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Category: It’s been months and I have not heard back about my exclusive submission — what are my options?

Posted on August 18, 2012January 19, 2017 - 2 Comments on So you’ve pitched successfully — now what? Part VIII: Help! I’m feeling disoriented. What if an agent is ready to say I do, and I can’t?

So you’ve pitched successfully — now what? Part VIII: Help! I’m feeling disoriented. What if an agent is ready to say I do, and I can’t?


When we left off last time, we were in the throes of discussing the options open to the pitcher or querier so successful in presenting her book concept that an agent says, “By gum, I not only want to see this manuscript — because, contrary to surprisingly pervasive belief amongst writers’ conference attendees, no agent in his right mind would agree to represent a book project by a non-celebrity without first reading some of that writer’s prose — but I want to be the only agent considering representing it.” While the standard first response to this is, as one might imagine, to jump for joy, caper in the streets, and rush to send off the requested materials before the agent could possibly change his mind, the third of those initial impulses is not always in the writer’s best interest.

How so, you ask mid-caper? Well, most requests for exclusive peeks at manuscripts or book proposals do not come with a time limit. The agent simply specifies that he would like not to be competing with other agents to represent the project, and that’s it. And because this is, let’s face it, a flattering request, it doesn’t occur to most writers to say, “That’s fine — for six months,” rather than some stripe of “YES! Whatever you want! I want to kiss the hem of your garment for paying this much attention to my work! May I name my firstborn child/next beloved pet/a small tropical island after you, as an appropriate token of my gratitude?”

It always gives me joy to see a talented writer this happy, but having heard the latter response issuing from aspiring writers’ gullets hundreds, if not thousands, of times in recent years, I feel compelled to tell you that this is usually not the best strategic response to such a request. Oh, you can dance little jigs and alarm your neighbors with shrieks of joy with my blessing. Just be aware that granting an open-ended exclusive presents the submitter with the fewest follow-up options.

If all goes well, that might not be an issue, but remember, an agent in the habit of asking for exclusives may well do so habitually. It may be agency policy, in fact. Even if it isn’t, the request does not constitute a guarantee that the submission will be moved up to the front of the agency’s reading queue.

So I ask you to stop tap-dancing on that coffee table long enough to consider: how many weeks, months, or years would it take before you, cavorting submitter, would come to regard having granted that exclusive to be an actual liability? And what if — brace yourselves — you never heard back from the exclusive-requesting agent at all?

That immense, sky-shattering moan you just heard emitted from the mouths of those that found this post in the archives after a frantic search once they realized that the exclusive they granted some weeks/months/years ago did not in fact come with an expiration date. Those that looked up this post after having granted an open-ended exclusive, then received a materials request from another agent, probably contented themselves with punching the nearest wall.

To help those tortured souls feel better, as well as to edify of those of you that have not yet fallen into either of these categories, let me hasten to add that most of the time, writers find themselves in these predicaments through no fault of their own. They may not have thought through the implications of the exclusive before they granted it, or, more commonly, simply were not aware that there could be negative fall-out from something as inherently wonderful as professional interest in their writing.

In fact, under ordinary circumstances, giving multiple pitches at a conference or organizing query timing to maximize the probability that more than one agent will want to be reading all or part of one’s manuscript at any given time is quite sensible. Ideally, an agent-seeking writer should want to have several agents interested simultaneously; it’s always nice to be able to choose between competing offers.

It can happen, but it doesn’t happen all by itself. The writer has to plan for it.

I speak from personal experience here: I had three offers on the table and manuscripts out with four more agents when I decided to go with my agency. Admittedly, my memoir had just won a major contest at a writers’ conference that at the time habitually made a point of rounding up the winners in its top categories and herding them into a room stuffed to the gills with agents, but even so, I was the only winner that year who ended up garnering an offer of representation from one of those agents, much less several. (Word to the wise: it’s not all that uncommon for even agents who attend many conferences not to pick up new clients at any given conference. Before you plunk down the sometimes hefty conference registration fee, you might want to ask point-blank how many of last year’s attending agents actually signed a writer met that that conference.)

That wasn’t accidental: I had been fortunate enough to have friends who had won that contest in previous years, and mirabile dictu, I had even listened to their advice. I already knew not to grant an exclusive to anyone; that would have tied my hands and meant, effectively, that if the first agent who asked for an exclusive (and several did) made an offer, I wouldn’t be able to sound out the others before saying yes or no.

I’m sensing some bewilderment amongst those of you who walked in halfway through this discussion, am I not? “Wait just a jealousy-inducing minute, Anne!” some of you cry. “Why precisely would granting an exclusive to the first agent that tackled you after you accepted your award have been a bad thing? If that agent said yes, you’d have an agent!”

I see where you’re going with this: it would in fact have saved some effort on my part. Let’s tease out the logic: an exclusive is an arrangement whereby a writer allows an agent to read a particular manuscript while no other agent will be reviewing it. The agent requests an exclusive because she would prefer not to compete with other agents over the manuscript; the writer agrees, presumably, because if this agent says yes, he will neither need nor want to approach other agents.

That’s dandy — if the exclusive-requester happens to be the agent of one’s dreams. But, frankly, there were a lot of agents at that conference that had great track records for selling memoir. Because I pitched to all of them and had not hung all of my hopes on conference pitching, I woke up the following Monday with sixteen requests to read the book proposal.

Did responding to all of those requests simultaneously constitute a heck of a lot of work for me? Of course, but remember, the goal is just to get any agent to say yes; it’s to track down the best agent for the project. While it’s certainly possible to listen carefully to what the agents to whom you are planning to pitch say on the conference dais about how they handle book projects in general, a writer doesn’t usually have the opportunity to hear how a specific agent would handle her book until after an offer of representation is already on the table.

Half of you zoned out while reading that last paragraph, didn’t you? “Sixteen requests for pages? How on earth did that happen?”

Ah, but it didn’t just happen. Because I had seen past contest winners stand around and wait for agents to seek them out, a hopeful passivity that tended to leave them walking out of the awards ceremony with no requests for pages at all, I knew that if the win were to do me any good — and not all contest wins do, even major ones — I would need not only to speak with every agent at that conference, but follow up with a blizzard of submissions. I also knew that while I was making it show manuscript pages at some agencies, I should be continuing to query others. Just in case.

Once this multi-pronged strategy paid off in the form of offers, though, I realized I had a dilemma: each of the three agents professing eagerness to represent my work was equally qualified to do it. Oh, they had different styles, as well as different tastes, but their connections were more or less identical. So I had to ask myself: what do I want out of the writer-agent relationship other than the agent’s having the connection, energy, and will to sell my books?

Hadn’t thought about that, had you? Almost no aspiring writer does. Or about the logical follow-up questions: what factors would make an agent the right one for my writing, other than a desire to represent it? When you get right down to it, what makes one agent different from another?

The vast majority of pitchers and queriers do not give serious thought to this question, interestingly, until they find themselves faced with multiple submission requests. Oh, the ones who do their homework ponder what various agents represent, as well as their track record for selling the work of first-time authors (usually quite a bit more difficult than convincing an editor to acquire a book by someone who already has a demonstrable audience; that’s why many agents choose to represent only the previously-published). But let’s face it, these examinations are really geared to the question how likely is this agent to want to represent me? rather than is this the best conceivable agent to represent my writing?

