White writers including something they cite as an "African proverb" in their book pitch better have a specific, damn good reason for doing that
#querytip

Hot Tip: don’t lie about having an offer from another agent. We will find out, and you will end up with no agent and no credibility. #querytip

#Amquerying #authors, if you're sending a query letter to several #literaryagents in the subject line, rather than properly emailing ea. #literaryagent, at least think to email to yourself & Bcc everyone else. Otherwise it just looks careless & impersonal. #querytip #AskAgent

#querytip A lot of people try to break the fourth wall in their manuscripts, but the problem with that is that you, as a writer, are physically making your reader step back and realize they're not in your story. Part of the magic of books that you love is because you feel like

Nonfiction writers, instead of asking other authors/experts to write a blurb for your book, ask them to promote your book to their followers in some way. Blurbs are a passive form of promotion that do very little to make readers aware of a new author. #pubtip

If you think your story needs another draft, write it before you query! We want to see the best possible version of your work because we WANT to represent you. #amquerying #amediting #querytip #writetip

Just saying, I very rarely see the need for explanation points in novels unless used in dialogue. It comes across childish or jumpy. My PSA for the day. #amediting #querytip

A rejection doesn’t necessarily mean the reviewing editor disliked the manuscript. A lot of factors come into deciding what to publish, including the publisher’s current list and market trends. #pubtip

Like most lit agents, I only use Twitter to network professionally. I don't respond to friend requests or messages on FB, Insta, or (existential shudder) LinkedIn unless I know you. Not personal! I just don't want to share Fam Anna with strangers. #pubtip

A thread on some overused opening page scenes that are usually considered a NO when going through our query boxes...

#querytip #amquerying #amagenting

Just a reminder that I'm open for queries for another 15 days before closing for 2 months. If you send me a query while I am closed, it will not be reviewed. Thanks! #querytip #amquerying

This thread! #querytip #subtip

Kate Brauning drops some really helpful truths here. #querytip #writetip

Querying writers, don't forget--I'm closing to queries in just over 2 weeks, on August 1, 2018! #querytip #subtip

Amidst all the terrible political news, I've been finding a lot of joy in queries. The dedication it took to tell a story, to write a query letter and send it out moves me. Ditto the imagination it took to come up with a set of characters and their story. #querytip #amquerying

My point is: if you’ve received this/other feedback &it stung, I don’t mean to be cruel, but get used to it. Take it as armor&strap it on. There’s more coming even once you “make it.” Have to learn to constantly improve, besting your own best to dodge the feedback of “familiar.”

This may make you think: THIS INDUSTRY IS SO HARD. And yep. Yep it is. Even once you nail this and land representation, authors get this feedback from publishers. And then from reviewers. And then from readers of their next book, always held in their own shadow for comparison.

Not one of these elements, alone, is enough to push a book to greatness. It really needs a balance of all these things: originality in world, voice, plot structure, trope twist, motivation, backstory, stakes, relationships, emotional arc, etc etc etc. The list goes on.

But no matter how original and intricate your twist on something is, nor how unique your worldbuilding, if the voice doesn’t stand out as a unique character with a unique perspective on the world, it still falls into that “too familiar” feel.

Take that established system you love and think: how can you make this the book where readers say “What the EFF! I never would have thought of it like THIS!” How can you make this the book where readers say “I loved X but THIS book does things so differently!”