Gina Panettieri
Literary Agent
Talcott Notch Literary
Founder/literary agent with Talcott Notch. If I'm not reading, I'm in the gardens or baking. I get way too into Fall and Halloween. Chocolate is life.
Literary Agent
Verna James @VJameswrites
@ginapanettieri If the query in not stellar will you read at least the first page? TyIf the concept hooked me, yes. Many agents/editors look at the pages first.
Literary Agent
Shelly Mack @Shellymackbooks
@ginapanettieri My characters in my Scottish horror are 20. I'm struggling with genre. Some agents don't agree NA is a genre but YA is not quite right either for my book audience. I was thinking commercial horror. Could that work? Thanks in advance. 😊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?
Literary Agent
blan©️k. @sonyablanck
@ginapanettieri who's publishing under 50k nowadays? (also please tell me about shoulder cryotherapy, mine subluxes dozens of times a day)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.
Literary Agent
F.X. Regan @FXRegan
@ginapanettieri I know it varies by client, but on average, what it the success rate shopping an author/book you think has “it” to a publisher?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
Literary Agent
Art Geis @artgeis
@ginapanettieri What are your keys for a successful synopsis?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.
Literary Agent
ANOVELIDEA @ANOVELIDEA7
@ginapanettieri Why does publishing do NOTHING to bring in new readers? ie sure you can promote a book but I had a chance encounter with a novel The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve 2007 it changed my life PUBLISHING "men don't read chicklit?" hmm guess i should check my pronouns?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.
Literary Agent
patrick hopkins (he/him)🏳️🌈 supports ukraine @AuthorHopkins
@ginapanettieri questions based on things i've seen recently:1) on a scale of 1 to throw it in an active volcano as a warning, how much do you hate prologues?
2) at what point does a writer withdrawing a sub package to fix something get irritating?
tia.
<3
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.
Literary Agent
M.A. Guglielmo @Aphemia66
@ginapanettieri What are some strategies for selecting comps when writing a query?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.
Literary Agent
n30hybr1d @n30hybr1d
@ginapanettieri How likely is a query to get rejected based off the first page of a manuscript? Thanks.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.