Cortney Radocaj 🏳️‍🌈💖💜💙

you can, sure! it's not something i put a ton of stock in (i.e. i'm not going to jump on a project SOLELY bc an author was a finalized/even winner of anything) but it's nice to know, and something you should be proud of and can absolutely include in your bio :)

ohhh HMMM that's a good question. i have to be very aware of where my mental health is; when i'm in a depressive episode, i work very hard to make sure i'm giving every query as much of my energy as i can, to ensure i'm not passing on things bc Depression™️. same with the anxiety

i'm not a huge thriller person, so i might not be the right person to ask. depends on how well it's executed, honestly! i only accept YA thrillers, and YA is just structured differently than adult is overall, and i do tend to prefer no prologue-esque materials

depends on agency policy. some agencies have a "no answer means no" policy; others state they'll answer everything; others only answer requested materials. look at each agency site and see what their policies are, and on how soon they're okay with being nudged!

absolutely! sometimes i sit out if i've got too much going on in my personal life, or too many submissions on my docket that i need to get through, but i do participate in most of them

nope! i'd probably want to get it under 100k before subbing to publishers, but not to high at all for me to consider :)

no, don't reach out if you get a rep offer - it sucks when your dream agent is closed for a long period of time, but it is what it is, and encroaching on that boundary wouldn't be a fair thing to put on that agent. and while feeling like you're missing out on someone who feels

it's hard to say without seeing the individual query/pages, but mostly it's wanting to see substantial, pervasive changes throughout the work (i.e. not just doing a line edit or tweaking a chapter or two).

absolutely! i'd maybe specify what about their work is similar (i.e. is there something about their prose or storytelling style you're comping to?), but it does work

either is fine! it's nice to have it formatted nicely with the headers and title page, but it's not an issue if that's not there. i will say there should always be a page break with a clear sign that there's a new chapter though, just for ease of reading!

absolutely!! though it's always nice to get requested material soon after the initial "like" or request, i don't ever have a time limit on them. life happens, and you're definitely welcome to submit whenever you're ready :)

i don't tend to love prologues and usually think they can be cut; i absolutely prefer not seeing them in the initial 5 pages i ask for when authors query, since it's not *actually* the start of the story. i'm perfectly happy with them on requested materials, though!

super dependent on the query - some i know right away aren't going to be up my alley (genre isn't right, huge red flags re: racism/homophobia/fatphobia, etc.) that are pretty quick rejections. most queries fall into a middle ground space where the query is decent, opening

it more depends on whether i have a vision for edits. more often than not it ends up being a rejection; there's a lot more to choosing clients than just liking the book, i also have to make sure i'm confident i can help improve it in a way that aligns with the author's vision!

you can! include that in your bio, which goes at the end of the query. (but don't stress if you don't have any, either!)

mostly bc those big debuts are rare outliers - most trad publishers won't accept manuscripts too far above the standard wc for that genre/age category. it might go up once it's bought and work with their editor, but it's NOT common to have huge debuts.

however you like! it honestly doesn't matter to me - paragraph space is maybe the only one i'm not a huge fan of, mostly bc formatting can be weird when reading on a kindle/pasting into QM sometimes. but hashtags, stars, anything else - it's all the same to me :)

that's up to you! you're not required by any means to disclose anything you're not comfortable with, but you absolutely can if you want to. i wouldn't spend too much time on it--maybe a sentence.

if you don't, it'll likely be something that's talked about on an offer call!

that's something you can mention briefly in your bio or something to discuss when you have a more personal convo after an agent offers

i personally ask on my QM form why you're the person to write that story--if an agent has something similar, that would be a good place as well!

particular group use their own voices to write about their own cultures.

again, this is extremely watered down and i am certainly not the most qualified voice to talk about this particular issue, but that's essentially what i would ask yourself to start!