Let that bee buzz around your bonnet for a while. The resulting synaptic activity will be useful in pondering the implications of the rest of this post — and, for those of you that will dig this post out of the archives because you’re frantic to find out how to handle conflicting requests from agents, help you figure out what your next step should be.

Typically, writers don’t give serious thought to the what do I want from an agent, other than willingness to represent me? conundrum unless they find themselves in one of three situations. First, our questioner from last week, unsure what to do because she had already agreed to let one agent sneak an exclusive peek at her manuscript, but another agent had asked afterward to see it non-exclusively. Second, someone like me, the aggressive multiple pitcher/querier/submitter who hears back positively from several agents. Third, an already-agented writer who finds herself in the unenviable position of having to find a new agent.

Oh, should I have warned you to sit down before I brought up that last one? “Oh, ye Muses!” pitchers and queriers everywhere shout, breathing skittishly into paper bags in an attempt to cease hyperventilating. “You mean that it’s possible that I might have to go through this hideous process more than once?”

Actually, if you are a career writer, it’s fairly probable. I don’t want to frighten you, but in the current extraordinarily tight literary market, agents have been known to change specialties. They occasionally decide to leave the biz. Agencies do go under, or merge. And as much as I would support any really good agent’s application to Olympus for immortality, they do occasionally shuffle off this mortal coil. Under any of these conditions, an agented writer might well need to seek out new representation.

If your breathing has returned to normal, though, may I add that sometimes representation relationships just don’t work out? It’s quite simply harder to sell books than it used to be; inevitably, that’s going to cause some writer-agent relationships to fray. Than, too, people’s interests change over time: what constituted a great fit five years ago might very well not be five years hence.

See why I want you to start thinking about qualities you want in an agent before you’re fielding offers?

Since an already-agented writer’s plunging back into the pitching and querying phrase is an extremely complicated kettle of worms, let’s stick for now with the dilemma facing the writer in one of the other two situations. What’s an (extremely fortunate, by any standard) writer — let’s call her Hortense — to do if other agents want to take a peek at a manuscript that Agent #1 has asked to see exclusively?

Well, the first thing Hortense should do is scour the actual wording of the request for exclusivity. What honoring it means vis-à-vis approaching other agents really depends upon the terms of the exclusivity agreement. Unless that exclusivity agreement was open-ended — as in the agent has until the end of time to make up her mind about whether to represent the book in question — the writer has every right to start sending out her work to other agents the instant the exclusive expires.

But let’s assume for the moment that Hortense was one of the tap-dancing many that acted upon an open-ended exclusive request, no questions asked. It has now been three months, and she has other requests for manuscript pages in hand. Should she

(a) Silently abide by her commitment to Agent #1 for the duration of the agreed-upon period of exclusivity, even if that means waiting forever, because ethically, she can do nothing else?

(b) Abide by her commitment to Agent #1, but since a reasonable period of time has passed, send a polite reminder after a reasonable period, saying that because other agents are clamoring to see the manuscript, she would really, really like to hear back soon?

(c) Abide by her commitment to Agent #1, but send a series of increasingly vehement protests over how long Agent #1 has had the manuscript?

(d) Follow tactic (c), but begin sending those protests three weeks after the exclusive began?

(e) Abide by her commitment to Agent #1 as long as nobody else expresses interest, but instantly e-mail him the moment she hears from Agent #2, asking #1 if it’s okay to disregard their exclusivity agreement, since the situation has changed?

(f) E-mail Agent #1 as soon as Agent #2′s request arrives, informing #1 that she’s sending the manuscript to somebody else, as if the exclusivity agreement did not exist?

(g) Follow the essential outlines of (f), but embrace this missive as an opportunity to inform Agent #1 that he’s a slowpoke, dream-assassin, or worse?

(h) Send out the requested materials to Agents #2, #3, #4, as they come in, without telling Agent #1, because unless one of them offers to represent her, she’d never have to confess what she has done?

(i) Wait another two or three months, then pursue tactic (h)?

(j) Wait as long as she can possibly stand it, then send a formal, dignified e-mail to Agent #1, thanking him for his interest, but saying that she’s terminating the exclusive?

Oh, you may laugh at some of those options, but I assure you, submitters facing this conundrum routinely engage in all of them. And you or someone you know may well have engaged in one or more of them. If Hortense chose

(a) and are still in the midst of waiting indefinitely, she has good manners. Her mother and I are proud — but it hasn’t really solved Hortense’s problem, has it?

(b) and informed Agent #1 that you would like to hear back, Hortense still has pretty good manners. Provided, of course, that she waited a few months before she pursued this option, and engaged in it only once.

(c) and kept her word not to send out her work, but sent out querulous complaints about it, well, Hortense is like most exclusive-granters. Ultimata almost never work, but it probably made her feel better.

But confidentially to those of you that followed Hortense down this ill-advised path: after the first one or two messages, you stopped hearing back, right? Is it a better use of your energy to pick a fight with someone you want to be on your side, or to move on?

(d) and began sending those protests three weeks after the exclusive began, Hortense’s submission was probably pulled out of consideration on that basis alone. She should consider the submission dead and move on with no further comment.

(e) and instantly e-mailed Agent #1 to ask if it was okay to disregard her exclusivity agreement, since the situation had changed, Hortense doesn’t have a clear understanding of how exclusives work. #1 would be within his rights not only to say no, but to be a trifle insulted.

Why? Chant it with me now, campers: what an exclusive means in practice is that the writer guarantees that nobody else will be in the running while the requesting agent is pondering the pages. Essentially, the pursuant of (e) is saying, “You didn’t REALLY mean that, did you? How could you have, when it’s not in my best interest that you did?”

Not going to fly, I’m afraid. By definition, once Hortense has granted an exclusive, she must abide by its terms. So she really has no excuse for

(f) e-mailing Agent #1 as soon as Agent #2′s request arrived, informing #1 that she’s sending the manuscript to somebody else. Again, Hortense would be displaying that she just doesn’t get the whole exclusivity thing. And if she compounded the problem by

(g) following the essential outlines of (f), but embrace this missive as an opportunity to inform Agent #1 that he’s a slowpoke, dream-assassin, or worse, was she raised by wolves? Apart from the inherent rudeness of such an approach — which, among other things, demonstrates an expectation that #1 would have dropped all of his other duties to pay attention to her submission — in what imaginable scenario would #1 respond positively to such an accusation?

If Hortense is the strong, silent type, she could pursue (h), and send out the requested materials to Agents #2, #3, #4, as they come in, without telling Agent #1, but that would be unethical. Even if she honestly didn’t understand what an exclusivity agreement meant when she said yes to it, it isn’t fair to any of the agents involved. However, if she

(i) waited another two or three months, then pursued tactic (h), it would at least be understandable. But she would have to write off Agent #1 at that point, anyway, so why not

(j) send a formal, dignified e-mail to Agent #1, thanking him for his interest, but saying that since it’s been six months, she’s terminating the exclusive.

I see some of you shaking your heads. “But Anne, I’m confused. It seems as though this is a no-win situation for Hortense. She can ask for an update, but if the agent’s too busy to respond or works at an agency that simply doesn’t tell submitters when they’ve been rejected, her hands are tied by his silent, aren’t they? So is her only winning move not to play the exclusive game at all?”

