Be An Agent for a Day Continues!
Now the UK press have picked up on Nathan Bransford's Challenge.
Today Nathan asked, if you were an agent how would you handle submissions? I thought I'd be the type to offer personalized comments, but after having done all 50 in one day, I've realised:
a) how much work that would actually involve; and
b) how hard it is to keep it simple if you're personalizing - it's so easy to start a flow of criticim and suggestions, and so very difficult to keep them reined.
I now have much greater sympathy for form rejections.
I also agree with Adam and Nixy's points, and can definitely see how they fit in with, say, Query 43.
In the end, I only "chose" 3 to request a partial from. There were two others - the ones I think came from already-published authors - that I could have chosen, but I'd already rejected them (since I was reading them in order from 1 to 50 and had many more to go) and couldn't retract my rejection. Without the set limit of 5, i.e. if I was a real agent, I would have requested partials from those.
I've been sending out my query letter without a word count, because I'd been told that 90,000 words is a little much for a middle-grade novel. Now, though, I think it might be best if I re-jig the letter to include the word count, but omit Austin's age and call it YA.
Meanwhile, come join the latest Forum House Party!
Today Nathan asked, if you were an agent how would you handle submissions? I thought I'd be the type to offer personalized comments, but after having done all 50 in one day, I've realised:
a) how much work that would actually involve; and
b) how hard it is to keep it simple if you're personalizing - it's so easy to start a flow of criticim and suggestions, and so very difficult to keep them reined.
I now have much greater sympathy for form rejections.
I also agree with Adam and Nixy's points, and can definitely see how they fit in with, say, Query 43.
In the end, I only "chose" 3 to request a partial from. There were two others - the ones I think came from already-published authors - that I could have chosen, but I'd already rejected them (since I was reading them in order from 1 to 50 and had many more to go) and couldn't retract my rejection. Without the set limit of 5, i.e. if I was a real agent, I would have requested partials from those.
I've been sending out my query letter without a word count, because I'd been told that 90,000 words is a little much for a middle-grade novel. Now, though, I think it might be best if I re-jig the letter to include the word count, but omit Austin's age and call it YA.
Meanwhile, come join the latest Forum House Party!
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