Blog Archive
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Agents for Multiple Genres
Dec 15, 2009
My question is about securing an agent when you write in multiple genres. It can be difficult to find one agent who represents all of them. Is it ever possible to have multiple agents? To locate a single agent who represents all of your particular genres can be challenging. It also limits the number of […]
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Negotiating Your Advance
Dec 14, 2009
A few different times this year I’ve been asked, through the comments section, whether or not it’s ever beneficial for the author to negotiate a lower advance and higher royalties or if the author should always go for the big money up front. There are a lot of differing opinions on this subject and ultimately […]
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Conference Suggestions
Dec 11, 2009
I’m frequently asked which conferences I would recommend authors attend, and while I’ve been to many, there are just as many more I have yet to be invited to. In addition, what I look for in a successful conference might be different from what authors look for. I’d also need to know what you are […]
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Editor Request
Dec 10, 2009
I recently won a small contest. First prize in each category is a guaranteed full read by a particular agent and a particular editor. I know promising to receive a full manuscript isn’t the same as promising to LIKE the book, but I am very excited to have this opportunity. How do I go about […]
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Sell Yourself
Dec 09, 2009
On a recent blog post one of the infamous anonymous comments accused me of being offended by an author’s belief that an agent does nothing more than submit material and negotiate the contract only because I didn’t want to actually have to sell myself or convince the author otherwise. I know upon reading this I […]
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Respecting Each Other
Dec 08, 2009
There’s a delicate balancing act that needs to be played in the author-agent relationship, and while we’ve touched on it a few times I’m not sure we’ve addressed it in quite this way. I’m often asked how I handle a situation when the author and I disagree on the merits of a proposal. If, for […]
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No Simultaneous Submissions
Dec 07, 2009
Obviously writers can’t query one agent at a time – no one would ever get published in his or her lifetime. But several agencies are asking for not only a query letter but also for pages, anywhere from 5-50 (and I have to say, asking for 50 boggles my mind). I recently got a response […]
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Likeable Characters
Dec 04, 2009
I have a question about likeability in a character, because it is something many readers and agents mention. What does it take for a character to be likeable? I was reading a writing-for-romance book, and it said your heroine needs to have a best friend to show the reader that she is likeable. Is that […]
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The Writer’s Process
Dec 03, 2009
Not too long ago a client was going through some revisions with her editor and called me for a pep talk. She was confident that she could get the revisions done and even felt good about how she planned to do them. What upset her was that the editor had to point out these things […]
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Nonfiction Proposals
Dec 02, 2009
I’ve found that quite a few agents who are open to representing nonfiction self-help books request a query and the proposal in the same email. My query contains a brief description of the book, how it differs from competitive titles, and a little about me. The proposal contains the same information, although in more detail […]
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Self-Censoring
Dec 01, 2009
In a rather controversial blog post (that I won’t link to) I was accused of encouraging writers to self-censor, and while I don’t think the reader was talking at all about what I’m going to talk about today, the comment really got me thinking. After all, as writers or, more important, as businesspeople, publishing professionals, […]
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What Would You Do?
Nov 30, 2009
One of those questions that comes with a variety of answers . . . Let’s say you’re an agent who has fairly specific tastes for what you like to represent. You have a client for whom you’ve already sold three of these type of books. This client then comes to you with a book that […]
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