Not necessarily; if she would sign with Agent #1 with no hesitation if he offered representation and he prefers to read exclusively, saying yes might well make sense. But she cannot ethically retract that agreement after the fact, except to pull her submission out of consideration at #1′s agency. Until she does that — or enough silent time has passed that she has good reason to consider the submission dead — she cannot legitimately send that manuscript elsewhere.

That means — and this seems to come as a surprise to many submitters — that she also cannot ethically grant an exclusive request if any other agents have the manuscript. Because that point is so widely misunderstood, let me state it as an aphorism: by definition, a writer cannot grant an exclusive if any agent is currently reading any part of the manuscript in question; in order to comply with a request for an exclusive, the writer must wait until all of the agents reading it at the time the exclusivity request arrived have informed him of their decisions.

But let’s get back to Hortense’s underlying problem: what happens if an agent who asked for an exclusive doesn’t get back to the writer within a reasonable amount of time? Is the writer still bound by the exclusivity agreement? Or is there some point at which it’s safe to assume that silence equals thanks, but we’re not interested rather than hold your proverbial horses — we haven’t gotten around to reading it yet?

The short answers to each of those last three questions, in the order asked: it depends on the terms of the original agreement; it depends on the terms of the original agreement; it depends on the terms of the original agreement.

Why? Shout it along with me now, campers: how a writer can ethically respond to any of these situations rests entirely upon whether he had the foresight to set an end date for the exclusive when she first agreed to it. If an exclusive is open-ended, the writer cannot ethically send out requested materials to other agents until one of two things happens: the exclusive-requester informs the writer that she has rejected the manuscript, or so many months have passed without word from the agent that it’s safe to assume that the answer is no.

Even then — say, six months — I’d still advise Hortense to send an e-mail, asking if Agent #1is finished with the manuscript. It’s only polite.

Or she could have avoided this dilemma entirely by hedging her bets from the get-go. Hortense could have granted the exclusive, but send the manuscript along with a cover letter that mentions how delighted she was to agree to a three-month exclusive. Agent #1 could always have come back with a request for more time, but at least poor Hortense wouldn’t be left wondering six months hence whether she would offend #1 by moving on.

Being ethical is a tough row to hoe, in short. “But Anne!” exclaim aspiring writers who want there to be more options than there actually are. “Why should I borrow trouble? Surely, you don’t expect me to run the risk of offending an agent by implying that he’s not going to get back to me in a timely manner?”

Hey, I don’t expect anything; do as you think best. I’m just the person that aspiring writers keep asking — on average, about 23 times per month — how to get out of an exclusive that hasn’t panned out as they had hoped.

To help you weigh the relevant risks, let’s look at the phenomenon from the other side of the agreement. Generally speaking, agents will request exclusives for only one of three reasons: they fear that there will be significant competition over who will represent the project, they don’t like to be rushed while reading, or it is simply the agency’s policy not to compete with outside agencies, ever.

Do I feel some of you out there getting tense over that third possibility, doing the math on just how many years (if not decades) it could take to make it through your list of dream agents if you had to submit to them one at a time? Relax, campers: requests for exclusives are actually fairly rare.

Why rare? Well, the first kind of exclusive request I mentioned last time, the one Agent A might use to prevent Agents B-R from poaching your talents before A has had a chance to read your manuscript (hey, A’s desk is already chin-deep in paper), tends to be reserved for writers with more than just a good book to offer. Those that happen to be celebrities, for instance, or won a major contest fifteen minutes ago.

Basically, the agent is hoping to snap up the hot new writer before anybody else does. Or before the HNW realizes that s/he might potentially be in the enviable position of being able to choose amongst several offers of representation.

Which brings me back to those knotty questions I asked earlier in this post: what do you want from your future agent, over and above the ability and willingness to sell your books for you? Since pretty much every respectable agency offers the same service, such choices are often made on the basis of connections, how well-established the agency is, or even how well the writer and the agent happen to hit it off.

Agents, as it happens, are aware of all that. If an agent fears that the other contenders might be able to offer a rosier prospect (or, in a conference situation, just have more engaging personalities), it might well be worth his while to buttonhole the HNW and get her to commit to an exclusive before anyone else can get near enough to ask.

So if you suddenly find yourself the winner of a well-respected literary contest or on the cover of People, remember this: just because an agent asks for an exclusive does not mean you are under any obligation to grant it. Because the writer owns the manuscript, she, not the agent, is technically in control of an exclusivity agreement.

I know, I know: aspiring writers are seldom used to thinking of the submission process this way, but the agent is only allowed to read your manuscript because you say it is okay, right? While Hortense would not have been in a position to set conditions on a submission if there were no question of an exclusive peek (indeed, the average agency reviews far too many manuscripts for any given submitter to be in a position to bargain at that point), she was the person in the best position to determine whether granting an exclusive was in her manuscript’s best interest.

Which means, of course, that you are. Yes, even if the alternative is not allowing the exclusive-seeking agent to see it at all.

It doesn’t always make sense to say yes to a request for an exclusive. If several agents are already interested in your work, it might not be. The implicit understanding in an exclusive-read situation is that if the agent makes an offer, the writer will say yes immediately. The question, then, you should ask yourself before you grant an exclusive is not “Is this an agent?” but “Is this the best agent for my work?”

If you would like to be in a position to compare and contrast offers from different agents, you should be hesitant to grant exclusives. Or to say yes to them before you’ve heard back from another agent whom you feel would be a better fit for your manuscript.

Does that loud choking sound I just heard mean that some of you weren’t aware that a writer doesn’t need to drop everything and respond to a request for an exclusive immediately? It’s not as though the request is going to expire five days hence; unless an agent actually asked you to overnight your manuscript (rare), she’s probably not expecting it right away. In the first heat of excitement, it’s tempting to get pages out the door that very day, but again, it might not be in your book’s best interest.

Besides, if you attach your manuscript as a Word attachment to your same-hour reply to that nice e-mail from Millicent, when will you have time to review your submission IN ITS ENTIRETY, IN HARD COPY, and OUT LOUD, to catch any previously-missed typos or rejection triggers?

Like it or not, timing submissions is a matter of strategy. If you are already murmuring, “Yes, by Jove: I want to query and submit in a manner that maximizes the probability to be fielding several offers at once!”, then I suggest you consider two issues very carefully before you decide which agents to approach first. Fair warning — before you can answer either, you’re going to need to do a little research.

(1) If an agency has an exclusives-only policy, should it be near the top of my query list, potentially forcing me to stop my submission process cold until they get back to me? Or are there agents who permit simultaneous submissions that I could approach all at once before I queried the exclusive-only agency?

(2) Is there an agent on this list to whom I would be OVERJOYED to grant an exclusive, should she happen to request it after seeing my query or hearing my pitch, or would I be equally happy with any of these agents? If it’s the former, should I approach that agent right off the bat, before sending out queries to any exclusives-only agents on the list?

And the disgruntled murmur afresh: “Okay, Anne, I get it: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But where does this leave Hortense and the many, many other writers out there who have granted exclusives to the first agent who asked, only to find themselves chafing under the agreement down the line, when other agents asked to see the manuscript? Can’t you dole out just a few ounces of cure?”

Again, it depends: why did the agent asked for the exclusive in the first place, and how long it has been since the writer granted it?

I know, I know: I’m asking a lot of questions, but there’s a lot to consider here. That’s why I’m hoping that most of you are reading this before you find yourself in Hortense’s position. Resting uncomfortably within the horns of a dilemma is seldom conducive to thoughtful pondering. Keep up the good work!

