It doesn’t have to be too detailed. Titles and names of publications would be enough IMO

I’m not sure what you are asking, but you don’t have to tell us about us, or repeat our MSWL. If you don’t have anything personal to say, skip it. We will know you did your research if you send us something we’ve said we wanted

Comps don’t have to be directly similar, just look for similar qualities

The friendship of X Title
The romance of Y Title
The adventure of Z Title

A query should tell me

Who is the MC?
What do they want? Goals
What stands in their way? Obstacles
What happens if they fail? Stakes

Also meta data- word count, age group, genre, comps

A little about the author

You have to figure out who the reader is and then pitch it accordingly. Who did you write the book for? Which shelf will it sit most comfortably on? There is no in between shelf even if readers of both could enjoy, it has to solidly sit somewhere.

On a full request? I think nudges at 3 month increments are totally fair.
Too soon is like a week after it’s sent. I wish I was that fast but sadly I am not.

I'm going to do an IG live #askagent this week. instagram.com/carlywatters/

Drop your pub/writing Qs here in this thread and then head over to IG and I'll answer them live (probably on Friday)

👇👇👇👇👇👇

I honestly don’t know how some agent part time as my workload doesn’t allow for it, but I know a lot of agents who do it part time successfully. Truthfully, most of us smaller agents can’t afford to NOT have another job. Also, I work remote from my home.

With Harlequin, probably not. They don't do much, if any, negotiating on their contracts and they're pretty fair overall. With another publishing house? Maybe, but only if you're not comfortable negotiating the contract and advocating for yourself.

I don't know that there's only 1 question, but an author really needs to get a good feel for the agent's style &make sure it matches their own. So figure out what you want in an agent, & make sure to ask the questions that will tell you if that agent is what your'e looking for.

I don't ask for a lot of R&Rs, but I'm usually open to them. I generally don't ask for them because it feels like a promise to an author you'll take them if you offer an R&R and I really hate setting false expectations. So I usually send a pass instead.

You asked about query, but I'll admit it's not the query that usually pulls me in. That's not to say a bad query won't turn me off, but I usually skim the query for basic info then read the sample pages. So I'm looking for good writing that I'm not going to spend hours editing.

Surprisingly, I've seen a couple of editors looking for vampires. Not the glittery Edward Cullen, but the real deal.

RomComs are always popular.

Seems like SciFi and Fantasy always sells well, but I don't rep either. Humph! LOL

If I pass, it means that I wasn't the agent to rep the manuscript. I wish nothing but the best for the author. I'm happy to see it do well.

Oh, I should have said, it’s *FREE*

#amwriting #amquerying #askagent

Sometimes the first book doesn’t hit but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a good writer and they wouldn’t be happy to see something else from you. Publishing is part timing and luck

The likeliest cause I would think is embarrassment for taking so long.
I admit I'm not the speediest with reading fulls but I will ALWAYS respond.

Short answer - Yes.

1) Writing credentials are anything you've written so you can include anything you want. And if you don't have any that's okay too.
2) How an author chooses to publish is entirely up to them. There are pros and cons no matter which route you take.

You do NOT need blurbs from other authors at the querying stage! And if you don’t have credentials that’s fine. Tell us about you! Tell us what inspired you to write the story, or how it’s connected to you. Tell us about your other hobbies or your day job. …