Dara Kaye
Literary Agent
Ross Yoon Agency
Literary Agent at @RossYoon . @smithcollege , @UCL , & @FulbrightPrgrm alum. Mom to a two-year-old chaos muppet.
Literary Agent
Dara Kaye @DaraKaye
Just got a query pitching a book described as both "a true story" and "creatively written nonfiction", but lists only novels as comps and notes it's adapted from a story that won a "Best Fiction" prize pic.twitter.com/0mkeGFKyLOGeneral #pubtip advice:
Agents have limited time to evaluate submissions. You want us spending it reading and responding, not puzzling over what we're looking at.
Double check you understand the distinctions between genres & your query makes it clear!
twitter.com/DaraKaye/statu…
Literary Agent
Today's #pubtip is about permissions.
Come with me, authors--I'm about to save your future selves a whole lot of agita!
Literary Agent
Working on a couple proposals this week where authors said fascinating stuff on the phone that wasn't in the proposal.
So today I want to talk a little bit about memorable stories and "sticky" facts.
This is a #pubtip thread, we're talking specifically about nonfiction books.
Literary Agent
#pubtip Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games are not good comps when pitching your novel.
Listing decade(s)-old massive international juggernauts doesn't help me see where your specific book might fit on the shelf or in the current market, and it sets an insanely high bar.
Literary Agent
Dara Kaye @DaraKaye
Just got a query pitching a book described as both "a true story" and "creatively written nonfiction", but lists only novels as comps and notes it's adapted from a story that won a "Best Fiction" prize pic.twitter.com/0mkeGFKyLO#pubtip -- I don't have a ton of time to evaluate and respond to submissions --you want me spending that time reading and responding, not trying to puzzle out what the heck I'm looking at.
Double check you understand the distinctions between genres & your query makes it clear!
Literary Agent
Dara Enameled Pepper Mill Kaye @DaraKaye
Been thinking more about takeaways from last weekend's #CHESAWW writers conferenceThis pic is from Saturday afternoon, the "First Pages Panel", where first pages of unpublished works were read aloud anonymously to a panel of literary agents.
(NB: all works were fiction.) 1/x twitter.com/M_L_Webber/sta…
While we're at it, here's a thread on writing opening scenes in fiction, inspired by an agent panel I spoke on earlier this year.
Guess this is a #pubtip #metathread now!
twitter.com/DaraKaye/statu…
Literary Agent
Dara Enameled Pepper Mill Kaye @DaraKaye
Strap in, #amquerying and #amwriting Twitter! Time for some primo, uncut #writingtips from an agent.Something I've been thinking about this week wrt a particular type of #nonfiction book proposal:
The one structured around Examples Of A Phenomenon.
1/
Just got another promising submission that needs a big restructure/rewrite, so it's time to re-up this #pubtip thread on #nonfiction book proposals.
#amediting
Literary Agent
Nichole ✨✨✨ @tnwhiskeywoman
Just learned about this situation and YIKES. To accuse a whole Nora Roberts... wow. This is why you check in with your agent before posting something like this. 😬😯 pic.twitter.com/X87plvzYGBToday's #pubtip: You can't copyright a book title.
As a result, lots of books share the same titles.
Sometimes they're obvious, e.g., many romance novels called "Forbidden Love".
Sometimes weird, e.g., Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS and Callanan's THE CLOUD ATLAS both pubbed in 2004
Literary Agent
Anna Sproul-Latimer @annasproul
Here are the three best ways to build a smart network of agent contacts: 1. get a one-month subscription to PublishersMarketplace.com and use their Deals database to see who's selling books like yours, then query those agents and impress them with your market knowledge.My colleague Anna dropping crucial knowledge on how to find and query agents
#pubtip