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    • What an agent will expect a new client to know about the publishing industry — a crash course
    • What an agent will expect your manuscript to look like
    • What an agent will expect your query to look like
    • What if my agent wants me to revise my manuscript before she submits it?
    • Why you should make backups before you send a manuscript to an agent or editor
    • Working well with an agent
  • Agency guides
  • Agents
  • Agents – landing the right one for your book
    • Agency submission guidelines and how to read them
    • Approaching agents at conferences
    • Approaching agents online or by e-mail
    • Common agents' pet peeves
    • Does getting rejected mean I don't have talent?
    • Does it matter what font I use in my submission?
    • First pages agents tend to dislike
    • Generating a querying list
    • How can I tell if an agent is reputable?
    • How much of a book must be written before I can pitch or query it?
    • I've granted an exclusive and I have not heard back! What are my options?
    • Is it acceptable to query or submit to US-based agents on A4 paper?
    • Is it OK to approach two agents at the same agency?
    • Is it OK to query several agents at once?
    • Is it OK to re-query or resubmit to the same agent twice?
    • Is it OK to submit to several agents at once?
    • Is it okay to include a longer writing sample with a query than the agency's submission guidelines specify?
    • Is it okay to re-approach an agent that has already rejected my book?
    • Is it okay to send more pages than an agent has requested?
    • Realistic expectations for pitchers
    • Realistic expectations for queriers
    • Realistic expectations for submitters
    • So you have pitched successfully to an agent — what now?
    • What are the polite ways to approach an agent?
    • What does a cover letter for a submission look like?
    • What does it mean if an agency says it accepts only exclusive submissions?
    • What does it mean if an agency says it only accepts queries from previously-published writers?
    • What info should be in a query?
    • What should a query look like?
    • Why a savvy submitter ALWAYS proofreads before submitting
    • Why a savvy writer NEVER submits unnumbered pages
    • Why agencies so often use screeners
    • Why an aspiring writer should neither cold-call an agency nor show up on its doorstep
    • Why do I need an agent?
    • Why haven't I heard back yet?
    • Why might I consider pitching instead of querying?
    • Why shouldn't I query agents one at a time?
    • Why shouldn't I send the same query to every agent?
    • Why you should never grant an exclusive at the querying stage unless an agency’s submission guidelines specifically ask for it
    • Why you should not assume that the agent you liked so much at a conference should have an exclusive look at your manuscript
    • Why you should not just pick up the phone and call your favorite author's agent
    • Why you shouldn't query every agent in the country
  • Agents/Editors who used to attend the CTSRN
  • Anne's Book Picks
  • Anne's editorial pet peeves
  • Anne's favorite posts
  • Art Of Revision
  • Author bio
  • Author photo
  • Author readings and why you should attend them
  • Author! Author! Awards for Expressive Excellence
  • Author! Author! housekeeping issues
  • Autobiographical fiction
  • Back jacket blurbs
  • Back-up copies
  • Bad laughter
  • Better answers than "Umm…" to "So what do you write?"
  • Binding your work
  • Bits of site-related business
  • Blog housekeeping
  • Book categories
    • Appropriate vocabulary for your chosen book category and why you will want to observe its strictures
    • But my book doesn't fit comfortably into just one category!
    • Genres and their conventions
    • How specific should I be about my book's category in my query?
    • How to figure out your book's category
    • Should I indent the first paragraph of a chapter if published books in my chosen genre sometimes do not?
    • Should I mention the book category on my title page?
    • What is a book category?
    • What's the difference between literary fiction and just good writing?
    • What's the difference between memoir and narrative nonfiction?
    • What's the difference between science fiction and fantasy?
    • Why do I have to pick a category at all?
    • Why what would constitute good writing in one book category might not wow readers in another
  • Book concept
  • Book jackets and the things that go on them
  • Book keynote
  • Book length
  • Book marketing 101
  • Book promotion from the author's perspective
    • Author blogs and why your publisher will want you to write one
    • Blog tours
    • Blog tours and why you should do them
    • Book promotion
    • Book reviews and how they work
    • Book tours
    • Book trailers — do they work?
    • Coming up with a marketing plan
    • Dealing with readers' reactions to one's books
    • Figuring out your book's selling points
    • Figuring out your target market and how to reach it
    • Getting a good author photo
    • Giving a good author interview
    • Giving good author readings
    • How to be an effective and polite guest blogger
    • Promotion burnout and how to avoid it
    • Setting up your own book signings
    • Wait — I might not get to choose my book's title?
    • What makes a good author bio or photo?
    • Why are authors now expected to promote their own books so much more vigorously than in days of yore?
    • Why you shouldn't promise your kith and kin free copies of your books
  • Book proposals
  • Book proposals and how to pull them together
    • A quick reference guide to book proposal presentation
    • Demonstrating your platform in a proposal
    • Everything you wanted to know about book proposals but were afraid to ask
    • How does one go about writing a book proposal?
    • How should I format my book proposal?
    • How to mail or e-mail a book proposal
    • I've written a memoir — why do I need to write a book proposal for it?
    • Must I have a full manuscript in hand before I propose?
    • Revising a book proposal successfully
    • Submitting a book proposal to a US-based agent from outside the US
    • What’s the overview and how do I construct one?
    • Why do some agencies want to see a proposal and some the full manuscript?
  • Book publishing basics
  • Building blocks of a pitch or query
  • Building your writing résumé
  • But don't I have to be a celebrity in order to get a personal memoir published?
  • But I like that character's name! Why shouldn't I use it as often as possible in the text?
  • But I want to get the story on the page as fast as humanly possible!
  • But it really happened that way!
  • But why shouldn't I use my favorite word as often as I can?
  • Calls for submissions
  • Censorship subtle and otherwise
  • Changing nature of publishing
  • Chapter headings and openings
  • Character and conflict development in memoir
  • Character development
    • Building a better expert character
    • Character development in synopses or queries
    • Character development tips
    • Character-revealing dialogue
    • Creating a protagonist the reader will want to follow through a whole book — or a series
    • Creating sufficiently odious antagonists
    • Introducing physical descriptions
    • Relationship development
    • Secondary characters
    • Selecting distinctive character names
    • Showing (not telling) character
    • Subtle ways to make characters seem more or less intelligent
  • Collaboration
  • Conference etiquette
  • Conference faux pas
  • Conference lore
  • Conference pitching
  • Conference selection
  • Conferences that cater to writers
  • Contests and how to enter them successfully
    • Contest entry bugbears
    • Contest entry prep
    • Contest judging criteria
    • Contest rules and how to follow them
    • Contest synopsis-writing
    • Entering US literary contests from outside the US
    • Entering writing contests with aplomb — and a chance of winning
    • Finding the right contest to enter
    • How can I tell if entering a contest is worth the entry fee?
    • How can I tell if I'm entering the right category?
    • How serious are contest judges about length restrictions?
    • How should I format my contest entry?
    • How to construct a title page for a contest entry
    • How to read a writing contest entry form
    • How to write a 1-page synopsis for a contest
    • I'm a finalist — what now?
    • Is it okay to enter writing in a contest and submit it to agents simultaneously?
