Kim Lindman
Literary Agent
Stonesong
lit agent + smm @StonesongNYC repping cookbooks, nonfiction + select fiction! (send me yours ⬇️) tweets about books/food/life/#adopteevoices *opinions mine*
Literary Agent
#querytip: if you hire someone to query for you (don't), at least make sure it's someone that doesn't spam agents--I block some of those "services" that send literally anything to literally anyone, and I'm guessing you don't wanna pay to end up unread in spam/trash
Literary Agent
nonfiction #querytip: if you mention your substack/newsletter, the number of subscribers is an extremely helpful metric to include
Literary Agent
Bibi Lewis @Bibi_Lewis
And my forever #1 piece of query advice is FOLLOW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR GOODNESS SAKE. #amqueryingYes to everything Bibi says in this thread! But in particular, look at submission guidelines ON THE AGENCY WEBSITE, because someone's blog post or listicle on an agent's wishlist/guidelines may be out of date (or just wrong) #querytip
Literary Agent
Emma Janzen @emmajanzen
I've heard agents say that a bad comp in a book proposal is worse than no comps at all, but how are average writers (like me) supposed to find book sales figures for other books to know if said comp a good or bad comp?ooh, this is a great question! you can use number of Amazon or Goodreads reviews and ratings to compare your comps
#querytip
Literary Agent
a basic #querytip: frame the length of your novel in number of words. number of pages isn't very helpful because there are a lot of factors that change the number of words on a page. is font size 10 or 14? single or double space? is it 8.5x11 or other?
Literary Agent
Kim @kim_lindman
#querytip a query ≠ a book review! saying something like “written in an entertaining style, this is an engaging book with relatable characters” actually tells me nothing—it’s very subjective, and loads of books could be described this way! 🧵It basically comes down to “show don’t tell” which is even more crucial in queries. If I get 100 queries this week saying “an engaging book with relatable characters” how will I pick which one to read? I can’t read 100 MS a week, so make your query distinct! #querytip
Literary Agent
#querytip a query ≠ a book review! saying something like “written in an entertaining style, this is an engaging book with relatable characters” actually tells me nothing—it’s very subjective, and loads of books could be described this way! 🧵
Literary Agent
#querytip: SEO techniques don't apply to your query. throwing in every buzzword you can think of may ensure that I'll see your email no matter what I search for in my query inbox, but makes for quite a word salad to actually try to comprehend 1/2