Cortney Radocaj

culture/marginalization isn't the center of your story, you're generally going to be okay (as long as you do research, sensitivity reads, etc.)

if you're writing ABOUT a group and their particular struggles/issues/etc., i would stick to letting authors who belong to that

oh man--this is a topic that is extremely nuanced and i can't address everything here. this is a very reduced and short version, but a lot of what it comes down to is what your story is actually about.

if you're writing a character that is simply from another culture, but that

if you have solid ones yes! however, i personally think that no comp titles are better than bad/incorrect ones, so if you're struggling with them or feel they're off, leave them out!

generally if you're going to use an older title (or something that isn't a book at all) i'd suggest having a recent comp title paired with it.

"buzz" and relevancy to the market are different things--buzz tends to swell around release time and fade, rising and falling as new readers find it

relevancy to the market is about 3-5 years and shows agents you're up to date on what's being published right now and are showing

ballet/ballet schools aren't something i /personally/ tend to look for so i'm not 100% certain, but i would just ensure your take on it is unique. so look at books/other media centered on ballet schools and see what your book would do to bring a new angle/aspect to that setting!

personally i love seeing other media in comps, but i'd say one of the comps SHOULD be a recent book release (last 5 years). the other can be whatever else! older title, song, movie, TV show, GN, comic, mythology, etc.

depends on what kind of advice you're looking for; that's a broad issue with a lot of nuance. in general i would just say write your book how it needs to be written--crossover is definitely a thing. and just be strategic in how you pitch it!

No worries, don’t feel embarrassed!! That’s why we do these #askagent sessions 😊

And it really, really depends. I would err on the side of NOT submitting again—agents reject for a slew of reasons—but if the rejection was specifically “the query didn’t grab me”... then maybe?

Three months is a general rule of thumb. Fulls can take a while to get to—they’re a lot more energy and time-intensive than queries or partials. Like, for me, I can go through queries or read a partial on my lunch break—but fulls I have set aside several nights at LEAST to read

So if you can come up with GOOD ones and show what aspect of the book you’re using (i.e. “the atmosphere of X with the slow burn romance of Y), definitely use them. If you can’t... no comp titles generally will serve you better than bad ones.

For me they’re not necessary. I’m not going to ding you for NOT having comp titles listed in your query.

HOWEVER, if they’re bad or overdone (like using Twilight, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, LOTR, etc) it immediately makes me question if you know where your book would be shelved

I am COMPLETELY not into vampires. Royalty stories are generally a no-go for me right now. Anything glorifying suicide or rape culture. Love triangles (unless they’re done RIGHT—the two love interests shouldn’t be interchangeable 🙃).

OHHHHHH. Hmmm. I’m ALWAYS a sucker for enemies-to-lovers—I can never get enough angst. Hades & Persephone retellings always draw me in. Mixing tech and flesh, or anything magic and flesh. Gun-slinging girls in gritty underworld settings ALWAYS.

I MEAN I’m slightly biased and I always think of @Atomic_Pixie’s query for her YA cyberpunk—it was sharp, & showed me several unique pieces of her story without confusing me. It had descriptors that piqued my interest, and most of all just had me EXCITED to dive into her pages 😍

It’s a fine balance between so much detail the reader gets confused, and so little detail nothing stands out as different or unique.

Make sure you showcase the unique aspects—don’t hide the stuff that will hook under vague, this-could-be-applied-to-twenty-other-books statements!

For me it’s detail —way too many queries are vague. They give the basic ideas but not what’s in THAT particular story.

i.e. “MC must save the world” vs “x, y, and z lead MC into having a personal stake in saving the world and will do it in this way”

If you can have a new comp with an old comp, that’s good! Two or more old comps make me wonder if you’re not up to date on where the market is at 😊

I would say yes. No twist/spoiler is worth potentially blindsiding someone with a major trigger, in my opinion!

You don’t have to give everything away mind you, but just warning for content can potentially save someone a lot of pain ❤️

It should be very, very clear which they’re talking about. Any time I’ve offered an R&R, I’ve used those specific words. It’s very unlikely an agent would say “let’s work on this together” unless they were making an offer on the MS.