    • Is the humor in my entry likely to amuse Mehitabel?
    • Must I submit the opening pages of my manuscript to a contest with categories for book-length works?
    • Poetry contest entries
    • Realistic expectations for contest entrants
    • Should I ever consider writing something new for a contest?
    • Should I ever pay a fee to enter a writing contest?
    • Should my entry's title page be included in the page count?
    • The Make Us Want to Eat It Literary Competition — a step-by-step guide to preparing an entry
    • The Make Us Want to Eat It Literary Competition of 2012
    • The Sensual Surfeit Literary Competition — a step-by-step guide to formatting your entry
    • The Sensual Surfeit Literary Competition of 2012
    • Wait! Read this post before you mail off that entry!
  • Contests that are worth your time to enter
  • Copyright issues
  • Craft and plenty of it
    • Action scenes
    • At the risk of repeating myself…
    • Avoiding killing your darlings
    • Backstory and how to work it into a plot
    • Beginning and ending a book
    • Building suspense
    • But I like that phrase! Why shouldn't I use it twice?
    • But I've heard that I should never…
    • But my writing is original! Why should I worry about a reader's reaction?
    • Character blurring
    • Character naming
    • Cliché avoidance
    • Comic voice and how to develop it
    • Conflict-building
    • Consistency and why it is important to develop
    • Constructing a narrative
    • Continuity and why it is important to maintain
    • Craft! In-depth analysis
    • Cutting to the chase and why it isn't always the best idea
    • Descriptive shortcuts and narrative shorthand
    • False suspense
    • Flashbacks
    • Funny on the page vs. funny in real life
    • Good writing habits to form
    • Hollywood narration
    • Hooks
    • Italics use
    • Jargon usage
    • Logical flow
    • Making the past come alive
    • Narrative consistency
    • Pacing a scene
    • Passive protagonists
    • Passive voice and why you should eschew it
    • Plausibility
    • Plot development
    • Protagonist likability
    • Protagonist memorability
    • Real stories told as fiction
    • Realistic dialogue
    • Reimagining a classic tale
    • Run-on sentences and why professional readers don't like them
    • Running order
    • Series writing and plotting
    • Setting time and place
    • Show don't tell
    • Story arc and why a good book needs one
    • Storytelling structure
    • Suspense-building
    • Tense-switching
    • Tension-building
    • The End
    • Vivid details
    • Voice
    • What are the proper ways to format thought in a manuscript?
    • What makes a great page 1?
    • Why sounding like your favorite author from a decade ago might not work well now
    • Why sounding like your favorite comedian might not result in funny writing
    • Why what worked in the 19th century might not work on the page today
    • Why what worked in the latest bestseller might not work tomorrow
    • Will that cultural reference seem dated five years hence?
    • Write what you know
    • Writing comedy
    • Writing love scenes
    • Writing on dark topics
    • Writing the real
    • Writing the unreal
  • Dark comedy
  • Dated references
  • De facto exclusives
  • De facto exclusives and why they are a bad idea
  • Deadlines and how to meet them
  • Deadlines that writers create for themselves
  • Dialogue and how to write it well
    • Dialogue that adds to the scene
    • Dialogue that moves quickly
    • Dialogue that moves TOO quickly
    • Dialogue that rings true
    • Dialogue-only scenes
    • Formatting dialogue
    • How do I punctuate one character's quoting another?
    • Humor in dialogue
    • Interview scenes that work
    • Is it effective characterization to give a character a catchphrase?
    • Jargon in dialogue
    • Redundant dialogue
    • Should I use italics every time a character would emphasize a word out loud?
  • Dialogue complexity and realism
  • Does it matter what font I use in my manuscript?
  • Does rejection mean I don't have talent?
  • Double-checking that your manuscript is formatted correctly — a quick reference
  • Drama vs melodrama
  • E-publishing
  • ECQLC? What's that?
  • Editing dialogue
  • Editing your own manuscript
    • Editing fantasy
    • Editing for clarity
    • Editing for complexity
    • Editing for freshness
    • Editing for humor
    • Editing for length
    • Editing for logical flow
    • Editing for pacing
    • Editing for plausibility
    • Editing for self-publishing
    • Editing for style
    • Editing for voice
    • Editing memoir
    • Editing out redundancy
    • Editing the opening pages
    • How and why politeness can make a scene drag
    • Is my manuscript dated?
    • Making physical contact come to life on the page
    • Manuscript megaproblems
    • Minimizing structural repetition and conceptual redundancy
    • Perspective switching
    • Plot flares
    • Pulling the reader out of the story
    • Purging protagonist passivity
    • Sagging in the middle
    • Slow openings
    • Tag lines and how to minimize them
    • The fine art of making nouns plural
    • The little things that drive the pros nuts
    • Why it’s a good idea to double-check your manuscript’s formatting as well as its style
    • Writing clichés
  • Editors and how to work with publishing houses
    • A brief history of requested revisions and rejections
    • Book contracts
    • Editorial committees
    • Editorial eye
    • Editorial memos
    • Editors
    • Galleys and how to work with them
    • Hardcover vs trade paper
    • How authors get paid for their books
    • How big may I expect my initial print run to be?
    • How do self-published books get edited — or do they?
    • How much time passes between contract and publication?
    • How much will my publisher expect me to promote my own book?
    • I've pitched at a conference and an editor asked to see pages — what do I do now?
    • PItching to editors at conferences
    • Should I use my manuscript submission to show my typeface and book cover preferences?
    • Unsolicited submissions
    • What happens if an editor falls in love with my book?
    • What happens if the acquiring editor and I disagree about revising my book?
    • What's the difference between an acquiring editor and a copyeditor — or a developmental editor?
    • Who has ultimate say over a book's title?
    • Will my publisher give me free copies of my book for my kith and kin?
    • Working on revision with an editor
  • Electronic querying and submission
    • Are there times I should avoid e-querying?
    • Does it matter how e-mailed submissions are formatted?
    • E-mailed submissions
    • E-mailing queries
    • E-mailing writing contest entries
    • E-querying pros and cons
    • How to e-mail requested materials
    • How to format an e-mailed query
    • Is it okay to format queries or submissions for A4 paper if I'm sending them via e-mail?
    • Querying forms on agency websites
    • Should I include a title page with requested materials I'm e-mailing — and does it count toward the number of pages the agent asked me to send?
    • The one thing a savvy e-querier must do before hitting send
    • Why you might not want to e-mail requested materials immediately after receiving a request for pages
    • Why you might want to think twice about sending an agent or editor an e-mail
    • Why you should include a cover letter when e-mailing requested materials
  • Epigraphs
  • Ergonomics
  • Everything you wanted to know about book proposal but were afraid to ask
  • Exclusive requests — what do they mean?
  • Exclusive-wrangling
  • Exclusives and multiple submission
  • Exclusives to agents
  • Fee-charging agencies
  • Feedback on your writing
    • Contests that offer feedback
    • Critique groups
    • Feedback incorporation
    • Feedback that's actually helpful
    • Getting good at accepting feedback
    • Getting good feedback
    • I've gotten some negative feedback — how seriously should I take it?
    • What's the difference between professional feedback and what I might get from a friend?
    • Why getting feedback is more important for if you are trying to be funny on the page
    • Why getting objective feedback is even more important for memoir and fact-based fiction than more fanciful creations
  • Finances for writers
  • Finding agents to query
  • Finding time to write
  • First lines famous and otherwise
  • Folders for book proposals
  • Formatpalooza!
  • Formatting a book manuscript — a step-by-step guide
