Literary Agent
Jessie Mayerovitch @mayerovitch
@RebeccaLMatte How far into a query letter will you read to see if it captures your interest? Do you think it's important for the first sentence to be attention-grabbing?I read the whole query letter! I’d say 1st line of the whole thing does not have to be attention grabby, but I can’t lie: pithy first sentences of blurbs are exciting. BUT it’s not about the 1st line: it’s about the overall pitch. A great line can be brought down, and vice versa
Literary Agent
Demi Michelle 🦋 @demimschwartz
@RebeccaLMatte Fun Q, fave YA reads lately? :)I spent long enough looking to confirm if it was YA that I’m just gonna say it: Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai! Young women in alternate Egypt inspired world fighting for equality with magic.
And I’m psyched for the sequel to Among Thieves by MJ Kuhn
Literary Agent
Demi Michelle 🦋 @demimschwartz
@RebeccaLMatte Hi, Rebecca, thanks for this. Tried to get your AMA from Lit Agents of Change but missed out. *cries* what is something you look for in the QL and/or pages that’s lesser known? Something not widely mentioned?Ah sorry to miss chatting! I’m sure we’ll have more chances.
Hm, for me I look to understand character. If I get a good sense of your protagonist and their stakes, I am sold pretty fast. I’d rather know about them than the world level conflict, unless it’s directly pertinent
Literary Agent
Demi Michelle 🦋 @demimschwartz
@RebeccaLMatte Also… if you don’t mind sharing, do you have an idea of when you’ll reopen to queries? 🤔My hope is August 1! I’m still working through fulls and I’ll be in the Galapagos for the last week of July, so probably after that!
Literary Agent
Jessie Mayerovitch @mayerovitch
@RebeccaLMatte This might be agent dependent, but I've noticed that a lot of QueryManager forms request some of the same information that goes in the query letter (bio, similar novels, pitch) as separate fields. Should you copy-paste those sections from your query letter? Add additional detail?Great question! For me, I do that for 2 reasons: 1) to help me focus on the info (I struggle with chunky paragraphs) and 2) to prompt writers who may not otherwise include it.
If it’s in your query, you can def copy/paste. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Literary Agent
I'm on instagram today posting about mundane "day in the life of a lit agent" sort of stuff but I think there will be some cool things popping into my inbox today and I'm doing an #askagent there so feel free to come hang. instagram.com/agentkellyvans…
Literary Agent
Nancy Writes @nancywriteon
@Sarah_Nicolas I've written a coming-of-age novel that would appeal to teens and adults as well. The protagonist is a teen, so do I need to label it as YA? I wish there was just a coming of age category!I'm going to be honest and say very, very few books fit in both ya or adult. It has to do with filter. Is it a teen telling their story directly or is their story filtered through an adult lens?
Literary Agent
Amber is 🪷querying🪷 @amberswips
@Sarah_Nicolas why do the querymanager forms ask for phone number and address? is there a specific reason?Phone number so we can call if we need to. Address maybe so we can put it on the agency agreement, which we like to prepare before the call. It's often optional tho
Literary Agent
Abigail Guerrero is querying! 🇲🇽 @_gail_guerrero
@Sarah_Nicolas This is probably a weird question but I've been wondering for a while... When an agent decides to offer rep, do they need "permission" from the agency? Like, do they have to consult it with the ancient agent council or it's a totally individual decision?Some agencies they do, others they don't. Some only more junior agents need approval
Literary Agent
Mustafa Alrawi @folo1976
@Sarah_Nicolas Thanks for this. I hear YA is especially tough now. If you like a story pitched as YA would you suggest to the author changing the book to adult?No, everything is tough. I don't think ya is harder than adult in any given fiction genre
Literary Agent
💚 Liz On Occasion @DanzierLea
@Sarah_Nicolas What do you do when your genre's not on anyone's MS wishlist? (I have a swashbuckler in the works.)"Swashbuckler" is a sub sub genre. So go up to subgenre and look for that
Literary Agent
Susan Burdorf @sburdorf
@Sarah_Nicolas #askagent If you could teach a class on the one thing you would want people submitting you to do, what would the class be about?People submitting to me? Idk if it would cover a whole class but just a sentence: "read more books in your genre"
Writers in general: I really want to teach avoiding publishing scams more
Literary Agent
Sophie Bradley @SophieBauthor
@Sarah_Nicolas Are there any trends in fantasy that you are noticing right now? It seems like there are very few agents open to fantasy at the moment.Upmarket lower/light touch of fantasy is in high demand, but the number of editors taking straight, classic fantasy seems to be really small
Literary Agent
Literary Agent
Susan Burdorf @sburdorf
@Sarah_Nicolas #Askagent What is something you are dying to see that has not crossed into your inbox yet?A clever, charismatic con artist who is not a cis man
Literary Agent
Zackary Dahlin @ZackDahlin
@Sarah_Nicolas If agents know a colleague would adore a manuscript that they themselves would not represent, would they/you ever refer the author to that respective agent as part of a rejection?At Tobias, we often share in house via querymanager. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't query other agents after a rejection because we don't always know what the others are looking for.
Literary Agent
Gerrie (AKA "YogiGer") Summers @GerrieSummers
@LaneHeymont I saw a tweet about replying to an agent's rejection with a TY. I'd read that you shouldn't respond, even if there's a little feedback (unless it's a revise & resubmit) because agents have too much to read already. Should I have sent a TY?Sending a TY is polite. I send them to editors who pass but some agents may find them annoying? I think it’s fine to say TY as long as that’s ALL you say. A lot of authors use any form of communication as a shot to keep the convo going and THAT’S what agents don’t have time for.
Literary Agent
Literary Agent
Alana DeVito @alanamayd
@annmrose How do you feel about MG verse novels and around what word count do you feel works best? ThanksLove novels in verse
For verse I think it’s more about page count in the end vs word count since the standard number of words aren’t on a page if that makes sense
But if you want a WC + 10k-30k give or take
Literary Agent
S.B. Black @Siwyenbast
@annmrose Hi! I have a similar question to one that's answered, but for YA High Fantasy. How's the market for it doing right now? I'm not quite ready to query for my YA portal fantasy, but I would love to have an idea on the market and see if my timing is good or not.Like every other market it’s very crowded so make sure you highlight was is unique or different about yours and why it will stand out in the crowd
Meaning — have a really strong hook