Blog Archive
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Re-Pitching Agents
May 21, 2009
I did a round of querying in the fall that got a few solid nibbles, two partials and a full, and advice along the lines of “love the writing but this isn’t as marketable as we’d like; make these changes and it might be.” While I definitely intend to repitch to those three agents, I’d […]
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No Reply Necessary
May 20, 2009
I know in the past I’ve written blog articles letting authors know that if they really feel the need or desire to send a thank-you note to an agent, go right ahead. It won’t hurt anything. Well I also know that there are a few agents out there who find these nice little notes irritating. […]
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Women’s Fiction
May 19, 2009
I seem to get a ton of questions about women’s fiction; there are a lot of people concerned with everything from word count to a definition of what women’s fiction is. So let me see if I can clear some of this up, and of course muddy the waters a little. The first thing to […]
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The Importance of Follow-Up
May 18, 2009
Recently BookEnds had some major trouble with our server. Apparently another domain also using our server (through the web hosting company we use) was hacked into and blocked for spam. That meant a fair number of emails leaving our server were blocked by the email hosts receiving the emails (namely yahoo, msn, hotmail, etc). Which […]
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Publishing and Social Networking
May 15, 2009
Have you ever noticed how I come up with horrible blog headlines? That of course has nothing to do with today’s post, but I just wanted to point it out. Facebook. Today’s hot new social phenomenon, sure to be replaced next week by something not quite completely new, but just as exciting. Just like everyone […]
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Basing Your Book on a Classic
May 14, 2009
My YA manuscript is loosely based on a classic Charlotte Bronte novel, and although some of the characters and plot lines are similar to the original, the characters’ motivations and relationships have been updated to reflect modern values, choices and issues. I believe my novel and query letter are both good enough to stand on […]
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Two Agents, One Agency
May 13, 2009
I have a question I hope you can help me with. After passing on book 1, an agent at an esteemed house offered to consider any future work of mine. I told her about my WIP (book 2), and she said she’d like to see it when the full is ready. Subsequently, another agent at […]
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My Attitude
May 12, 2009
I apologize if my attitude of late has seemed surly, frustrated or even angry at times. I recently received a very kind email from a reader who was concerned that Agentfail had started to get me down and that I was spending too much time trying to respond and calm the detractors. She shared a […]
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Established v. New Clients
May 11, 2009
A reader on the blog asked how agents prioritize clients. Do established clients always get my attention first over new clients or do bestselling clients win out over those making me a little less money? I had to think about how to answer this, not because I was afraid of offending anyone (by now you […]
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Your Agent History
May 08, 2009
In previous comments there has been some concern that the author with a history of previous agents, let’s say one, two or three, is shooting herself in the foot simply because having so many agents labels her as trouble. Someone mentioned that she heard other agents say that this would be the case for them. […]
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Agents Aren’t the Enemy
May 07, 2009
It may or may not have started with Agentfail, I tend to think it didn’t, but in the past month or so, maybe since the beginning of the year, there’s been some real anger, frustration, and, yes, a bit of a backlash toward agents, and while I’m certainly not going to put an end to […]
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The Economy and Submissions
May 06, 2009
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from authors asking whether or not they should be holding off on the agent search until the economy is better. I think the fear is that if you’re rejected because the economy is tight you’ve lost your chances of submitting to that agent or agency when things pick […]
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