Added 10/09. Author’s note: Don’t use this to calculate page count for your own book! I was just learning when I posted this, and these number are off. “How long will your book be?” Dad asked one day as I updated him on my writing progress. “Uh, I dunno,” I replied. “It’ll be as long […]
Literary agent Rachelle Gardner: You’re reading my blog, aren’t you? Gardner blogged this week about the importance of not putting the cart before the horse. In other words, writers need to get their writing up to speed before worrying about the details of publishing. The post seemed like it was written for me. Until a […]
Since several readers have commented on recent blog posts, asking how much of the manuscript I’ve written so far, I’ m here with answers. Of my 15 chapters, two are drafted in full. Drafts of another two chapters are more than half written. That doesn’t sound like much. But since I’m writing this book out […]
Maybe I’m going about this all backwards. During an Editor Unleashed live chat on Wednesday, literary agent Jessica Faust not only critiqued my query, she also made me reconsider my writing and publishing plan. I was under the impression that an agent and publisher would consider my book based on a quality proposal and sample […]
During an Editor Unleashed forum on Wednesday, literary agent Jessica Faust critiqued my query (the same query I shared with you in a previous post). Her critique is very specific and quite helpful, which is why I’m sharing it here in full: Never start out with “hoping I’m the right agent” it gives the impression […]
As if today wasn’t exciting enough with the news that journalist Roxana Saberi was released from prison in Iran, a literary agent contacted me, out of the blue. Unfortunately, she didn’t want my book. She wanted Roxana’s. (For those of you who don’t know already, I’ve been helping with the FreeRoxana campaign.) Roxana hasn’t even […]
A big part of selling my book will be convincing both an agent and a publisher that it’s unique, different than travel memoirs already on bookstore shelves. So from the beginning, I’ve asked myself: What makes my book unique? Travelogues written by women voyaging alone have become so popular, they’re practically their own genre (Think: […]
I love this query tip from Michael Larsen‘s How to Write a Book Proposal. For snail-mail queries, he suggests sending a self-addressed, stamped postcard that reads: Please send the proposal __ Sorry, we can’t help __ Plus the name of the agent, for the writer’s benefit. “No matter how busy they are, agents and editors […]
Now that y’all have seen my query, as well as a description of how I picked literary agents to query, here’s a question to authors who have been through this already: Should I query all 12 agents at once? Or would it be smarter to query the first half and wait for feedback? Here’s the […]
A query is a pitch to a literary agent, asking him or her to look at your book proposal and hopefully represent your work. There are lots of resources on the Web that explain how to write the perfect query letter. The one-page letter should give a summary of the book’s plot and theme, as […]