Up early, reading queries and fulls on a Sunday morning, and seeing lots of italicized beginnings.

#QueryTip Consider letting italics go. If the draft and story are strong enough, the text will not need emphasis. Your words will pop on the page nonetheless.

#querytip My agent pet peeve is authors sending me the same query over & over again even though I’ve already rejected it every time. And no, 0 revisions have been done. So if you’re sending out mass queries, keep track where you’re sending it so it’s not blowing up agents’ slush.

It is true, your eggs shouldn't all go in one basket. But you shouldn't spread them out so much you can't remember the last time you checked on them. Same goes for social media. #wtitetip #marketingtip #pubtip

#AmQuerying authors, a quick #QueryTip: Make sure you've researched the target wd ct for your genre. Too far outside the target is an automatic pass for me. Today I've read queries w/YA at 150K wds & Romance at 25-30K wds. Double check before querying bc I'm sure I'm not alone.

Announcement time!

I am hoping to re-open to queries in Nov! Trying to really go through all client ms and subs by then, so keep an eye on this space =]
#amagenting #querytip #amquerying

Hi friends, My #querytip for today: I suggest not posting "another day, another agent rejection" type posts. Why give the impression you're not a hot commodity? Finding an agent can be a lot like dating😉

Quick #querytip for fantasy authors especially-- I know it's Fun to Capitalize things, but not only is it distracting, it's not how humans process information! Think about the last three years-- we went from talking about the Novel Coronavirus to COVID-19 to "lol, caught the vid"

When you type THE END in you manuscript, it's only the beginning. On managing expectations and moving goalposts in today's Agents & Books. (with bonus dancing clipart)

katemckean.substack.com/p/the-end-is-j…

#amwriting #amediting #amquerying #WritingCommunity #pubtip

Evergreen tweet, ESPECIALLY for hopeful debut authors. #QueryTip #WritingCommunity

When we say ‘include a synopsis & the 1st 3 chapters’ we mean it…#querytip

#querytip A pass is not the end of the road. If you frame every rejection negatively that is disheartening & makes it harder to continue. So many of my passes have more to do w me than the actual quality of the work. I talk about publishing being subjective. I'm not joking. 7/

#querytip Silence just means that my attention is on other things. At least for me. I do respond to every query and submission, but it will occasionally take longer than I want. It's not because I am purposely ignoring you, it's that other things have demanded my focus. 6/

#querytip Patience, generosity, kindness matters. Will there be people who abuse it & don't deserve it? Yes. But I try to always apply those 3 ideas in dealings w others & I find that there is reciprocity. We are humans caught up in being human, being kind makes it less hard. 5/

#querytip Don't lie. Don't make up offers you don't have, don't pretend your book is polished and finished if you just typed "The End," don't pretend you've written one thing when you've written something else. You will always get caught. Just...don't lie. 4/

#querytip You might have written an exceptional book, but that doesn't mean you are the exception. Publishing has conventions like nearly everything in life, while there will always be outliers, don't go into it assuming that will be you. It rarely works that way. 3/

#querytip You want to make it hard for agents to say no; not easy. So pay attention details, things like word count, what they represent, actually writing a query letter. Getting it wrong doesn't doom you for life, but you will see way more rejection the less effort you make. 2/

Back on the elliptical—or in other words, back to my BS—and thought a good distraction could be a thread about the R word (rejection) anyone up for it? #QueryTip #WritingCommunity #AmQuerying

The number of queries I’ve seen lately with 200k & 300k words has been a little concerning so I thought I’d try to take a moment to chat about high word counts… a 🧵
#amquerying #QueryTip #WritingCommunity

Check out @ericsmithrocks’s breakdown of a winning book proposal and master class for aspiring NF authors.

(Also tickled to see Jeff Ryan’s Super Mario listed as a comp book in the proposal.) #amquerying #amwriting #pubtip

Something I've seen several times lately: Do NOT query until you have a finished manuscript to send! It's disappointing to request something and then hear it doesn't exist fully. :( #querytrenches #querytip #asktheeditor