  • Formatting manuscripts
  • Frankenstein phenomena in submissions
    • Frankenstein contest entries
    • Frankenstein manuscripts
    • Frankenstein narrative logic
    • Frankenstein queries
    • Frankenstein synopses
    • Frankenstein voice and punctuation issues
    • Hasn't the narrative made that point already?
    • Hasn't the narrative used that phrasing already?
    • Inconsistent formatting choices and how they can harm a submission
  • Freelance editors
  • Freelance writing
  • Freshness
    • Freshness in a pitch
    • Freshness in book proposals
    • Freshness in comic writing
    • Freshness in manuscripts
    • Freshness in phrasing
    • Freshness in queries
    • Freshness in synopses
    • Freshness on page 1
    • How long current events remain current
    • Updating a classic tale
  • Galleys and why authors have to deal with them
  • Genre fiction
  • Getting a book published basics
  • Getting a book reviewed
  • Getting paid for your writing
  • Getting started on your next book
  • Getting your writing session started productively
  • Giving yourself permission to write
  • Great gifts for writers
  • Guest blogs & interviews
  • Guidelines for posting comments
  • Handwritten manuscripts
  • Help! I'm afraid to keep querying or submitting because I've been rejected before!
  • Help! I'm confused by this welter of online writing advice!
  • Help! I've been asked for an exclusive look at my manuscript!
  • Help! My kith and kin don't seem to support my writing!
  • Help! Several agents have asked to read my work — and one's asked for an exclusive!
  • Help! What does a professionally-formatted book manuscript look like?
  • Helpful habits for writers
  • Hey — will any of this writing advice help me write essays for school?
  • How can I know if I have enough talent to get published?
  • How do books get published?
  • How do I decide where to submit first?
  • How do I prepare a writing contest entry?
  • How do manuscripts get published?
  • How expensive do writers' conferences tend to be?
  • How long before a request for pages expires?
  • How long before the request for pages expires?
  • How long is too long for a manuscript?
  • How much of my manuscript should I bring to a writing conference? It's heavy.
  • How should my characters address one another?
  • How the publishing industry works — and doesn't
  • How to handle a request for an exclusive
  • How to handle multiple requests for pages — including an exclusive
  • How to submit exclusively
  • How to survive when people ask you
  • How to work through writer's block
  • How to…
    • How are the goals of writing different lengths of synopsis different?
    • How can I choose between competing advice?
    • How can I tell at a glance if my book proposal is formatted correctly?
    • How can I tell at a glance if my manuscript is formatted correctly?
    • How can I tell if a writing contest is worth my time to enter?
    • How can I tell if I'm talented enough to get published?
    • How can I tell if my comic touches are genuinely funny?
    • How can I tell if my synopsis is good enough to send or if it still needs fine-tuning?
    • How do I find a freelance editor?
    • How not to write a first line of a manuscript
    • How NOT to write a first page
    • How to back up your writing files at the last minute
    • How to cope with multiple submission requests if you are lucky enough to garner them
    • How to decide which contests are worth your time to enter
    • How to define a memoir's story arc
    • How to enter a writing contest — and do it well
    • How to estimate word count — and why
    • How to find agents to query
    • How to format a book manuscript
    • How to format a book manuscript — just the facts
    • How to format a book proposal
    • How to format a book proposal's title page
    • How to format a manuscript if you are visually-oriented
    • How to format a manuscript if you're in too much of a hurry to read the logic behind each rule
    • How to format a query letter for a book
    • How to format a synopsis
    • How to format a title page
    • How to format a title page if your book has a subtitle
    • How to insert a chapter break into a manuscript
    • How to move from your first book to your next with aplomb
    • How to put together a query packet
    • How to put together a submission packet
    • How to query via e-mail
    • How to read an agency listing
    • How to remove a slug line from a title page
    • How to respond if an agent or editor asks for pages after you pitch
    • How to respond to a request for a partial
    • How to set up book signings
    • How to start that next book
    • How to write a 1-page synopsis
    • How to write a 1-page synopsis in a tearing hurry
    • How to write a book proposal
    • How to write a memoir query
    • How to write a memoir synopsis
    • How to write a nonfiction pitch
    • How to write a nonfiction synopsis
    • How to write a pitch
    • How to write a pitch at the last minute
    • How to write a pitch only three sentences long (if you must)
    • How to write a query for a travel memoir
    • How to write a query letter from scratch
    • How to write a query letter in a hurry
    • How to write a query's book description paragraph
    • How to write a query's credentials paragraph if you have not published before
    • How to write a query's opening paragraph
    • How to write a really good query letter
    • How to write a really good synopsis
    • How to write a synopsis for a contest
    • How to write a synopsis for a multiple-protagonist novel
    • How to write a synopsis from scratch
    • How to write a synopsis in a hurry
    • How to write an author bio
  • I feel I made a personal connection in my pitch meeting — does that mean the agent will necessarily sign me?
  • I pitched before my book was finished — what do I do now?
  • I've just signed up to give a conference pitch — what do I do now?
  • Identifying your target market
  • Independent presses
  • Industry etiquette
  • Industry terminology
  • Interviews & guest blogs
  • Is it ever OK to send more pages than an agent requests?
  • Is it ever okay to alter formatting to fit more words on a page?
  • Is it ever okay to submit my manuscript on non-white paper?
  • Is it legitimate to borrow elements from TV shows and movies for my novel?
  • Is it okay to look for an agent before I've written a complete draft?
  • Is it okay to tinker with the formatting to make my entry short enough to fall under the page limit?
  • Is it worthwhile to pitch to an editor at a conference?
  • Just how closely do the pros read?
  • Keeping the faith
  • Legal issues for writers
  • Let's talk about this
  • Literary fiction
  • Literary fiction and its challenges
    • Literary fiction contest entries
    • Literary fiction craft
    • Literary fiction defined
    • Literary fiction marketing
    • Literary fiction pacing
    • Literary fiction pitching
    • Literary fiction queries
    • Literary fiction synopses
    • Literary fiction voice
    • Revising literary fiction
    • Should I try to be funny in a serious-toned book?
    • What are my options if my manuscript runs long?
  • Manuscripts and how to format them properly
    • A quick reference guide to the various parts of a properly-formatted manuscript
    • A visual tour of a properly-formatted manuscript
    • Are single quotation marks ever acceptable to use in American English other than to designate quotes within quotes?
    • Chapter breaks and how to format them
    • Clean manuscripts and why they are desirable
    • Contest entries and how to format them
    • Date and time announcements
    • Dialogue formatting
    • Ending your manuscript
    • Formatting for US letter size if you wrote the manuscript for A4
    • Formatting quotations and citations
    • How do I make the page numbering start somewhere other than the first page of the document?
    • How does one handle a subtitle in formatting the title page and slug line?
    • How much should paragraphs be indented?
    • How should recipes be formatted in a manuscript?
    • Is it ever okay to open a chapter with an unindented paragraph as I see done in published books?
    • Is it ever proper to underline words in a book manuscript?
    • Italics and when they are correct to use
    • Letters in manuscripts
    • Manuscript formatting 101
    • Manuscript formatting like a pro
    • Manuscript shipping
    • Must I italicize thought or is it a stylistic choice?
    • Numbers in manuscripts
    • Page 1 and what it should look like
