Literary agent

Taking stock: A third down, two-thirds to go

May 19, 2009

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 […]

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Literary agent critiques my query

May 14, 2009

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 […]

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My first offer of representation — For Roxana

May 11, 2009

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 […]

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The all-important query

May 6, 2009

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 […]

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Finding an agent

April 27, 2009

So I’d like an agent to represent me. How to go about finding one? For starters, I can weed out everyone who’s not interested in the genre of my book. I need an agent who represents authors of travel memoirs, adventure stories or narrative nonfiction. The best way — in my newbie opinion — for […]

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Do I need a literary agent?

April 24, 2009

Until I began learning about the publishing process, I thought only movie stars had agents. Turns out wannabe authors do, too. But why, you ask, would a writer want to hire an agent? Literary agents serve as intermediaries between author hopefuls and publishers, helping writers polish their proposal, shop it around to publishers and negotiate […]

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