Check This Out

Agent Nephele Tempest of The Knight Agency on why she rejects manuscripts.

And if you haven't seen this yet, book editor Alan Rinzler is interviewed by BookBaby here.  The best explanation and justification for self-publishing I've ever seen.  Wow.

New Agency Alert

In case you hadn't already heard, Jill Corcoran left the Herman Agency to start her own company:  Jill Corcoran Books.  Over at her blog, she does a whole 'meet the literary agency team' post that you should check out.

I don't write what she's looking for, but maybe one of you does.  She currently closed to submissions until she gets everything running smoothly.  Still, this agency is one worth watching. 

Good luck!

Important Advice

For the love of godiva, post your email address!

This is important so agents can contact you, but also, it's important if you're entering a contest - like the gal I still haven't heard from who won Karin Tabke's book.  There has to be some way to contact you privately listed on your blog, your twitter bio, your FB page... Throw the world a bone.

And I realize putting your email addy out there means who might get inundated with spam or let stalkers know where you can be reached or any number of other paranoid things.  I get it.  If you're worried, create an email addy that you only use for public consumption.  But please... Be reachable.  You never know when you might be missing out.

Literary Agencies' Websites, Blogs and Social Media

Since I'm doing agent research, it seemed like an appropriate time to renew my old list of Agent Blogs and Websites.  I've had one on The Writing Spectacle for years.  I just haven't updated it in forever - because I haven't queried in forever.  And now that I have The Guide, this seems like a more appropriate place to keep it.

Disclaimer:  This is in no way a complete list, and I'm not endorsing any of these agencies.  Do your research before you query any of them.  Any mistakes you make are your own and any mistakes they make are theirs.  I'm just the messenger here.

This is a work in progress.  Last worked on: 6/17/13

- The Ahearn Agency -

- Aponte Literary Agency -  Facebook

- Bob Mecoy Literary Agency - 

- BookEnds, LLC. - Blog, Facebook: Jessica Alvarez / Jessica Faust / Kim Lionetti, Twitter: Jessica Alvarez / Jessica Faust / Kim Lionetti

- The Booker Albert Literary Agency - Blog, Facebook, Twitter (Jordy Albert) Twitter (Brittany Booker)

- D4EO Literary Agency -

- Don Congdon Associates, Inc. - Twitter: Katie Grimm, Katie Kochman, Maura Kye-Casella

- Dystel &Goderich - Facebook, Twitter

- Falkin Literary - 

- Felicia Eth Literary Representation -  Facebook,

- Folio Literary Management - 

- Foreward Literary - Agency Blog, Agent Savant Blog, Twitter: Laurie McLean

- Foundry Literary + Media - Facebook, Twitter

- Janklow & Nesbit Associates - 

- The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency -  Blog,

- Jill Corcoran Literary Agency - Blog,  (8/21/13: new agency, currently closed to submissions)

- Lippincott, Massie McQuilkin -Facebook,

- Miriam Altshuler Literary Agency -  Facebook, Twitter

- The Park Literary Group, LLC - 

- Regal Literary - Blog, Facebook, Twitter

- Sanford J. Greenburger Associates -  Agent Lisa Gallagher's site,

- Speilburg Literary Agency -  Blog, Facebook, Twitter

- Spencerhill Associates -

- Talcott Notch Literary Services - Twitter: Gina Panettieri, Rachel Dugas, Paula Munier,

- Trident Media Group -  Facebook, Twitter: Agency, agent Melissa Flashman,

- Vicky Bijur Literary Agency - Blog, Facebook, Twitter

- Zachary Schuster Harmsworth -

If you have any information on any of these agencies - specifically URLs to their social media accounts that I can post - feel free to leave it in comments or email me directly using the linky-loo thingie in my profile.

Just Don't

The other day I stumbled across something in the newsletter of a literary agency.  I read it with dismay and a little bit of hurt, and a very large amount of frustration cascaded through me.  So, I went to Facebook and posted my frustration for pretty much everyone to see.

How unfair.  How utterly shitty.  Oh woe is me.  And a big huge helping of WTF for the literary agenting community.

I deleted it an hour later once I realized what I'd done.  Could be no one saw it.  Could be a boatload of agents saw it and their form rejections will be rolling in any time now. 

No one likes a whiner.  They certainly don't like it when you publicly display your annoyance.  The quickest way to get yourself labeled as someone who'd be a pain in the ass to work with is to post something like that to Facebook or Twitter or any other social media site.

