Query a Literary Agent Anywhere, Anytime?

Maybe you’ve friended an agent on Facebook. Maybe you have a few agent ‘friends’ over at LinkedIn. Maybe you follow and chat up agents on Twitter. Maybe you’ve followed an agent around at a conference, waiting for them to pause long enough that you can pounce–and present your query or pitch with trembling voice and sweaty hands.

Is this a fine way to go, or should you stick to sending your query via email or mail as per their agency website guidelines?

Personally, I’ve always gone with emailing/mailing as per their agency guidelines, unless, of course, the agent in question has made it crystal clear that it is okay to query via other methods.

To reinforce the idea that maybe it isn’t okay to query anywhere and anytime is a tidbit or two I found on Twitter today as per Jean Martha (AKA @TheJeanMartha–a literary agent):

“Woke up to find 8 queries in my personal email inbox via Linked In. Deleted them all.”

And just in case you thought nobody would notice:

“When someone chats me up on Twitter, I look at their stream. Full of Agent ass kissing? I discredit them in the future. Season’s Greetings!”

There you have it, clams in a bucket. Do what you will… but you can’t say you haven’t been warned.

Writing Links!

It’s time for some links to great articles on writing again…

It’s time to start a new story. (It is NaNoWriMo month after all.) But how to begin it? Hmmm… You want your opening to pop. You want something for the reader to sink their teeth into. Should the MC be on the first page? Start with Dialogue? When does this story start anyway? Is that where you should start? Darn, if only there were some examples! To help you through the mess we call the first page, agent Lucienne Diver gives you the goods (and some examples).

You are clicking those keys along, writing like the wind, and then one day… nothing. There seems to be a brick wall in front of you. Some call it <gasp> writer’s block. No matter which way you move, it doesn’t. Need some ideas on how to get past it? Try Women on Writing’s tips.

I can’t write, my cat ate my pen.

After many arduous hours you declare it finished! You finished your book and you are ready to query it. But hang on a second, what the heck genre is it? Is it a mystery? Thriller? High Fantasy? Commercial Fiction? Agent Jennifer Laughran presents the genre glossary.

Now that you have the genre pinned down, what makes for a good ‘hook’ in a query letter? Again, another lovely face in the biz comes to the rescue! Jane Friedman gives you the basics on what that hook should include.

You’ve sent out your query and crossed your fingers. And it worked! You got a request from an agent! They want to see more. You decide you’d better take one quick look through your manuscript and make sure there aren’t any glaring typos, etc. But how long do you have before the agent says, “Aw. Forget it. They won’t send it. I take back my offer.” Agent Mary at her wonderful Kidlit blog weighs in.

It’s been sent. Your manuscript has been sitting on an agent’s desk for what feels forever, waiting to be read. It’s been hours, days, weeks, even months. Do you give the agent a friendly email nudge to make sure they haven’t forgotten about you? Here’s the scoop on when to nudge from QueryTracker.

Okay, so you’ve beat the odds. You snagged an agent (landing you in the top 1%) and now you have a book deal! (About 50% of represented writers land a book deal on their first book.) But how many copies do you need to sell to stay in the game and not be considered a complete flop? There’s no easy answer, but Bubble Cow gives you a scoop or two of chocolate fudge to keep you going.

And because you are so wiped out from this all, you need a little break. Maybe a laugh. Maybe a gasp or two. And so I present to you, ads from the past.

Advice From Literary Agent Kevan Lyon

Last night, I moderated a live online chat over at AgentQuery Connect with literary agent Kevan Lyon of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency in California. It was a full house with many new faces and Kevan answered around 30 questions in that short hour. In case you missed the chat, I will share a few tidbits, insights and advice from Kevan Lyon.

________________________________________________________

On being located on the West Coast (instead of New York):

*Kevan mentions that West Coast agents often work longer hours as they start early in the day in order to be available to those working on the East coast. She says working in the Pacific timezone also works well for writers who are in other parts of the world. Plus, Eastern editors tend to start later in the day and work later–matching the West Coast workday. In today’s world where the majority of business is done electronically, it matters less and less where agents are physically located. (Especially when they are like Kevan and are willing to hop a plane to New York as needed.)

On e-books, and debuts in trade paperback (instead of hardcover):

*”I see the shift to trade paper as a positive for new authors — with a lower price point there is less reluctance on the part of readers to take a chance on a new reader. The $25+ hardcover price can be a difficult hurdle in this market, partic for a new author. On the e-book side I see those sales as primarily incremental. There is the potential to introduce your work to a whole new market of readers that may not have otherwise been exposed to your book. I encourage my authors to promote their availability on e-books to ensure they are casting a wide net.”

