A Great Chat with Agent Joshua Blimes

Last night Agent Queryhosted a chat with agent Joshua Blimes of JABberwocky Literary Agency.

What a great chat. The AQ members brought lots of great questions to the table and Joshua took his time to answer each question thoroughly. Somehow, he still managed to answer over 40 questions during his hour in the spotlight. Wow.

He said he loves to discover a new writer and that often a new writer has a raw talent that needs to be honed. What, we aren’t perfect by the time we get accepted? Dang. And I’ve learned so much in the past year! Good thing I don’t mind learning! However, one of the biggest problems he sees in new writers (he having read thousands of first pages in his 20+ years in the publishing business) is that “while some who are good just can’t focus on how they need to advance the story”. I’ve been there! In fact, that is something I’ve dedicated the month of October to working on! I’m on the right track! Yay!

Keep posted for information on other upcoming chats.

Agent Chat With Joshua Blimes

On Tuesday, October 7th Agent Query will be hosting another agent chat. If you are free at 8pm Mountain time (10pm Eastern), join us. I will be moderating the chat as usual and it should be an informative and great time.

Our guest will be Joshua Blimes, owner of the JABerwocky Literary Agency. Although he’s not looking for romance (or at least not between book covers), his advice will be informative for writers of all genres.

Joshua has been running his own agency for 14 years and has more years of experience int he publishing world than you could shake a stick at. He is very aware of the changes happening in the publishing world and his advice is, “You may be told, and it may even be true, that it’s harder for new authors to break into the business these days. But that can only be true to a limited extent, because everyone needs new authors, and they have to come from somewhere. Established authors stop writing or their sales decline. Some of the new authors launched a year or two ago will turn out now to work. We all need to look out for our tomorrow. But it’s never going to be easy.”

If you want to have the chance to ask an agent a question, join AQ, if you haven’t already–it’s free–and join the chat on Tuesday.

Hope to see you there!

Agent Chat a Roaring Success

Last night’s AQ agent chat with Michael Bourret of Dystel and Goderich Literary Management was fabulous. In one hour he succinctly fielded over 40 questions! We had over 47 lovely, ever-so patient guests who really made moderating this chat a dream. Thank you to Michael for taking time at the end of his busy day and thank you to all our wonderful guests who came armed with brilliant questions (many of which I had been wondering about myself).

Michael rocked it!

And we all only got a little bit crazy towards the end. But I think it could have been the cake I was serving.

Anyway, I learned lots and managed to keep all the balls in the air. Go cowgirl!

Now I get to read the transcripts and see what really happened! Keep posted for information on September’s upcoming chats.

It’s Official: The Chat Is A Go-Go!

Join me, the AQ Crew, other writers and literary agent Tina Wexler of ICM on June 26th at 7pm Eastern time on the Agent Query Connect website. Tina will graciously be answering questions and I will be graciously moderating the chat. Pretty cool, eh? Best part: it’s totally free! (We only ask for your soul and you don’t need that anyway!)

Here is a bit about Tina blatantly taken from the AQ site:

“Tina Wexler is an agent at ICM, representing writers in both the children’s and adult marketplace. Prior to joining ICM, she was with the Ellen Levine Literary Agency/Trident Media and the Karpfinger Agency. She is from southern Maine, holds an MFA in poetry, and lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband.”

What exactly is she looking for?

“On the adult side, I am looking to acquire narrative nonfiction and up-market commercial fiction. I’m particularly interested in popular science, food (not cookbooks), pop culture, memoir, religion, art history, women’s issues (however defined), and modernized retellings of popular myths and legends. On the children’s side, I’m interested in young adult fiction and middle grade fiction. I love mysteries, adventure stories with boy appeal, coming of age stories, tall tales, and paranormal fiction. Specifically, I am looking for a witty story about an astrophysicist who has troubles finding her Mr. Right–I think his name should start with an ‘M’.”

Okay, you caught me, I added that last sentence.

Come join us online on Thursday June 26th, or visit the post afterwards–I’ve been told the transcript from the chat will be available. Does it get any better than this?