Author Archives: Carly Watters

Querying In the Digital Age: With Information Comes Power

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“It’s not right for us at this time.”

“I didn’t connect with the voice the way I’d hoped.”

“We’re not looking for books in that genre.”

stressThe publishing industry has many rules and guidelines, lots of contradicting advice, and often polarizing opinions. I empathize with you writers. I can see how all this information buzzing about the internet is making things simultaneously more accessible yet more confusing.

  • Whose advice do you take?
  • How can you be sure X website has the most up to date information?
  • What does that rejection really mean?
  • Does the transparency on social media sites really help you query agents?

With more knowledge comes more questions. It was easier five years ago when you could pick up a copy of the Guide to Literary Agents, circle your agent selections, and send out your queries in the mail. Granted, every agent had different guidelines then as we do now, but it was a bit more straightforward. You would get a call if an agent was interested or you’d get your material mailed back to you with a form rejection letter 1-6 months later.

Things have gotten more complicated with some agents taking only e-queries or only paper queries, some agents have you fill out a template form on their website and more. Some agents engage you on email, some on the phone. With the current transparency of many agents and agencies on Twitter, Facebook and their websites there is more information to process and wade through. Don’t feel overwhelmed, we’re just trying to help you target your queries more accurately to get a better success rate.

Benefits of querying in the digital age:

  • Up to the minute publishing deal information via Publisher’s Weekly, Publisher’s Marketplace and more
  • Clear guidelines on every agency’s website that are up to date
  • Websites like ‘Preditors & Editors’ that let you know who has shady business practices
  • Networks of querying writers like yourself
  • Finding critique partners over the internet that don’t limit you to in-person groups
  • Instant feedback from agents and editors via email
  • Agents and editors on Twitter constantly handing out great, free information about what we’re looking for and what doesn’t work for us

With information comes power. Use it to your advantage: wade through the volume to find the important facts; be the journalist of your career; evaluate your sources of information; learn the publishing industry from the outside; and take everything with a grain of salt.

Holy Grail of querying information? Agency’s websites. These are the facts, the rest is just hearsay.

Literary Agent Misconceptions

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Picture 6New writers often think of agents as inaccessible gatekeepers.

With these perceptions come many misconceptions about what we do and don’t do:

  • Agents are fairy godmothers. It’s not our job to ‘fix’ things. Once you get an agent the work does not end, it just begins. You need to present your best work and we may help you shape it to get it ready to submit to editors, but deep editorial feedback isn’t technically our job. We aren’t fairy godmothers. We aren’t editors. We are here to sell your work and advise you on your career.
  • Agents sell everything they represent. We sign every project up with the highest hopes for it, however, sometimes we aren’t able to sell a book–for any number of reasons. It breaks our hearts when a project doesn’t sell. You see the rejections we pass along, but we see any number of rejections for all the projects we represent. Even projects that get sold have some rejections, too.
  • Agents live a very glamorous life. Most of the time we’re sending emails, making phone calls, or reading manuscripts in our pyjamas on a Friday night when everyone else is out. We do lunches and launch parties, but not as often as you think.
  • Agents like rejecting authors. In all honesty it’s one of the worst parts of the job. Crushing dreams isn’t fun. We’re actively looking for great material–not the opposite.
  • Agents chase trends. Actually, we’re looking for quality writing. From time to time we’ll see an opportunity and be first to the table with a trendy new project, but we want long-term clients producing great work. That’s where a sustainable business model lies.
  • Agents have assistants that pre-screen all queries. At some agencies, yes. But for most of the agents I know, we all look at our queries personally. We are the talent spotters so we look at each and every one.

Q: Any writers out there that have had their preconceptions changed about agents through the query or representation process? 

Cover Reveal! ELLA AND THE BALLOONS IN THE SKY

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ELLA AND THE BALLOONS IN THE SKY is available for pre-order! Here’s its gorgeous cover.

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“They’d just taken them somewhere she hadn’t yet been, to magical places she hadn’t yet seen.”

Ella comes down one morning to feed her pets and finds that they have disappeared. She discovers them floating away on balloons, high in the sky. Try as she might, she can’t get them to come back. But although they are out of reach, Ella soon learns they are not truly gone as long as they remain in her heart and her memories. Written in gentle rhyming verse with light-hearted illustrations, Ella and the Balloons in the Sky is a story that tackles the tough subject of love and loss in a new way–with whimsy, magic, and lightness.

The picture book ELLA AND THE BALLOONS IN THE SKY comes out Fall 2013 with Tundra Books/Random House.