    • Page 2 and thereafter
    • Page numbering
    • Prologues and introductions
    • Section breaks
    • Slug line
    • Slug lines illustrated
    • Song titles and names of publications
    • The great one space – two space debate
    • The rules of book formatting
    • Title page formatting
    • What book manuscripts look like
    • What book proposals look like
    • What's the difference between left-justified text and block-formatted text and why should I care?
    • Where can I find the right kind of folder for a book proposal?
    • Why does it matter how my manuscript is formatted?
    • Why should I include a title page in my submission at all?
    • Why should I indent my paragraphs?
    • Why you're usually better off estimating word count than using actual word count for a manuscript
  • Marketing plan
  • Medical issues for writers
  • Meeting fellow writers and other kindred spirits
  • Memoir – its many joys and trials
    • Are dialogue and thought in memoir governed by the same rules as dialogue and thought in fiction?
    • Autobiography and memoir defined
    • Character development in memoir
    • Common memoir-writing faux pas
    • Coping with your kith and kin's reactions to your writing a memoir
    • Dealing with the Tolstoy problem
    • Do I have to write my entire memoir before I start to query or only the book proposal?
    • Fact-checking anecdotes
    • How can I tell whether I am writing memoir or narrative nonfiction?
    • How do I format my title page if my memoir has a subtitle?
    • How does good memoir style differ from good writing in other types of manuscript?
    • How much of my memoir's voice should I reveal in my query?
    • Humor in memoir
    • Memoir book proposals
    • Memoir contest entries
    • Memoir craft and marketing
    • Memoir openings and structure
    • Memoir querying
    • Memoir synopsis-writing
    • Memoir voice
    • Revising memoir
    • Story arc in memoir
    • Travel memoir
    • Ways you might not want to describe your memoir in a query or pitch
    • What happens after a publisher buys my memoir?
    • Why do some agencies expect only a proposal for a memoir and others a full manuscript?
    • Why the phrase true memoir drives Millicent nuts
    • Writing memoir
  • Millicent? Who the heck is Millicent?
  • Multi-book contracts
  • Multiple protagonists and how to handle them
    • Formatting a multiple POV novel
    • Multiple protagonist novel queries
    • Multiple protagonist synopses
    • Multiple-protagonist narratives
    • Multiple-protagonist novels
  • Must Reads
  • My memoir's saga
  • My novel's road to publication
  • Naming characters
  • Narrative Choices
    • First-person narration
    • I've heard that the rules of grammar may be applied differently to first-person narration — is that true?
    • Italics use and how it can affect narrative voice
    • Narrative distance vs. generalization
    • Omniscient narration
    • Point of view choices
    • Present-tense narratives
    • Tight third-person narration
    • Voice choices and your pitch
    • Voice choices and your query
    • Voice choices and your synopsis
    • What does and doesn't make a voice book category-appropriate?
    • What does and doesn't make a voice unique?
  • Narrative shortcuts
  • New Year's resolutions and how to put them into practice well
  • Niche market
  • Nom de plume usage
  • Nonfiction
    • A one-stop reference to formatting a book proposal
    • Annotated table of contents
    • Competitive market analysis
    • How do I format a title with a colon in it on a title page or in the slug line?
    • How selling nonfiction is different from selling fiction
    • How to format a subheading
    • How to format quotations from other sources
    • How to mail a book proposal
    • Introductions and prologues
    • My book has a subtitle — how should it appear on the title page?
    • Narrative nonfiction
    • Nonfiction contest entries
    • Nonfiction marketing
    • Nonfiction pitching
    • Nonfiction proposals
    • Nonfiction querying
    • Nonfiction synopses
    • Nonfiction technique
    • Nonfiction voice
    • Overview in a proposal
    • What happens after a publisher accepts my proposal?
    • What should a book proposal look like on the page?
    • What should a book proposal's title page look like?
    • Will footnotes or endnotes work in a book proposal?
  • Originality in manuscripts
  • Overcoming writer's block
  • Partial manuscript submissions
  • Partials and how to handle them
  • Pen names and how to use them
  • Pet peeves on parade
  • Pitching to an agent
    • 2-minute pitch
    • 3-line pitch
    • But I made a connection with that agent!
    • But I've heard…
    • Do I need to memorize my pitch?
    • Does a successful pitch mean that I can't query or submit to anyone else?
    • Elevator speech
    • Hallway pitching
    • Hollywood hooks
    • How can I keep myself from freaking out mid-pitch?
    • How do I know which agent at a conference would be the best to approach?
    • How long is it likely to be between a successful pitch and the book's hitting the shelves?
    • How will I know if my pitch DID work?
    • I've pitched and received a request for pages — what do I do now?
    • I've received a request to send pages — do I still need to query?
    • Pitch examples
    • Pitching 101
    • Pitching a multiple protagonist novel
    • Pitching a nonfiction book
    • Pitching faux pas
    • Pitching memoir
    • Pitching or querying nonfiction
    • Pitching tips
    • Pitching: basic how-to
    • Pitching: the master class
    • Post-pitch etiquette
    • Scheduling pitch meetings
    • Should I bring my manuscript to a pitch meeting?
    • The magic first hundred words
    • The mythical right words to use in a pitch
    • The one thing a pitcher should NEVER do after receiving a request for pages
    • What actually happens in a pitch meeting?
    • What do I do if my pitch works?
    • What should I do if I can't make my scheduled pitching appointment?
    • What should I do if my pitch doesn't seem to be working?
    • When should I NOT approach an agent at a conference?
    • Why might my pitch get rejected?
  • Pitchingpalooza!
  • Platform
    • Platform paragraph in a query
    • Platform-demonstration in a pitch
    • Platform-demonstration in a proposal
    • Platform-demonstration in a synopsis
    • What is a platform and why do I need one?
  • Plugs for Readers' Work
  • Poetry formatting
  • Post-conference etiquette
  • Print-on-demand (POD)
  • Prologues
  • Proofreading
  • Public readings
  • Publication Fairy and those that believe in her
  • Publishing contracts
  • Punctuation and how to use it properly
    • Colons and why they should have two spaces after them
    • Commas and their proper wrangling
    • Ellipsis use
    • How to format dashes and hyphens
    • Hyphens and how they are frequently abused
    • Indentation and why it isn't optional
    • Punctuating dialogue
    • Punctuation and grammar of the non-standard variety
    • Quotation marks around non-quotes
    • Semicolons and why only writers like them much
    • Using possessives and plurals correctly
    • What is subject-object agreement and why should anyone still care about it?
    • Why you might want to think twice about capitalizing words other than proper nouns
  • Query letters and how to write them well
    • "Complete at X words" and other querying clichés
    • Concrete examples of queries and why they work or don't
    • Dear Agent letters
    • Do I have to mention the word count in my query?
    • Does it matter what font size I use in my query?
    • Eye-Catching Query Letter Candy
    • Figuring out which agents to query
    • How not to write that pesky description of your book for a query
    • How to construct a query packet
    • How to show why you are querying a particular agent
    • How to talk about your target audience without sounding boastful
    • How to write a query letter step by step
    • How to write that pesky description of your book for a query
    • I've been rejected before — why should I keep querying?
    • Is it ever okay to query the same agent twice with the same book?
    • Is it ever okay to send more sample pages than an agency's submission guidelines specify?
    • Is it okay to include attention-grabbing gifts in my query packet?
    • Magic words you might want to include in your query letter
    • Queries that are too long
    • Query + sample pages
    • Query formatting
    • Query letter troubleshooting
    • Query letters 101
    • Query letters illustrated
    • Queryfest!
    • Querying
