Megan Manzano
Literary Agent
Steven Literary
Agent @StevenLiterary • #RevPit Editor • Mentor @BreakthroughWBC • (She/They) • Latinx 🇵🇷 Opinions are my own.
Literary Agent
Kristi McManus 🛫 @kristimcmanus
@Megan_Manzano What is the best book you've read so far this year? (Preferably YA)Great question! It's a toss up between Felix Ever After or Today, Tonight, and Tomorrow.
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Literary Agent
Moustapha should be writing 🇸🇳 @riverjengu
@Megan_Manzano Hi, thank you!About pitch contests, is it a deal-breaker if authors send their queries to the interested agents weeks, or even a month, after the event? #askagent
No. I would try to send it as soon as you're able but if you need more time, make sure to reference the pitch/event in your query when you do submit.
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Literary Agent
Elaina 🍊🖤Battista-Parsons @BraveIrene77
@Megan_Manzano Novels in verse. Give me your thoughts about selling/pitching them to pubs. Likey? No likey? They likey?I don't represent novels in verse so I'm not the best person to ask.
Sorry!
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Literary Agent
C. M. Clark @CMClarkwriter
@Megan_Manzano Anything you're seeing too much of? Ideas that are to saturated right now? #askagentA lot of YA High Fantasy. While these aren't a no-go, it is harder to sell YA Fantasy than it was a few years ago.
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Literary Agent
Literary Agent
Emma Lawson @TheEmmaLawson
@Megan_Manzano How can you make your query letter stand out, amongst all the others to get an agents attention? :)1. Follow submission guidelines
2. Have a punchy hook that makes us eager to read more
3. Make sure your query includes the MC, what they want, the inciting incident, and land on really strong stakes!
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Literary Agent
C. M. Clark @CMClarkwriter
@Megan_Manzano Most mistakes seen in a query letter?Too much focus on themes of a book/why an author wrote the book versus the book itself, not enough information at all (sometimes I just get 1 sentence queries), queries that are too long (they should be a page/250 words max).
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Literary Agent
C. M. Clark @CMClarkwriter
@Megan_Manzano Novel ideas/themes/story lines that you wish you were seeing but aren't?I want more romcoms, especially if they're queer or written by BIPOC or both.
More MG in every genre.
More YA thrillers especially if the narrator is unreliable.
I also wouldn't mind a YA southern gothic.
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Literary Agent
Terena Bell @TerenaBell
@Megan_Manzano @DMandzz Is a no from one agent a no from the whole agency, or does this also vary, thanks? #askagentThis is something that's often on an agency's website!
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Literary Agent
Shayna Lambert @ShaynerdTheMac
@Megan_Manzano Thank you for answering so many questions, Megan! I had a question about own voices. If the book is about eating disorders and I have a history with that, would that be considered own voices? Or is that meant more for writers of color and neurodivergent writers? Thanks!You can use it for eating disorders.
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Literary Agent
Jan Campana @jan_campana
@Megan_Manzano Many QueryManager forms ask for a bio. But mine is in the query letter. Should it be the same bio in both places?You can paste the same bio or if you wanted to add something else, that's fine.
I don't have a preference.
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Literary Agent
Michelle M 📚 @MMichelleAZ
@Megan_Manzano Thank you! That thread is so helpful! 🥰I notice MG has a large range. Is there a sweet spot for Upper MG Contemporary? I wrapped up a 1st draft of my middle school robotics story at 53,000 words and I'm wondering if I need to dedicate extra time in my edits to cutting it down.
Upper MG tends to be a bit broader in word count range. But I'd say 53k is fine for contemporary!
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Literary Agent
🏔Mandy #amquerying 🌲🍁🍂🍃🌸🦅 @DMandzz
@Megan_Manzano Btw THANK YOU for being so accessible. Do agents have the freedom to offer on whatever clicks for them or do they need approval/input from more senior agents?It's my pleasure!
Some agencies you just let senior agents / the head of the agency know you're offering, some require approval, some you can offer without letting anyone know.
This more often impacts younger agents slowly growing their list vs senior agents.
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Literary Agent
Tesse Struve @StruveTesse
@Megan_Manzano Hi! Thank you so much for doing this! What are some industry trends that you are seeing? What are publishers gravitating to currently?For kidlit at the moment:
-Shorter MG
-Rom Coms
-Contemporary fantasy or stories with light speculative elements
-Stories with a large escapism element
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Literary Agent
🏔Mandy #amquerying 🌲🍁🍂🍃🌸🦅 @DMandzz
@Megan_Manzano Do you see an uptick in agents showing interest in nuerodiversity? I've seen it on a few #MSWL, but not many.I have, yes, but we definitely need bigger calls for these stories and more of these stories being published.
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Literary Agent
Caitlin Cross @caitlincross
@Megan_Manzano Hey Megan! Do you know if it’s okay to extensively reference a musical in a book? My WIP is centered around a high school production of a musical, so I’m including lyrics to songs, names of the characters from the musical etc. Before I get in too deep, I thought I’d check in lolYou can reference a play / names in your story but lyrics are a no go since you need permission for them. Even 1 line is risky.
More info can be found here!
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janefriedman.com/sample-permiss….
Literary Agent
Literary Agent
Sonya Singh @sonyaksingh
@Megan_Manzano Im interested in also looking at TV and movie options for my book - will a lit agent be eager to help with this too?Depending on the agency, they could have in house tv and subrights agents who will do that for you. If not, it's something to discuss with your agent and how that will be handled.
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Literary Agent
Laura Genn 🐉 | 21.5k ✨ @LauraGenn
@Megan_Manzano Should you mention the previous query when sending the new one? Thank you for replying!I would yes, especially since not all agents use query manager where we can see you previously queried us.
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Literary Agent
C. A. Crisóstomo📚🏳️🌈☂️ @CACrisostomo5
@Megan_Manzano Hey Megan! Thanks for hosting #askagent today!Do you think it's okay to say you're a Latin writer even if you are not writing a Latin story?
Moreover, if your book is the first of two, does it hurt the changes of getting picked? (In literary fiction for example)
Thanks xx
I think it's 100% okay. To me, this falls into more of how comfortable you are with identifying yourself to someone you don't know / you don't need to write an ethnicity story despite being a certain ethnicity.
It shouldn't hurt your chances for getting picked.
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