Kate McKean

An actual human person got a book deal* from reading Agents and Books and she tells you all about here today!

*and not even a client!

katemckean.substack.com/p/agents-and-b…

#pubtip #WritingCommunity #amquerying #amwriting

Basically your number one job as a writer is to make sure your reader never says Then Who Cares about your characters/plot. #pubtip

How to Deal with Rejection

katemckean.substack.com/p/how-to-deal-…

#amwriting #amquerying #writingcommunity #pubtip

Is it a problem if your agent wants to be a writer, too?
#pubtip #amwriting #amquerying #WritingCommunity

katemckean.substack.com/p/agents-who-w…

Book publicity is incredibly hard and book publicists are literal angels and if you want to know why read this:

katemckean.substack.com/p/how-publicit…

#amwriting #amquerying #pubtip #writingcommunity #agents #books

Also, if you are a repeat offender of sending undeniably bad, aggressive, and insulting queries, I set a filter for your name/email and you're automatically sent to the trash. Sorry not sorry. #pubtip

Under no circumstances should you GROUP DM agents to query your work. #pubtip #amquerying

I really, really, really don't want a publishing start up that disrupts query letters.

#amquerying #pubtip #writingcommunity #amwriting

katemckean.substack.com/p/i-dont-want-…

One of the fundamental challenges of writing a book is getting everything you know about your subject/characters/plot/etc from your head to the actual page. You know what you know, but the reader doesn't know what you know until you tell them. #pubtip

What's the difference between market and platform?

katemckean.substack.com

#amwriting #writingcommunity #pubtip #amquerying

Hello. It is not necessary to notify me if another agent has requested your full manuscript. Congrats! But I don't need to know. Tell me if you get an offer of rep, but otherwise, we're good. #pubtip

Whoooooooo wheeeeeeee, I got a little salty in this week's paid Agents and Books:

Stop Using Statistics to Prove Your Market

katemckean.substack.com/p/stop-using-s…

#pubtip #amquerying #amwriting

If you think that calling your book a romantic suspense thriller mystery historical novel with light fantasy/magical realism means everyone who likes ANY of those genres will like your book, you need to read this: katemckean.substack.com #pubtip #amwriting

Thinking about your author platform can be terrifying.
#amquerying #pubtip
katemckean.substack.com

How long does a book have to be? If you're wondering about word counts for whatever you're writing, look here: katemckean.substack.com #pubtip

When your pitch mentions the race or other characteristic of the marginalized of only one character, I know what the default of all the others is. #pubtip

In your query letter, Catharine "Kate" McKean doesn't care that your main character goes by a nickname for the entirety of your novel. #pubtip

I'd say one in every 100 queries mentions a client that I have not worked with in about 13 years, when I left one agency for another. This isn't an auto-rejection level offense. But it tells me where you got your info, and that info is bad. #pubtip

If you don't have any yet, don't worry--if you're writing fiction. If you're writing many types of non-fiction, we definitely ARE looking for pub credits related to your book. #pubtip 3/3

Pub credits et al tell us what you're up to, or have been up to. What worlds are you active in? Has anyone heard of them? Are they related to the book you're querying? Will they help with promotion? #pubtip 2/3