ask a million questions. So you're excited. You've written the manuscript, and now you've gotten the call... BUT be careful with that pen. Ask a million questions before you sign that contract. Anytime I'm on a convo with a client I'd like to sign, I ask them do you have any questions? And I answer all of them as thoroughly as possible and they can ask as many as they want. When you sign a contract with an agent, you should never go into without asking questions or getting to know your agent a little better. This is a partnership and both parties need to make certain they are making the right decision.


Hopefully this helps some of you in navigating through literary la la land.

Have a good weekend!

Cheers!

Does Your Novel Have The 'IT' Factor?

More books are published every year than Hollywood movies that are made. If you think about it, that's a heck of a lot of books. But, how do those books make it from the writer's computer screen to a paperback in a readers hands? That's what we're going to talk about today.

Everybody knows that getting a book published is a long lengthy process. First you write the novel, second you revise, and after you've revised a dozen times more, you write a good query(which you probably rewrite ten times as well) and then you do what I like to call, 'throwing yourself to the sharks'.

I use that analogy because sometimes get a bite, sometimes you won't, and sometimes your WIP will get chewed up and spit out.

For the ones whose novels get picked up right away or the ones who don't have a hard time finding an agent at all, they've all got something I like to call the 'it' factor.

What exactly is the 'it' factor? I'm going to tell you.

Do you know how many queries most agents receive a week? Hundreds. For some maybe thousands. But what do you think makes an agent go, hmmmm, I think I'd like to see more?

Me personally, I don't read queries. The minute I receive a query letter, I'll scroll down to the bottom of the email and read the first couple pages that accompanies that letter. I'm not concerned about how well a writer can compose a query letter. I know plenty of great writers that can't write them at all. What I really want to know is if they can write a novel, make it appealing, and make it flow. And I may be different from a lot of agents, but I know I'm not going to be able to tell that just by reading their query.

After I've read the first few pages, I'll ask myself a few questions; Does the voice grab me? What are the descriptions like? Has the writer created an authentic world? Then, I'll scroll back up and skim through the query. Shortly after that, I'll either reject or request.

Then comes the partial or full.

When I read a manuscript, I know after the first chapter whether I want it or not. And sometimes I go a little further and read to chapter three. For me, chapter three is the breaking point. If I can't read past chapter three it's a done deal, I'm probably going to reject.

So what leads to that point?

If the story doesn't build much in the first couple chaps and the pacing is slow. I like to be so involved in what I'm reading that I don't want to do anything else. And if the story is blah and I'm there yawning instead of saying Omigosh, it's just not the type of book for me.

If each chapter you finish ends with a wow, I just have to read more. The end of your chapters should leave the reader on the edge of their seats, wanting to plow through the whole novel in record time.

Does it lead up to something? Is there something big that's going to happen? And in the meantime are there good subplots throughout? I think subplots are important. They distract the reader. They keep you wondering until they're hit with the big bang at the end of the book. Who doesn't like a book that goes out with a bang, huh?

In the end, all you can do is your best, and I admire that quality in writers. Most have this will to keep going and that's so important. It's that will that'll eventually get you somewhere, so don't give up!

Cheers!