I knew better.  In my defense, the little snippet from that newsletter caught me unaware so I didn't have time to steel myself against it.  I wasn't expecting it to slap me upside the face so I slapped back.  Now, don't worry.  I didn't get snotty and I didn't name names.  I didn't call names either.  I just expressed my frustration in a vague and meaningless way.

Still... Just don't do it.  Yeah, life's unfair.  This business may or may not be more unfair than the rest of life, but it is what it is.  Sometimes you're going to get slapped down from an unexpected source.  Guess what?  If you ever want to get published by someone other than yourself, you have to suck it up and take every slap they aim your way (and a few no one aimed but that hit you anyway).

So, have you ever vented your frustrations publicly?  How'd that work for you?  If not, how does holding it all in work for you? 

This Just In

New Leaf Literary and Media is having a Query Contest - it needs to be a one-sentence pitch and it's due by Friday (5/24). 

If you enter, come back here and let us know.

Good luck!

This Just In

Writers' Digest posted this morning about a new literary agent: Jen Karsbaek of Foreword Literary.  She's aggressively seeking to build her list, so if you've got something she might like, shoot it on over to her.

(But for the sake of all that's holy to you, read her guidelines first.)

Survival Tip #12 - Get It Right and Sleep at Night

When you're querying, you will be anxious.  You will go over that damn query a hundred... errr... a thousand times, and you will think you have it right. 

Unfortunately, in your anxiety and haste, you will inevitably get something wrong.  And for days... errr... months afterwards you will lie awake at night remembering that one little thing that jumped out at you AFTER you sent the query.

For instance, you will hit send and notice that for some reason you forgot to put your name in the signature.  (I choose to believe that at least some of the people Janet Reid references in that post simply forgot to put their name at the end of their query.) 

Maybe you sent the query out thinking that you had everything right - until some agent responds telling you that you got something wrong.  In my case, I misspelled a culturally significant name and a certain agent let me know it in the rejection she sent.  (I still mull that one over every time I see her name.  D'oh!)

Perhaps you hit send and realized you forgot to change the salutation from 'Dear Mr. Jones' to 'Dear Ms. Murgatroid'.  Which is particularly irritating considering you did remember to change the personalization part of the query.  But in your haste to get it right, grit your teeth and send your query out into the world, you missed that one key part.

Now I've heard agents say they won't let one little thing like that kill a perfectly good query.  You know, if everything else is perfect...  But those little errors sure can't help.

So... and yeah, you've all heard this before... check and recheck those little things before you hit send.  In my experience, the best way to do this is to slow down.  Let yourself relax.  Take a day.  Sleep on it before you hit send. 

Trust me on this.  You'll sleep better the other 364 days knowing you didn't make those niggling little mistakes.

And if you do make them, let them go.  Easier said than done, I know - especially considering I'm still wringing my hands over mistakes I made in 2004.

What mistakes have you made that keep you up at night?  Or are you someone who can let those things go?  Any suggestions on making sure you have it all correct before you hit send?

Check This Out

Here's an awesome post from Meagan Spooner over at The League of Extraordinary Writers - Query Advice: Always be Ready to Move On!

Check This Out

Caught this link on Facebook this morning: 

29 Ways NOT to Submit to An Agent by Carole Blake

Pretty good and basic advice, I think.  Still, I remember making a couple of those mistakes.  Specifically, #10, #21.

Never again.

Have you made any of those mistakes?  (I think all of us have done #10 at least once.)

Survival Tip #8: Getting Personal

I know I said in the first Survival Tip not to take any of this personally... unless you already made it personal by writing about your life in some kind of vaguely fictionalized way.

Case in point:  The Query Shark's latest chum.  (My apologies.  Apparently, he asked to have his query removed right after it went up - and after I wrote this post - so the 'case in point' will have to fly without your actually being able to look at query #237.)

Anyway...

This poor guy wrote a book about his life and added some fictional elements to snazz up the place.  And what he got was a poor treatment of his life and a poorer treatment of his query.  (Not that Ms. Reid wasn't justified.  He asked for it; he got it.  Toyota.)

If you feel like you MUST write about your life in some kind of fictionalized way, you're going to end up taking the rejections personally.  Who wouldn't?  See, this is why my college English professor told us all that we needed distance from any story before we could do the story justice.  Distance, my friends, is the getting personal without letting all the rejections get personal.

