Noah Lukeman is in the Blog House

Noah Lukeman, literary agent and the hero of all newbie writers (Lukeman’s the author of the stellar book The First Five Pages) has started up a blog where he answers all our burning questions about writing, agents, publishing and likely a whole lot more. Space Monkeys? I’m really curious about them. And women in the Klondike in the 1800s. That sounds interesting too. Anyway, check out his Ask a Literary Agent blog and sign up for his free newsletter (left hand side of the page) and while you are at it, add him to your follow list on Twitter and heck, why not read his free ebook on How to Write A Great Query Letter as well as order The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile.

There, you can’t say you never got anything great for free (or almost free).

Enjoy!

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Michelle Brower is Coming to Chat on AQ

Agent Query‘s literary agent guest for May is Michelle Brower of Wendy Sherman and Associates in New York. Michelle will be chatting to Agent Query’s members tomorrow night (May 12th) at 9 pm Eastern.

A bit about Michelle:

Michelle Brower has been with Wendy Sherman Associates since 2004, and has also previously worked with Joelle Delbourgo Associates. She enjoys working directly with emerging writers and is interested in representing literary and commercial fiction, memoir, pop culture, humor, crafting, graphic novels, popular science and narrative non-fiction. Books that capture elements of the strange and wonderful will always pique her interest, and she also looks for those that offer a unique perspective of the world. She has a MA in Literature from New York University. (From the Wendy Sherman and Associates website.)

She will also be attending the following conferences this year: Thrillerfest, New York, NY ( July 10)
Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Sewanee, TN ( July 18-20).

Join me (I’ll be chat moderator) over on AQ tomorrow night to chat with Michelle. It’s sure to be an educationally good time.

Jeffrey Moores Gives the Scoop on Query Hooks…and More

During last week’s Tuesday night chat, literary consultant and editor (and also former literary agent), Jeffrey Moores dropped the bomb. Agents are sick and tired of the query letter hook–avoid it at all costs. Here’s the 411 straight from the chat:

Yvonnetherese asked: How do you feel about starting the query letter with a hook sentence vs. genre, word count, etc. up front?

Jeffrey Moores replied: AVOID THE HOOK! It’s annoying. An agent instead wants simple reality: I am seeking representation for my YA novel about vampires and teenage werewolves. Put what you want up front. Be very simple.

I asked: Do many agents feel this way, Jeff?

He replied: As far as I know, all of them do. It’s very tiresome to read, over and over again, things like: “Imagine yourself in a world where…” An agent isn’t like a normal reader. They’ve got a lot more analytical wheels turning, and are more interested in your book’s place within the market and your ability to write. The actual details of your plot are only as important as your ability to frame your book within the query letter.

Well, I tell you, after cleaning all the grey matter  that had splattered all over the chat room walls during the chat, I went away and thought about what Jeffrey had said. I decided I needed a bit more info on the topic and so the next night (he did two chats for us over on AQ.) I asked for a bit of clarification. Here’s the scoop:

My question: Jeffrey, in regards to your surprising advice in regards to queries (“AVOID THE HOOK”) I got to wondering, how do YOU define a hook? Could you give us some specifics in terms of what to avoid?

Jeffrey Moores: I think that the typical “hook”, wherein a writer tries to hook an agent with a taste of the plot right away, often comes across as false and forced. Such as: “Imagine a town where nothing quite feels like it should…”

Instead, agents want to hear something like this: “My novel is a comedy-of-manners that skewers the reality of a strange town whose inhabitants seem to have no clue about the rest of the world…” or something similar. This is a more abstracted and contextualized description of your novel, and is more effective than assuming that an agent is sitting at her desk waiting to be entertained the same way she is when she’s picking a novel off of a book shelf at home.

It is still VERY IMPORTANT to “hook” an agent, but it is MORE IMPORTANT to do this through concise and effective presentation of your book’s specific themes and its place in the market, rather than drafting a sort of plot description or synopsis. Often, writers go on and on after their “hook” but fail to mention anywhere in the query WHAT TYPE OF BOOK THEY’VE WRITTEN. novel, YA, fantasy, mainstream, etc.

