I think that would be fine, as long as you state you’re requesting in the hopes that you’ve revised enough and followed their advice and wanted to see if they’re interested at all.

They can, but sometimes they’ll decline purely on its current commercial viability too. It all depends on the agent and what they’re looking for.

Hmmm...spread out your dream agents, I think, and query others at the same time as one or two dream agents. Wait for feedback if you can, but most times you might not get much. :( Got with your gut instincts! And that’s about all I’ve got for advice on that unfortunately. :((

Voice, story structure, and strengths. :)

Of course! We don’t mind multiple manuscripts from an author, as long as they’re not necessarily at the same time unless otherwise requested. :)

That’s SUPER tough, because I know there’s a very large divide in dystopians/futuristic anything right now. Fantasy is also having a tough go of it recently in general which could be why. But my best advice is to just keep on plugging away. You’ll find them eventually!

It could be any factor such as timing and commercial appeal, and may not be your voice. Or maybe it’s your opening pages, or it’s just not connecting with the right agents. The only person who’s able to conclude something like that is you. You know what’s best for your work.

Not necessarily, but it should reflect that feel or tone.

Stick with saying contemporary fantasy and it will probably help. :) UF has been our for a while, and CF is kind of the new term. Fantasy right now is a bit difficult, but it will swing back eventually.

Yes, most agencies I know of accept queries and submissions from writers all over the world.

Meeting a reader half way. The voice can be the snark or the emotions or the descriptions, but mostly the voice is the specific style in which you use all of this to expand on your character and draw your reader in.

It’s hard to describe, but each author should have their own slant to it, and each character should be different in feel and description and tone. It takes a while to develop, and it should be less descriptive in a query and more focused on drawing in a reader, rather than

VOICE. 😂❤️

Be kind, not cry, and be able to have a conversation! Keep your pitch to only a minute or two long, sticking to the main story arc and stakes. Allow time for the agent to ask questions, and allow time for general conversation should it happen, too!

Depends on if it’s lower or upper middle grade and what genre it’s in. Contemporary trends lower. I’d say for contemporary, a safe spot is about 30-45k words, with fantasy going up to about 55k in upper MG. Everyone differs in this though!

Don’t query series, but do query THE FIRST BOOK of the series. There’s a difference. :) Make sure you query focuses only on the first book and that it’s stated that it’s part of a planned series! Make sure you don’t try to cover the arc of the entire series in query or synopsis!

In nonfiction, that could work. Most agents will want to see a full manuscript in order to make that decision though. :)

It depends on the way you want to publish! In order to be published by many larger publishers in a traditional sense, you would need an agent.

Because you already started the series self published, unless you have sales in the tens of thousands, it’s very unlikely to be picked up by an agent or editor because it’s already been published and out there to the world.

It should be stated in the query that it has series potential! And some people hate ending on cliff hangers while others love it. It’s subjective and fully dependent on the agent and editor tastes. :)