On female/male protagonists:

* “Generally there needs to be a female protagonist somewhere in the story. The majority of readers are women! I prefer a female main character, but will certainly consider a story that has male protagonists — try to include a woman tho!”

On word count:

* Yes, 200,000 words will make an agent skeptical. However, if the writing is uber intriguing, they may consider it. But remember, reading that many pages is a massive time commitment. On the flip side, if you are writing a story you want published in its own volume, try and get over the 60,000 word hump. (We’re talking about novels and adult non-fiction, here.)

On historicals:

* “European history — from King Henry’s time period forward to Victorian times — it is fairly UK centric, but France is also popular. If you are writing straight women’s fiction/historical they generally prefer a well known historical figure to be included in the story.” She also likes books done in the Civil war era, but cautions that other periods can  be tough to sell.

On YA (young adult novels):

* Male protagonists are fine (even though the majority of YA readers are female). Protagonists should be in about the 15-19 age range. A little romance in your YA is welcome, but any genre is okay as long as you have a good hook.

On series:

* Sell the first book, first. Then worry about getting the rest of your series on a bookshelf.

On writing in multiple genres:

* She feels that is a positive thing and would not turn down a writer because of it. (This was where I began professing my love in the middle of the chat!)

On being a young (high school age) writer seeking literary agent representation:

* “If the query is well written and the plot intriguing I will take a look. It is not necessarily something I would suggest you stress [referring to your age], but it is worth mentioning — there are marketing benefits sometimes for the publisher.”

On query writing:

* “Make sure you capture the essence of your plot in a succinct and descriptive way — you need to distinguish your story in the query — we read many queries at one sitting generally.”

* Comparing to other titles and pinpointing your market in your query: “The market is probably most key in my view for non-fiction. In fiction you need to tell a wonderful story. I don’t really need you to tell me the target market in your fiction query. But I do want you to be clear on what your plot and story line is for comparison to other titles it can be helpful for fiction, so that I get an idea of the narrative style or voice, but not absolutely key.”

Additional hints:

* Don’t call her ‘Mr. Lyon.’

* She prefers e-queries.

* Don’t tell her why she would be a perfect match, tell her what your story is about.

* If she asks for a short synopsis, she feels that 3-5 double spaced pages is fine.

________________________________________________________

If you would like to meet Kevan or her partner Jill Marsal at a conference or workshop, check out their Facebook fan page. And if you would like to query Kevan, find out more about their submission guidelines here.

Advice From Literary Agent Sara Megibow

For those of you who missed the chat with Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency last Thursday, I’ve got some of the highlights here. However, if you want it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, you can check out the transcripts here. (You must be an Agent Query member to view them. The good news is, it is free.)

A few highlights:

#1: Having troubles figuring out the genre of your story? Check out the bookstore. Figure out where it would be placed in the store and voila! As well, if your story’s most important aspect and focus is on the romance/relationship between the hero and heroine, it is likely a romance. If you aren’t sure between two genres, say urban fantasy and romance or romance and mystery…read a few books in each genre and see which yours leans towards.

#2: Did you know that some agents, when they get sample pages that they like, they go to Google to check you out? They look for a positive web presence. So don’t go bashing agents, the publishing word or discusses how hard writing is, etc. Make it professional, folks!

#3: Here are a few genres/ideas that are flying over Sara’s desk like mosquitoes in a swamp and may or may not be overdone: vampires, divorced women opening B & Bs, war survivor stories, YA where the hero speaks to the dead or has secret world-saving powers they didn’t know they had and of course, have to save the world. Now, just because these story ideas are common at the moment, it doesn’t mean she’s going to shred your query if your story is based on the above. See #4.

#4: The art of writing is very important. It is more important than the POV (character point of view the story is written from), topic, or even how fresh the story idea happens to be. Fresh, good, strong writing wins. I.e. copycat story ideas can work if the writing is fresh. Although a fresh story idea is always compelling, but it needs good writing to back it up.

#5: Don’t start your novel with one big flashback. Start where the story starts.

#6: If you have quotes in your story, you don’t need the rights to use that quote in a published work at the time of querying–the publishing house will acquire them when the time comes.

#7: Some argue that saying ‘completed’ and giving a word count is redundant when querying. However, if you are querying Sara, do say, “My completed novel X, Y and Z is 100,000 words.” She likes that. Her perfect query would start something like so: “I have a completed 100,000 word romance novel set in regency England.” And then add the pitch paragraph…etc.

For more information on Sara and the agency she works for, be sure to check out the agency website–especially if you are querying.