*******

He also mentioned to be confident in your proposal when writing nonfiction. The more confident you are, the more likely it will get picked up. As well, fiction writers should step out when writing their queries and “approach the query in a more nonfiction way”. That means, make your fiction query more about where your story fits into the market, who its audience is–that sort of thing. Which makes sense. It is a business letter. He also mentions to compare your letter to other books that are similar. Just make sure it is selling well! He provided pointers on how to pick the selling well books to compare yours to:

Very simply — go to your local bookstore and browse. Notice which books have prominent placement in the stores (front tables, end caps, facing OUT on the shelves, rather than their binding facing out). Publishers have paid for these privileges and it means that they’ve invested extra money in hopes that these books will sell well. Or, it means the book has already begun to sell well so they are pushing it further. Also, check out Amazon’s book rankings, reviews, and blurbs by other authors for that book — if five well-known authors have blurbed a given book, it’s safe to assume is better-known than a book with a blurb by only one lesser-known writer.

Both chats with Jeffrey where informative with lots of great tidbits you won’t find elsewhere. If you missed the chats, you can read the transcripts over on AgentQuery.

Be An Agent for a Day

Holy Poop!

I had forgotten. Literary agent Nathan Bransford is holding a ‘Be An Agent for the Day’ contest where folks try to pick the 5 queries that are from published authors and which are not.

Well, not only did I forget that I had zipped off my query for his contest’s slush pile, but I actually got picked. A friend over at AQ brought it to my attention and by the time I got over there, guess what? 109 comments on my query!

Wow! Amazing!

I will let you know which one it is when the contest is over as the queries are to be anonymous.

Free Online ‘Contests’

Are you looking for a way to get some feedback and maybe even get noticed?

Well, lucky for us, it is the Internet Age, baby. Yeah!

Here are three things that have come under my nose lately that might interest you:

The Knight Agency is having a ‘Book in a Nutshell’ contest. What you do is find out what they represent and then submit your pitch to them if you have a project that fits their interests. What’s a pitch? Basically, sell your story using a maximum of 150 words  limit  and 3 sentences to make these primo agents sit up and select your story from the undoubtedly thigh high pile of submissions they will be receiving. They are only choosing 20 pitches for which they will be provide feedback. Agent feedback on your writing! That’s golden! You have until April 20th.

Along the same lines (okay not really) is agent Nathan Bransford’s ‘Be An Agent for a Day’ contest. Basically, a bunch of people–probably at least a thousand knowing the pull Nathan’s blog generally has from his readers–send Nathan their queries. He then selects 50 queries which he will post on his blog (April 13th). Now here’s where we come in, over the period of a week, we comment on the posted queries. We can also ‘make requests’ (up to 5) for the queries we like. So what’s the catch? He’s going to slip in queries from published books. Ha! If you pick the ‘real’ winners (the queries that lead to a story being published) you win! That easy. I think it’ll be a great way for those who complain about agents to get a real taste of what it is like in their shoes.

And last, but equally exciting is another ‘Secret Agent Contest: Are You Hooked’ sponsored by Authoress aka Miss Snark’s First Victim. I have looked in on some of the contests she’s had in the past and they’ve been great. This time she is looking for the first 250 words of a completed novel falling under the genre of women’s fiction, commercial or literary middle grade/young adult. She opens the submissions on Monday the 13th and only takes the first 50. The feedback is great–from readers as well as a ‘secret’ agent. Again, another fantastic chance to improve your writing.

So go forth and enter my friends!

Enjoy and good luck.

Legit Literary Agents and Scammers: Tools to Separate the Two

Seeing as I use the searchable Agent Query database whenever I decide to query a project, I spend little time worrying about ‘fake’ agents or scammers. However, scammers hooking unsuspecting writers happens everyday and it is worth gaining some tools on how to identify the ‘bad guys’.

Over on Pub Rants, blog by agent Kristen Nelson, she discusses scammers and the handy websites Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. She made a call to those of us with blogs to mention that scammers are indeed out there in case we have newbies checking out our sites. (It’s nice to know someone is looking out for us, isn’t it?)

Basically, an agent should never ask for money. (Check out the excellent article by Victoria Strauss for more tips on how to spot a scammer.) Agents get paid when you get paid. That means, you pay them NOTHING until they have made a book deal with a legitimate publisher. Now, some agencies do ask for a small fee to cover office expenses. However those fees should not be asked for upfront. Generally, they are taken off your cut of the book deal and should be mentioned in the contract you sign when you land your agent. And yes, it is common for agents to ask for 15% of what you make on book deals as their cut and 20% from foreign deals. It may seem like a lot at first glance, but agents work very hard for that money and in fact, often you wouldn’t even earn that 15% if you were dealing without an agent. Fact: agents almost always get a better deal for writers than writers do for themselves. Look at that, your agent just paid for him or herself AND you have more time to write and less worries. Awesome!

(If you are new to the game and aren’t sure what sort of things to expect from an agent, check out agent Rachelle Gardner’s list of things to expect of an agent and a couple things not to expect. They are worth checking out. As well, agent Ethan Ellenberg has an excellent article on how to pick a good agent.)

