Megan Manzano
Literary Agent
Steven Literary
Agent @StevenLiterary • #RevPit Editor • Mentor @BreakthroughWBC • (She/They) • Latinx 🇵🇷 Opinions are my own.
Literary Agent
Sheeza Iqbal: Writing Hiatus @Sheezams
@Megan_Manzano are agents accepting new manuscripts during the pandemicYup - many agents are open to queries.
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Literary Agent
Steven A Williams @SAWllliams_poet
@Megan_Manzano Hi Megan, I have a question: if I’m asked to give an author bio, should that be written in 3rd person? What type of info should it contain and roughly how long should it be? Thank you so much😀Third person; should be 2-3 sentences about what you do, any fun facts or hobbies, and any writing credentials if you have them.
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Literary Agent
MichaelJWriting @MichaelJWriting
@Megan_Manzano Let's say someone used your services as an editor, would that person be able to query you with that idea?I've seen several agents doing this and I always wanted to know.
If they booked any type of manuscript edit, they can't query me. It's a conflict of interest.
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Literary Agent
Crystal J. Bell @WritingLEOW
@Megan_Manzano If you have Fulls out for a MS, should you wait to hear back on those before beginning to query a new MS (with different agents)?Nope! You can query a new MS with different agents.
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Literary Agent
J.Riley @JRileyProducer
@Megan_Manzano While it will always be subjective, I keep hearing Middle Grade fantasy top word counts ranging from 40,000 all the way to 70,000. Which is annoying when trying to judge completion. What would you say is your prefered, or easiest to promote top word count for MG?50k-60k is a good sweet spot in my opinion.
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Literary Agent
Alex Andersen @AEAndersen_
@Megan_Manzano My MS deals with a demonic possession, but it is not much of a focus (other elements have more priotiy) and handled in a magical realism way. Should I sub?To me, or in general? In general, as long as an agent's wishlist matches your work, then that's fine.
For me, as long as the demonic possession isn't the focus, then that's fine too.
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Literary Agent
heathermcbreen @heathermcbreen1
@Megan_Manzano Hey! I know that a strong query letter and samples pages are pivotal, but how much emphasis do agents put on a synopsis if requested? If it isn’t as polished or concise could that deter an agent from requesting even if the rest of the submission was strong?Agents don't expect a submission to be perfect; for a synopsis, they really want to get a sense of the plot and where your characters end up especially if they only have sample pages or a partial.
Focus on the key requirements of a synopsis and you should be ok.
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Literary Agent
Ellie Firestone @EllieFirestone1
@Megan_Manzano What would you say to authors who are discouraged about the talk of YA being oversaturated and impossible to break into? (Asking for a friend ... and about a million others 😅)Keep going. There is always room for new voices and new stories.
Plus, the market always circles back around, even to something that might not be popular now.
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Literary Agent
Madelyn is Revising 🦾❤️🛠✨ @MadelynKnecht
@Megan_Manzano Hi! Question, if an agent passes on a project but then offers representation to the same author for a different project, is there still hope for the first? Or will it be shelved entirely? Thanks!I think it would depend the agent's reason for passing, but personally speaking, I'd work with the author on that book after preparing the book I offered on for submission.
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Literary Agent
Literary Agent
MelisaRHightower @melisawritesTSP
@Megan_Manzano Good Morning, thank you for doing this #askagent Q&A. I have a novel that has a pandemic as part of the story. With the current Covid-19 situation, are stories like this marketable?Honestly, these stories may be tough right now as a lot of agents and editors are looking for escapist stories.
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Literary Agent
Ann Dayleview @AnnDayleview
@Megan_Manzano How do you feel about query letters that don't follow the traditional format. Still have the whole hook, cook, and book but have bullets in the book section?I'm generally okay with them as I've seen some queries told in the POV of the character which can be cool.
I think the bottom line is as long as you have all of the information I'm looking for, that works for me.
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Literary Agent
K.R. Garcia (check out #CeruleanProse!) @katerpillar43
@Megan_Manzano Hi Megan! How many words do you think it should take to reach the inciting incident of the story? And how do you feel about agenting authors who are college students?This varies so much by story so I can't give a specific word count, unfortunately. I would try to get to the inciting incident within the first few chapters.
And you mean authors who are also college students? There's nothing wrong with that!
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Literary Agent
Alexandra Z. Lazar @alexandrazlazar
@Megan_Manzano I can’t remember if I’ve asked you this before; I’m trying to get insight from as many agents as possible because everyone has a different answer. What’s the maximum word count for a debut YA fantasy novel before you feel skeptical about considering it?I get skeptical if it's over 110,000 words partly because YA Fantasy is a harder sell right now and partly because I'll be wondering what I'll need to trim from the editorial side.
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Literary Agent
Briana Morgan ✨ BUY LIVINGSTON GIRLS! @brimorganbooks
@Megan_Manzano If a premise grabs you but the query letter itself needs polishing, would you still want to read? I have a lot of editing clients who worry about their query letters even if the MS is good!I would still request. I also check pages even if the query isn't strong - that can always be worked on later!
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Literary Agent
Kristin Paula @kristinpaula11
@Megan_Manzano Among agents do you see a preference for 1st or 3rd person?I don't see an overwhelming preference - mostly just individual tastes of which an agent likes better.
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Literary Agent
Jessica Payne @jessicabluewri1
@Megan_Manzano I feel like my comps are strong, but books that are less popular/many people who read in the genre haven’t heard of. How does an agent handle comps they haven’t heard of? If they rep the genre is it likely they HAVE heard of them? Would they look them up?Agents should generally be well-versed in comps for their genre but of course we can't read everything. I tend to look up comps I don't know.
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Literary Agent
Literary Agent