    • Querying a multiple protagonist novel
    • Querying a US-based agent from outside the U.S.
    • Querying ethics
    • Querying fatigue
    • Querying faux pas
    • Querying literary fiction
    • Querying memoir
    • Querying SF/fantasy
    • Querying US agents from outside the US
    • Querying via e-mail or online
    • Querying YA
    • Self-rejecting queries
    • Should I mention that someone referred me to this agent?
    • Should I query under my pen name or my real one?
    • The one thing a savvy querier ABSOLUTELY MUST do to a query before sending it
    • What do I use as a writing credentials paragraph if I have no writing credentials?
    • What if I have more than one book to query?
    • What is a query letter?
    • What is this SASE I keep seeing mentioned in submission guidelines?
    • What should a query letter look like?
    • When are the best and worst times to query?
    • Why generic queries don't work
    • Why haven't I heard back about my query?
    • Why MUST I include a SASE with my query?
  • Query packets and things that go in them
  • Querying multiple agents at once
  • Querying nonfiction
  • Querying or submitting to US agencies from outside the US
  • Querypalooza!
  • Quoting other writers in your work
  • Realistic expectations for writers
  • Referrals to agents
  • Rejection and moving on from it
    • A quick history of rejection practices
    • Dealing with fear of rejection
    • Dealing with rejection
    • Does rejection mean that my book is no good?
    • Form-letter rejections
    • It's been months and I have not heard back about my exclusive submission — what are my options?
    • Pitch rejection
    • Rejection letters decoded
    • Rejection on page 1
    • Rejection: when they don't tell you at all
    • Rejection: when they don't tell you why
    • Was my manuscript rejected because it was too long?
    • Why might my query have gotten rejected?
  • Repetitive strain injuries
  • Requested materials and how to send them
    • A brief history of requested materials — and requested revisions
    • A visual tour of the constituent parts of a book manuscript
    • Am I the only writer whose ever been tempted not to send requested materials?
    • Book proposals and how to send them
    • But the final page in the partial ends in mid-sentence!
    • Cover letters for requested materials
    • How can I keep my manuscript from getting mangled in the mail?
    • How can I tell if my synopsis is polished enough yet?
    • How long should my synopsis be?
    • How soon must I send requested materials?
    • I've just pitched successfully — should I send the pages the agent requested today?
    • I've just pitched successfully — what do I do now?
    • Mailing requested materials
    • Overnight shipping requested materials
    • Partials
    • Requested material-wrangling
    • Sending requested materials to US agents from outside the US
    • Should I include a title page with requested pages?
    • Should I list the actual or the estimated word count on my submission's title page?
    • Simultaneous submissions
    • Submission packets
    • Submissions and exclusive requests
    • They've asked for 50 pages but my chapter ends on page 51!
    • What if the agent likes my partial and wants to see the rest of the book?
    • What should I do if I've received a request for pages?
    • Why it's worth your time to back up your manuscript's writing files before you submit
    • Why it's worth your time to proofread
  • Responses from book readers
  • Revise and resubmit
  • Revision burnout
  • Revision to improve your book's chances
    • A quick checklist for correct manuscript formatting
    • Agency screeners' pet peeves of the notorious variety
    • But isn't revising to make my work more marketable compromising my artistic vision?
    • Clarifying your voice
    • Common rejection triggers
    • First pages that grab
    • Format troubleshooting
    • How can I tell if I should add -s or -'s?
    • How much slack can I assume an agent will cut a new writer's submission?
    • Picking up the pace
    • Requested revisions
    • Revising for flow and rhythm
    • Revising for freshness
    • Revision tips
  • Royalties and how they work
  • SASE guidelines
  • Self-publishing
  • Series writing and how to do it well
    • Coming up with a title — and title page — for a series
    • How do I fit Revenge of the Triffids Part IV: Run in Terror! into a slug line?
    • Plotting a mystery series
    • Series authors talk about series writing
    • Wait — what I'm writing is a series?
  • Should I be worried about my work being stolen?
  • Slush piles and why they no longer exist
  • Small publishers
  • Standard format for manuscripts
    • Business format vs indented paragraphs
    • How standard format looks different for US letter and A4
    • How standard format looks different than what you might see in a published book
    • Standard format basics
    • Standard format for poetry
    • Standard format for title pages
    • Standard format illustrated
  • Start with these posts if you are brand-new to publishing
  • Stock dialogue
  • Strategizing a writing career
  • Submission
    • A quick guide to submission formatting
    • A short history of submission practices
    • Are some times of the week or year better for submission?
    • Cover letters for submissions
    • Help! I've already submitted to one agent and another has asked for an exclusive!
    • Is it ever OK to resubmit to an agent that hasn't specifically asked to see a revised version?
    • Is it okay to submit a synopsis formatted for A4 paper to US-based agents?
    • Must I submit to only one agent at a time?
    • Submission avoidance
    • Submission of requested materials
    • Submission troubleshooting
    • Submitting to a small publisher
    • What happens after I submit requested materials?
  • Submission fatigue
  • Submitting to US agents and editors from outside the US
  • Synopses and everything you need to know about them
    • 1-page synopses
    • 3-page synopsis
    • 5-page synopsis
    • Editing your synopsis for length
    • Fiction vs. nonfiction synopses
    • How can I tell if the synopsis I've written is up to professional standards?
    • How not to write a synopsis
    • Synopses
    • Synopses illustrated
    • Synopsis for a series
    • Synopsis formatting
    • Synopsis length when in doubt
    • Synopsis troubleshooting
    • Synopsis-writing 101
    • Synopsis-writing stumbling blocks
    • Writing a synopsis for a contest
  • Synopsispalooza!
  • Target audience
  • Telling details
  • The one thing a conference pitcher should NOT do after receiving a request for pages
  • Titles
    • Do e-mailed submissions require title pages?
    • Do I need to include a title page if I've been asked to send only part of my manuscript?
    • Does my book proposal need a title page — and what should it look like?
    • How do I format a title page if my book has a subtitle?
    • How do I remove the slug line from the title page?
    • Is my title page included in the page count?
    • Title pages
    • Titling your work
    • Why do I need to include a title page in my submission?
  • Turn-around times
  • University presses
  • What happens if an agent wants to see my manuscript?
  • What happens if the agent asks first for a partial then asks to see more?
  • What if I miss my pitching appointment?
  • What if they think my fictional protagonist is ME?
  • What is a query letter and why do I need one to get an agent?
  • What should I do while I'm waiting to hear back?
  • What should my manuscript look like on the page?
  • What to bring to a conference
  • What to say when non-writers ask
  • What to tell people when you land an agent
  • What to wear to a conference
  • Why are there so many different sets of writing rules online?
  • Why it's a good idea to make backups as you revise
  • Why should I post links to my book’s Amazon page?
  • Why wasn’t my comment posted?
  • Why would an agent care how I format my manuscript?
  • Why you should not promise free copies of your book to your kith and kin
  • Will my writing automatically be taken less seriously if I’m under 18?
  • Women's fiction
  • Word count
  • Writer's block
  • Writers' Conferences
    • "Good writing always finds a home" and other publishing platitudes
  • Writers' groups
  • Writing advice truisms
  • Writing credentials
  • Writing retreats
  • Writing samples
  • Writing space creation
  • Writing taboos
  • YA voice
  • Your book's selling points
  • Your next book
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