
Laura Zats
Literary Agent
Headwater Literary Management
Founder & Agent @HeadwaterLit. Host of the award-winning @printrunpodcast. Publishers Weekly industry MVP. She/her & Ms/Mx. Open to queries!
- #mswl (213)
- #tenqueries (92)
- #100Queries (1)
- #100partials (20)
- #500queries (3011)
- #querytip (22)
- #pubtip (140)
- #askagent (149)
- #askprintrun (27)

Literary Agent
Q37: Author has great credentials, sent a query with 0% about the book. *headdesk* #500queries

Literary Agent
Q36: Demons, magical schoo—snore. None of these catch my fancy any more, I've had so many. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q35: Over 35% of query was WHY author wrote book, rather than telling me about the book. Pass. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q34: Don't get me wrong, I love me some vampire books. But I'm not req-ing, because I can't sell them. Pass. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q33: Spec fic whose MC was 1) buried in the query 2) feels very much like a Mary Sue. Pass. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q32: Witch book, but a little too special-snowflake for my taste. Pass. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q31: Spec-fic. Author has great credentials, but the story wasn't for me. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q30: YA from #pitmad. Concept was okay, but I got disoriented by the sheer mass of elements in the query. Pass. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q29: Superhero book. Unfortunately, I am not accepting any of these. Pass. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q28: MG. About witches, but didn't excite me. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q27: I also do not accept queries sent by a third party, especially shady business companies. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q26: YA w/ school shootings are popping up b/c it's been happening a lot. I can't bring myself to read about it in fic too #500queries

Literary Agent
Q25: A log line is not the first line of your novel. Especially if it has very little to do with the pitch itself. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q24: Supremely baffled by this adult SF. So, so confused. Do not want. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q23: A query for a book that isn't finished. Do not do this. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q22: Another dystopian in the vein of Margaret Atwood. Except without the hook to back it up. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q21: I can't take a writer seriously who puts her genre in scare quotes. Pass.
#500queries

Literary Agent
Q20: Another YA dystopian zombie-adjacent book. Pass. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q19: I think I'm going to put a blanket no on rape-as-plot-device-and-only-source-of-character-development for romances. #500queries

Literary Agent
Q18: From #pitmad. Witch book (Yay!) but was not digging how the query was written. Makes me worried it'll be telly. Pass. #500queries
