Gina Panettieri

If the concept hooked me, yes. Many agents/editors look at the pages first.

20 can be a challenging age for protagonists. It is a little old for YA and NA really isn’t a thing. Do they need to be 20? Why did you choose that age?

Actually, novella and short novel length works are really kind of having a moment. If I were you I would read publishersmarketplace.com and look over the deal lists. You are going to find a lot of listings for deals for shorter fiction.

You said it in saying it depends. It depends on the knowledge of the agent, it depends on how outside the box the book is, it depends on how many subs the agent does. There’s no hard and fast stat. I know agents who sell almost 100%, I know new or untrained agents who hardly sell

Synopses are hard, I will grant you that. A lot of people want a one pager, I think three gives enough room to tell your story. Think of it as a pitch tool. We don’t need every lot detail. Think conflict, stakes, and motivation. I want to know why I should care what is happening.

I think publishing right now is making inroads in serving more diverse readers. And we need to get over the idea that books are gender-specific. Anyone who knows my author list knows gender specificity is bullshit.

I don’t hate prologues except when they’re basically lazy writing, which a lot of them are. A lot of them are the authors saying I’m gonna bore you for two chapters so I’m gonna give you this prologue that’s really a flash forward to show that there’s something good later on.

1/2 Comps are super important. You want a book that’s gotten a lot of buzz, has sold well, it is not by a superstar known author, but a new author who’s getting a lot of attention. Read publishers weekly, even the free newsletters are great.

If the writing on the first page is not engaging the reader at all, it’s almost a guaranteed rejection. If it’s a little rough or something intrigued us, we’ll keep reading. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to hook us.