I feel bad for the guy who offered himself up as bait for the Shark.  He thought his life was pretty interesting.  It probably was.  Hell, my life has had its share of interesting bits.  I've even thought about writing some of them down in what would have to be a fictionalized memoir (because I can't remember all the details of the events - not because I want to pull a Mr. Frey.)  I haven't written it because I was too close.  I may always be too close.  Hell, I'm living this life, so it's kind of hard to divorce myself from it.

On the other hand, they do tell you to write what you know.  And as Ms. Reid pointed out in her critique, the gentleman did do that - perhaps to extremes.  I think the idea, though, is to weave bits of yourself into your work.  It is not to have yourself and that work be intertwined.

There's nothing wrong with getting personal, folks.  But like Aristotle said 'everything in moderation'.  Take bits of yourself to weave the tapestry, but don't give all of yourself.

Because, let's face it, folks - no matter how interesting we think the entirety of our story is, it just won't sell as is.

What about you?  Have you ever thought of writing a memoir?  Do you use bits of yourself into your fiction?  How much is too much?

No Guest, but Check This Out

I couldn't find a guest for this week, but we should have an awesome post for next week (if all goes according to plan).  Meanwhile, check out this new blog from one of the gals at Nelson Literary Agency:

http://wordcafeblog.wordpress.com/

I heard about this in this month's Nelson Agency newsletter (if you don't subscribe, go do that - it's worth it), and after looking at a couple of posts, I think Word Cafe is going to be an excellent resource for us unpublished writers.

Also, if you're not doing anything else, go comment at Tabula Rasa and maybe win a free book.

Or if you've got time tomorrow, stop by The Killer Chicks and read my pimpage post about Kerry Schafer.  (Comment there to maybe win a prize, too.)

This Just In

FYI: Jill Corcoran just announced she's re-opened to submissions.

http://jillcorcoran.blogspot.com/2013/02/re-opened-to-submissions-what-i-am.html

The post includes what she's looking for.  Sadly, it's not anything I write, but that means there's more room for those of you who do write what she needs.

Good luck!

Also, if you have a NaNo 2012 novel and you think you're ready to pitch it, check this out:

http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2013/02/pitch-your-nanonovel.html 

Let us know if you make the leap!  =o)

This Just In

If you have a book ready to be submitted, there's some kind of event on Twitter today.  Learn more about it HERE.  (I don't know the blogger.  I just kyped the link from Alexia Chamberlynn.)

Anyway, it's a Twitter pitch party using the hashtag #pitmad and it runs today from 8am to 8pm EST - so there's plenty of time.

I'll be getting something together later - like after the thought of throwing a pitch out there stops making me feel like I want to hurl.

GOOD LUCK!

Update 1:31pm MST: Two different pitches for Djinnocide out there in the Twitterverse.  Wish me luck.  And if you're participating, chime in.  Or friend me and we'll see what each other are up to.

A Blog Worth Following

If you're not following New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc. in the blogosphere, You're missing out.  They do this really helpful question and answer thing, where they invite people to ask questions about the industry.  Their answers are awesome.  Definitely worth a read through and, even though they sometimes fill up my blogroll with their posts, it's definitely a must-follow blog. 

You never know when they might answer the question that's been on your mind.  Like yesterday's questions of whether it's better to wait until February to query because of the holidays (and the post holiday query tsunami), and when you've got fulls out and one agent requests revisions, should you let the other agents know?

Good stuff.

Go forth and stalk.

If you could ask an agent any one question, what would it be?

Check This Out - Dealing With Failure

This morning agent Rachelle Gardner did an excellent post over at the Books & Such Literary Agency blog called 5 Ways to Deal with Failure.  Definitely something all of us need to keep in mind - especially when the rejections are pouring in.

What about you?  How do you deal with failure? 

This Just In

This just in from QueryTracker.net:

Weronika Janczuk left agenting.  It seems like cold-turkey.

Without permission, I can't reprint the letter some writers received as a response to their submissions, so if you're interested in the exact verbiage, you need to go here*.  Suffice it to say, her former agency (Lynn C. Franklin Associates) basically told writers who were under submission that they were out of luck and to seek representation elsewhere.  Weronika's twitter page seems to reflect this news as she's changed her profile to 'Former Literary Agent'.

I don't have any more information.  My heart goes out to anyone who had a requested submission with her and to all of her clients.  Good luck in your search.

*You might not be able to see it without signing up for the site, but a basic membership is free, so why not join?  It's a great resource.