Kelly Van Sant

If you don’t trust that person, if you don’t feel comfortable with the communication style, if you don’t feel like you are in control of your career, that person is not a good fit for you.

A good fit is a person you trust and feel comfortable with. You must ALWAYS feel secure in being able to say no to your agent. No, I don’t agree with that edit. No, I don’t want to accept that deal. No, I don’t want to work with that person. An agent works for *you*

-What is your turn around time for edits?

-What is your turn around time for edits?

-What do you consider to be your role in my career?
-What if I want to write in other genres or categories?
-What happens if we disagree on an editing issue? A contract issue?

YES! (Also hi!) Good questions to ask are:

-How frequently and through what channels do you prefer to communicate?
-What will happen if this book doesn’t sell?
-How involved will I be in the submission process?
-Are you an editorial agent/what is your editing style like?

This is tough for me to answer, as I don’t personally rep category romance! I would assume that it would be ok to query a category romance to agents who list plain “romance” in their submission guidelines, but I am not ideally suited to give an answer to this question.

There is talk of expanding the ceiling for the age of YA MCs but I do think 24 is pushing it...

I’d say 21 is probably the current max on average (I’m sure here are exceptions, and who knows how this will evolve) but most YA is still 14-18.

I don’t rep short story collections as debuts (would certainly do so if my clients wished to write them) and so can’t answer this one, as it’s beyond my scope!

Memoir specific first (even an agent who wants LGBTQIA projects can’t help you if what they want is fiction and what you have is nonfiction). But yes, definitely research in combination!

You can write whatever you want! Do speak w/ your agent regarding what projects they will represent & which projects you should seek other representation for. Some agents will handle everything. Some will specialize and advise you to seek additional representation. Talk about it!

Yeah, I can’t help you with the nitty gritty because I haven’t read your book! Choose comps that are clear & appropriate. If people have to work to figure out how the comp related to your book, that’s a problem. But if the connection is clear, you’re good, no matter the category

I missed that this was fantasy. So yeah fantasy has a lot of crossover.

Also, query agents that rep adult fantasy!

I don’t list NA as a category I rep, but I’ll sometimes consider it if it comes in. Depending.

New Adult! A notoriously tricky category. In this case I’d say to follow the submission guidelines as best as you can. Depending on the nature of the story, it miiiiiight be ok to query YA agents if they don’t explicitly state they’re not interested in NA? But it might now?

It can go either way! If your book really has crossover potential, say so! But if you don’t know what crossover means, or if your book clearly doesn’t fit in that space, it will be really obvious to the agent. Describe your books in appropriate terms that you understand.

If you have an actual connection with an agent (they liked your tweet about your WIP or you met them at a conference) say so. But you don’t need to reach for something personal if it isn’t there. Personalizing a query is mostly demonstrating that you know who you’re talking to.

Agents do not maintain mailing lists or newsletters on behalf of their clients. If you enjoy writing newsletters, this is a fine thing to do! But make sure your mailing list is opt in only. Never add folks to your mailing list without their consent.

Follow submission guidelines. You’d be shocked at how many people do not do this and are immediately rejected as a result.

As far as the writing itself, that’s harder to answer in a tweet! Read widely, make sure your book stands on its own, give us characters we can care about.