Kelly Peterson

Probably between 65k-85k would be a sweet spot depending on how much world building you may need.

Haha, not necessarily, but if there’s no writing credits and such to name, I usually like to see some quirky facts and such. :) We just want to know that you’re working hard and that we’d get along with you!

It could mean any number of things, so unfortunately I can’t answer this one effectively. :( I’m sorry.

So your premise was awesome! But your voice in your pages is very commercial (voicey) with possibly not enough description of actions, thoughts, and feelings of your main character. Possibly needing a sense of having no distance between your reader and your main character, too.

I actually would mention it, and I’d put it as a side not at the end of your query, in all honesty! A lot of times, agents like to be prepared for what they’re diving into, and the language can be part of it.

I ask my clients once in a while to see if they know of anyone or follow any on Twitter that they like. I wouldn’t put TOO much research into it, because it’s more an Agents job, but we do like to ask just to get our author’s opinion once in a while!

Honesty, not long. I read a synopsis after I read your pages and decide I love them, but I’m about the only agent who does that! And good query letters can hook me from the start, but they’re short and can be read in about a minute.

It’s not an instant rejection, but agents see this quite a bit and we assume it’s usually a newer writer who doesn’t quite understand the industry standards yet. No harm done, but usually some research that needs to be done in the future. :)

That would be a conversation you would have to have with the agent in question if/when they offer representation. It would be a thought as to whether or not they would want to continue to rep your future titles.

They can help, but they can also hurt, too. You have to be careful with your comp titles. Make sure you’re semi-specific about the relation. Make sure your comps are newer (or at least one of them is), and make sure they’re not so popular they put higher expectations on you.

Royalty. Not even a trope, I’m just super over princesses at the moment.

In that case, I’d say probably don’t. Typos happen constantly in publishing. We’re only human.

Yes! Plenty, I’m sure. Sometimes agents can’t take anyone else on because of their current client load. Sometimes they don’t have a vision for it or know how to sell it. Sometimes they just don’t fall in love with it the way they’d want. Sometimes they don’t get along with you.

That’s tough because I don’t represent memoirs. I would say like any fiction piece though, try to stay under 100k words. If I could guess, I’d say 70-80k would be your sweet spot, but I could be very wrong as memoirs and nonfiction is rather foreign to me.

Usually it’s in order of receipt, but I do sometimes skip around. :)

Yes, agents are able to represent writers from all over the world. I have seen publishers in the US reject manuscripts on the basis of the cost for tours and promotional activities BECAUSE an author is so far away, though.

You don’t need loads of ideas, but it does help to know a few of them off the top of your head as well as what you’re currently working on/working on next. We want to know that you have the ability to continue working and that we could be a good match for your future projects.

We do! And we’d hope to see a decent understanding of marketing techniques and consistency in interaction and/or blog posts. We like to see a clean website that’s easy to access and that’s kept up to date, basically. If you show potential for brand building, even better!

I’m not a fan of mixed genres like that. I’d actually prefer an author to choose one and then tell me it has elements of another (i.e. fantasy with steampunk elements) so that I know where most of the focus is. :) That’s probably somewhat subjective per agent, though!

It does! If you have decent sales and a good following, it can definitely help! If you have poor sales and not much of a following though, it can somewhat work against you. But having experience in the industry (editing, marketing, etc.,) can help.