How to Pitch an Agent in Person

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time stockvaultI’m back from two wonderful writers conferences: Missouri Writers’ Guild (in St. Louis) and Oklahoma Writer’s Federation, Inc (in Oklahoma City). After whirlwind back-to-back weekends of pitch sessions I share some of my top tips for pitching agents in person:

  • You are the best advocate for your own work. So pitch me looking me in the eye and use your language to show how excited you are about this project. If you aren’t excited, it’s hard for me to get excited.
  • Know how much time you have (i.e. how long the pitch sessions are) and focus on making the most of it. This is your opportunity. Use it!
  • Start with your hook, word count and genre (just like a query letter) and then get into the juicy details of the plot. But keep it brief, I do not want a full synopsis read to me for 10 minutes.
  • We are going to ask questions, so take a deep breath and answer them to the best of your ability and focus on framing it in a way we want to hear (i.e. focus on the hook, main characters, and drama).
  • Don’t get down if one pitch doesn’t go well. There are other agents at pitch sessions, who have other varied opinions, so pick yourself back up and keep going.
  • Use this wonderful opportunity to actively connect with an agent. Tell them you follow them on Twitter, or read their blogs and magazine articles. Tell them you admire client X and have read all their books. You only get a handful of agents in your hometown once a year, so be unforgettable.
  • Know what makes your project unique. Know what else is out there on the bookstore shelves and how your book stands out. Continue reading →

4 Reasons Why Your Book Is Not Your Baby

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guardianpostWe’ve all heard this phrase. And I’m sure I’ve used it on this blog. It centers around the idea that you work hard to gestate the concept, cultivate it’s growth, and then set it free out into the world to see how it gets on with others.

While it’s a common metaphor, it’s not realistic for achieving your BEST manuscript and here’s why:

1. You need to be willing to throw your characters off a cliff.

Get them in hot water. Have them make bad decisions. (I don’t recommend this for your baby.) If you’re too close to your characters how is their drama going to be enticing enough for readers? We teach children to participate in conflict resolution, but make sure your fiction explores all angles of inner and interpersonal drama.

2. Writing is not unconditional love. 

You have to cut sections that don’t work and expand the ones that do. You have to release your subjectivity and be critical to a fault, constantly questioning and pushing the envelope. Sometimes you have to cut the passages and stop working on projects you really care about stylistically.

3. You have to let it go earlier than you’ll ever be ready. (Okay, this one might be similar to parenthood.) Continue reading →

Why simultaneously submitting to very small presses and literary agents is not working

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globeandmail booksI’ve seen an upswing in authors simultaneously submitting to very small print presses and e-publishers as well as literary agents. I’m going to share my frustrations with this practice. I understand that writers are looking for a ‘win’ in a sea of rejection and to get themselves bumped up in the slush pile, but this is counterintuitive and here’s why:

It suggests that you and an agent might have very different ideas about the market for your book and vision for your career.

If a writer submits to agents, small presses, and e publishers what outcome are they looking to achieve? Get a small press deal and have an agent negotiate it? Get an e-publishing offer and turn it down once you’ve accomplished what you wanted: to get an agent? Use a small deal to leverage a bigger one? Ditch it all once you get an agent and then shoot for a publisher with a bigger distribution channel?

Agents are running a business and we have systems in place that works for a reason. We’re looking to discover fantastic new writers in the slush and it’s okay just to query us and not have an offer attached to your project. Don’t waste anyone time, including your own, by throwing your project into any open door in the industry. Get an agent, find one that understands your needs and loves your work, and then tackle this crazy industry together with a similar vision for your career.

Yes, the industry is changing quickly, but guess what? Great agents are ahead of the curve and know how small presses and e-publishing work and their place in the greater publishing ecosystem.

Yes, coming to an agent with an offer of representation is a good way to get yourself read quicker by an agent, but it’s almost a false start because we’re going to evaluate you on the same principles as we would anyone else.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against small presses, Continue reading →

FOREVER, INTERRUPTED is available for pre-order!

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Taylor Jenkins Reid Forever Interrupted CoverFOREVER, INTERRUPTED by Taylor Jenkins Reid is available for pre-order!

Read the book that everyone is talking about:

“Taylor Jenkins Reid has written a poignant and heartfelt exploration of love and commitment in the absence of shared time that asks, what does it take to be the love of someone’s life?” Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus New York Times bestselling authors

“Sweet, heartfelt, and surprising, Forever Interrupted is a story about a young woman struggling to find her way after losing her husband. These characters made me laugh as well as cry, and I ended up falling in love with them, too.” Sarah Pekkanen author of The Best of Us

“This beautifully rendered story explores the brilliance and rarity of finding true love, and how to find our way back through the painful aftermath of losing it. These characters will leap right off the page and into your heart.” Amy Hatvany author of Heart Like Mine

FOREVER, INTERRUPTED by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This heartrending debut novel weaves a beautiful love story with an homage to the redemptive power of female friendship.

Elsie and Ben are average twenty-somethings, but this is not your average love story. It begins bright and promising: the newlywed couple is head over heels in love, having eloped six months after they met. But it all shatters in an instant; Ben out riding his bike, is hit by a truck—and dies on impact.

Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, his body has already been taken to the hospital. When she arrives, Elsie is greeted by an unexpected visitor—her mother-in-law, Susan, whom she has never met and who doesn’t even know she exists. Continue reading →