[stylist] Agent questions

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

John,

Good points.  When I was first mucking around with the notion of submitting
my first volume, mostly because I couldn't figure out what else to do with
the thing, the supposed rule was to send to one publisher or agent, then
wait to hear, then send to another one, then wait to hear....  Dire
consequences were threatened if you submitted to multiple prospects!

Can you now get away with using the shotgun method by sending out multiple
submissions simultaneously?  I'm not close to there these days, but I'm
starting to get a couple of long fiction projects moving and would really
like to not have to play the single submission game.  Ugh!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of John Lee Clark
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 4:31 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Agent questions

Cindy:

The five questions to ask are biased, since it's an agent who wrote them
down.  It is missing one crucial question, one that successful authors know
well: Are you prepared to send out over two hundred eueries and follow up
with them all?

The publishing world is fickile.  Take the case of Jasper Foorde, the
bestselling author of The Eyre Affair and many other books.  He sent Eyre
carefully to markets he kinew well.  No go.  he slowly spread out, still
being careful to learn about the publishers and agents and studying them to
find out if they would be a fit.  Still no go.  It was only after he said
"Screw it" and machine-gunned his query all over the place, getting
seventy-six rejections before he hit gold, and oh boy was it real gold!  He
is very wealthy now.

Unless I have a previous relationship, like I was published there before,
and unless I really had one place in mind before I even wrote the first
words, the machine gun method has always worked the best for me.  Tiptoeing
around and waiting around for months to get a response before trying another
one does no good at all.

There are people who are PAID to screen stuff, so let them do their job.
You're not getting paid unless you have a hit.  They get paid anyway, any
way it goes.  So my advice is to fire away.

John



-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of The Crowd
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 7:40 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: [stylist] Agent questions

In an article by Kristen Auclair, a literary agent of Graybill and English, 
the FIVE QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE SENDING YOUR QUERY LETTER:

    1.  Is it polished, error-free, and professional?
    2.  Does the tone of your query letter reflect the tone of your book?
    3.  Are you sure that the agent you're pitching works on this type of 
project?
    4.  Do you know your market?
    5.  Are you emphasizing the best aspects of your project?

Taking a moment to send this inbetween packing my apartment!

A

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.

Life is short ...forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly,
laugh uncontrollably...
and never regret anything that made you smile

"Qui docet, discit."
"He who teaches, learns"

I have learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
 


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