Kelly Peterson

Another manuscript, and they would ask me if I wanted to read it. Usually I’ll say yes and to send it my way. It’s never rubbed me the wrong way, but it can rub some people the wrong way. I think it’s fully up to you, in all honesty. Just make sure you don’t send both manuscripts

I like both on #PitMad days! And querying two is tricky because what happens if an agent makes an offer, but other agents don’t have the book that’s received an offer? I’ve seen people do it and I’ve never been offended when people contact me saying they’ve received an offer on

Hmmm, think of your pitching in person like a slightly shortened query letter. If they ask how it ends or what the climax is, etc., then give them more info. They’ll have questions and each agent is different! I never want to know the ending. :)

Oof, cockiness and someone talking down to me. I like to work with people who make me enjoy my job, and who understand and enjoy their writing careers thoroughly. I also look for great voice because it’s something no one can teach you as a writer! :)

That’s a little long in my opinion, but that’s up to the agents, actually. I try to keep all fiction under 100k as a general rule of thumb, with the exception of adult high fantasy and sci-fi. :)

Champion any further works, as you’d like to not be in the self publishing industry anymore.

True, but we usually find out if we do research anyways. So sometimes it’s better to mention it in the query and just admit that it didn’t work out the way you had wished and that you’re willing and happy to learn traditional publishing and are hoping to find an agent to

No, I don’t think so. I think you’ll be okay, and you’d have a built in support system. But it may be better in the long run to find separate agents in order to keep the professional and personal lives as separate as possible. Just my opinion though!

That makes life easy, yes. Set page breaks if you know how to work them. :)

If you rework the entire manuscript, that’s usually when it’s okay to resend, but if you think it might be alright and the person is decently laid back, I’d say sending it to the same agent again would be the best way to go.

That’s a fast no, actually. The first thing I usually look at is word count, so if it’s too high for me to literally sell, it means it can probably be edited more before coming back to me.

So @stdennard has an awesome article to answer your question. :) And oof, I think I did statistics in early January, and it turned out to be somewhere around requesting 1-3% of the queries I get, or something or the sort? Roughly 73 per year or something? susandennard.com/2010/11/how-i-…

Its not a dealbreaker, but it helps us know and understand that you’re willing to do the work to market yourself in the coming years!

Conferences and twitter! Find some awesome writing friends online and in person, join writing groups, and definitely socialize with people on the hashtag #WritingCommnunity! That hashtag is awesome for writers reaching out!

It’s severely dependent on the agent and how much they’re drowning in queries and submissions at that time. Sorry to not have a more definite answer!

I think it depends on the piece and the agent, in all honesty. I prefer weighing heavier in one and having elements of others.

It can be, but it might be better utilized to show you can gather a following. :)

No, and that’s not even really plausible for even the most famous authors today. Royalties for each publishing house are pretty standard. This is a great article to try to explain more in depth. thebinderyagency.com/blog/howdopubl…

I think you should write whatever you’d like to write. :)

Not necessarily, but whacky formatting that’s consistent usually tells us the writer might be new or working with a different program.