Friends: sending your queries/pitches to an agent's personal social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) is not the way to go. Let some facets of our lives be semi-not-work-related! Unless specifically directed, their work e-mail is the way to go. #querytip

Getting tired of seeing stories about your grandparents, parents, uncles, cousins, etc. While these stories are hugely important to YOU, unless they are truly incredible and will draw a wide audience, they aren't right for my list. #antimswl #mswl #querytip

#QueryTip When querying an agent who uses an online form. In the query field: give me a full query letter (genre, word count, plot outline, hook, author bio, comps, why you queried). The synopsis field is not the place to tell me plot + hook. That's for a legit 1-3 page synopsis!

Out of 10 consecutive queries I read this morning
6 were over 100k
1 of them close to 200k
1 (not included in the 6) was upper 90k
Please know what your word count range is before your query
#SlushInsight #querytip

A Monday morning #querytip: do NOT call an agent’s cell phone at midnight on a Friday night—or at any time at all—to pitch your book. Send a query, spare an agent. #truestory

Why important to get keywords in a book's title or subtitle #pubtip

So even if you've seen 100 rejections, send out some more queries. You just haven't found the agent, yet, who is flipping through the channels looking for exactly your story. Keep. At. It. /end

My point is that rejections are because we are all picking based on these preferences, which are influenced by personal taste, reading history, market trends, our confidence in the genre, etc. /9

It just means that maybe you've sent a Sandler to someone who wants a romcom, or maybe you've sent an elf story to someone who is burned out on Tolkien (me), or maybe your sci fi has been similarly done a few times recently and it needs to wait a while. /8

One type of sci fi works for me, but not for others. But all these stories have merit and value, And many of them will appeal to an agent, even if not an agent you've queried yet. That does NOT mean your story isn't AMAZING. /7

Agents reading queries is just like this. We all have different tastes and weird little specific things we prefer or refuse to read. /6

But each of you wants to watch something different, so you split up because you pay for Netflix on 2 screens for a reason, and two of you watch a sci fi but really it's only the one ONE of you would have preferred, while the other watch Sandler& no one at all watches Damon. /5

And someone says "Oh I just did a LoTR marathon and am totally burned out on elves and dwarves" but then you see the featured pic of some weird sci fi movie and say "what about this instead" and your BFF is like "wait I really wanted to watch that Sandler movie... /4

And you're like "okay but I'm leaning more Marvel action" and someone else says "but there's this new Bourne movie and I was really hoping to watch that" and you hate Matt Damon cuz who doesn't, so you say "what about that weird Will Smith elf and orc movie instead" .../3

And you're like "damn I could really go for some Sandler low comedy right now" and another friend is like "ok but old Sandler, not new Sandler," and then another friend says "but guys I'm really feeling an action movie tonight" .../2

Bear with me, This DOES have to do with #amwriting and #querytip.
You know when you're on the couch with your friends and trying to pick what movie to Netflix and you're like "hey let's do comedy" And one friend is like "ok but not slapstick comedy just Rom com..." /1

Amazing/hilarious example of "publishing is a subjective business." (I know that may sometimes sound like BS agent-speak, but you guys, IT'S TRUE.) #querytip

The thing with nonfiction though is you need a platform. You need to be able to sell the book. Of course a great idea, like Tequila Mockingbird, can also give you a platform. #querytip

#querytip I've been getting a lot of queries for novellas recently. I've had no luck whatsoever with novellas/short stories, so I'm really not looking for them right now.

Yes, yes, yes! #pubtip