Back to scammers. If you are looking for an agent, you can also check to see if they are a member of AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives) as those agents HAVE to act within the association’s code of conduct. That is NOT to say that if an agent is not a member that they are going to scam you. No, AAR is just another way to help you sort through your pile of potential agents. As well, check out Agent Query for a good agent. Check writer boards like Absolute Write Water Cooler and of course, the already mentioned Preditors and Editors and Writer Beware. You can also check out books on literary agents at your local bookstore like this one or this one.

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Good Links, February Edition

There have been some great blog posts online this month, so I thought I’d share some of the one’s I’ve enjoyed the most(and can actually remember at this moment in time).Today I donated 99 cents ($1.30 Canadian) to help a writer replace his GPS. Seriously. The story sucked me in. Pulled at my heartstrings, made me laugh. All that good stuff. I even navigated around my computer’s security software to make my donation. And then, guess what? I discovered I got something for my $1.30. Huh. I was actually a little disappointed in that my goodwill was going to get me something directly (not karmically). But I got over it quickly because I got a book. Shot of Tequila by JA Konrath. Uh, huh. So there you go. Check out the story and get a PDF of the book. Woo!

In other news, JA Konrath also has a nice checklist for writers. Are you delusional about your abilities as a writer? Maybe confident? Unsure, check it out. It is a good attitude check if nothing else.

Over at Bookends Literary blog, I discovered a fab querythat really helped me with my own. (The post is actually from January, but I only discovered it this week.) The query also wants me to buy the book which is part of the Gray Whale Inn Bed-and-Breakfast mysteries. This is the sentence that made me sit back and go ‘cool’: “But she’s barely fired up the stove when portly developer Bernard Katz rolls into town and starts mowing through her morning glory muffins.” Good stuff! Voice and all that jazz. Plus, her query packs in the protagonist’s stakes in the story. Good job!

If you are working on your synopsis, Kristin Nelson has five helpful things to keep in mind when creating that summary masterpiece over on her Pub Rants blog.

Nathan Bransford (literary agent with Curtis Brown) has a post on characters. He discusses sympathetic and unsympathetic characters and the issue of redeemability. “We’ve all read moments where this happened: a character did something so horrible and shocking and irredeemable that there was no going back. We’re officially done with that person.” That’s pretty much what happened with a book I’m reading right now (but I won’t disclose which one it is). But it has to do with these twisted, evilish little kid twins. And freakishly enough, it isn’t the first instance of twisted, evilish little kid twins that I’ve encountered in a story this year. So, if you think you know which book I’m talking about, think again. It seems to be a popular subject, but sadly for me, not enough conflict to keep me engaged in a story.

And news of my own: I finished the website It’s All Kids’s Play (dot ca) last week and have been listing activities on the blog. Be sure to check them out. There are over 700 activities waiting for your kids to try out!

If you are looking at an easy, fun way to improve your writing, check out RWA’s list of online classes. There are a handful of great, helpful classes being offered each month for reasonable prices. And they are great. I’ve taken two and am signed up for two more. You don’t have to be an RWA member, nor do you have to write romance to get something out of their classes. Very recommended!

And last but not least, some depressing news if you were ‘delusional’ as Konrath would say, and thought you’d make a mint being a writer. Thanks to Nathan Bransford for breaking it down for us aspiring-in-the-dark writers. Now I know I’m really going to have to work hard to sell those books when I get published!

Okay, I can’t really leave you on that depressing note! Let’s think of something fun, like make your own superhero! Yay! Thanks to agent Kate Schafer Testerman and her blog followers for this one.

Enjoy!

Literary Agent Chat Tonight With Jamie Brenner

Welcome literary agent Jamie Brenner!

Jamie is a literary agent at Artists and Artisans Inc. in New York and will be chatting with AQ members on Agent Query tonight at 8 PM Eastern. If you are not a member, you can join for free.

Jamie has been involved in the world of publishing for the past ten years. She has been involved in literary publicity at HarperCollins, editing YA at BarnesandNoble.com, and scouting books and manuscripts for major film companies. She is now a literary agent and editor of the fabulous website Girl Meets Book. Talk about a list of fun jobs!

Jamie is currently looking for thrillers, commercial and women’s fiction, literary fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction and books about pop culture/entertainment, but is eagerly seeking YA fiction and women’s fiction. If you are interested in submissions, check out the agency’s submission page.

I’ll be serving as chat moderator tonight, so come stop by and say hello to Jamie.