Hannah Fergesen

Caveat: not every story has big global stakes, and that's okay! But even in character-forward stories, there are usually repercussions for more people than the main character. We're looking for the answer to the Why Should We Care question, and this is a great way to do it. 5/5

Giving us both global and personal stakes in your query tells us why we should care about the character, and the larger reasons why the character should be trying to overcome the conflict. 4/

In queries, I like to see the summary start with character, the conflict, and personal stakes, and end with the global stakes, i.e., if X character doesn't succeed, not only will they lose the love of their life; their hometown will be wiped from existence. 3/

Not only do we want to know what's at stake for characters on a personal level (what happens for them personally if they don't reach their goal), we want to understand the global stakes too (what happens to the world/their family/their town/etc) if they don't reach their goal. 2/

Writers, here's a #querytip (and general writing tip, honestly) for your Friday: you'll often hear agents talk about wanting queries to reveal the stakes for characters, so that we know what's driving the story. But did you know there are two types of stakes we like to see? 1/

Writers, just a heads up that a referral isn't a referral if I've never heard of or spoken with the person who "referred" you. Get confirmation from this person that they have actually been in communication with me before you use their name in your query. #querytip

Writers, please let *all* the agents you've queried (that you haven't heard back from) know if you've received an offer of rep, not just the ones who have requested your manuscript; those who haven't had a chance to read yet need to know too. #querytip

Seeing a notable uptick in queries categorized as “new adult”, so this is a reminder that New Adult is not currently a thing in traditional publishing, and many agents may be auto-rejecting your queries based on this category listing in your query #querytip

Been hearing from writers that @ktliterary doesn't state that we require 3 pages along with your query on our website - but we do!
ktliterary.com/submissions/

Always a good idea to pay attention to submission guidelines on the agency website! #querytip

Queriers! Just an FYI that sometimes your fancy signatures and embedded illustrations/photos show up as attachments - and trigger deletion of said query. Best to simplify, and err on the side of caution! #querytip

Hey writers! You don’t need to hashtag key words in the subject line of your query (I.e #YA #SFF #WF, etc). MSWL or Ownvoices is fine but still not necessary. #querytip

I'm seeing a new trend in queries lately where a logline is placed at the top, even before a salutation. This makes it seem, initially, as if the querier has forgotten to include a salutation with my name, which is usually an auto-reject for me. Please don't do this! #querytip

The term "speculative" in reference to genre doesn't mean books that "cause one to think". It's meant for SFF/Horror or books containing elements of SFF/Horror. Seeing a lot of queries for straight lit fic, which I don't rep, using this word as a descriptor #querytip #writetip

So much this! #querytip

Queriers: an FYI that queries that don't include my name in the greeting generally get deleted/go to junk mail. #querytip

A #querytip for everyone who might be tempted to call YA a genre in their query:

If you share an email with your spouse, consider getting a personal one for sending queries - less confusing for me that way! #querytip

I answered some #querytip questions from @atrueblood5 over on her blog - check 'em out!

#Querytip: If your spamblocker isn't set to let emails from anyone at ktliterary.com thru, you won't receive my passes OR requests.

Happy #MSWL day! I wrote a #querytip sheet to help you use the hashtag in your query: