Questions answered

[varkat]

For those who missed it, there'll be a transcript of last night's chat available at The Knight Agency blog today.  We had an amazing turn out, so there were a lot of questions we never got around to.  As promised, I invite you (and anyone else interested) to ask questions in the comments section here and I'll answer as time allows.  No pitches,

Comments

Published author queries

[paulagraves]

Lucienne, thanks for the chat last night. I'm a published author in category romance. Right now I'm agent-less, but I've been thinking about looking for an agent, even though I'm currently writing only category.

I haven't queried an agent since I was unpublished, so I'm not clear on what to do now that I have some books under my belt. Because I don't write a book now until I'm under contract, I don't have a complete manuscript to pitch to an agent. All I have is a proposal for a trilogy my editor asked me to put together. Is that sufficient to pitch to an agent as well, or do agents require a complete manuscript from published authors with a track record, just as you would from an unpublished author?

Re: Published author queries

[varkat]

That's sufficient for an agent as well. Published authors don't need a full ms. to pitch to agents. A proposal and their published works will be enough for an agent to evaluate.

Moving from N/F to F

[paulagraves]

That's awfully generous of you after that chat last night to continue fielding questions. Thanks in advance.

I've been writing nonfiction, mostly about culture and technology, with 5 published book. I'm retired now and would like to move to fiction and thought a good way to start would be good to put together a collection of short stories. Some of them would be based on my experience as a rock critic in the sixties. How many would I need to approach an agent?

Ellen Sander
www.ellensander.com

Re: Moving from N/F to F

[varkat]

Actually, short story collections are very hard to sell, unless they're by an extremely well known author (and even then they don't tend to sell as well as novels). Anthologies with big names are different, but single author collections when the author isn't already established in a genre.... I hate to be the bearer of bad news!

Pitching at Conventions (Crashing Publishers Parties 101)

[endiron]

Lucienne,

Thanks for your time last night. I was curious, if you are writing in the Fantasy/Alternate Historical Fantasy space what Events/Cons/Shows you would say at the top three or four to attend and make contact with agents & publishers in North America?

Seamus

Re: Pitching at Conventions (Crashing Publishers Parties 101)

[varkat]

It really depends how much you want to spend, etc. Worldcon and the World Fantasy Convention are two of the biggest and best, but agents and editors are usually so busy meeting with each other and their authors that they don't have a lot of free time for chatting in between. Your best chance to actually have sit-down time with the pros is a writers conference, where the agents and editors take pitches and meetings. Failing that, there are a lot of good regional cons that will cost you less to get to. They'll probably have fewer pros, but a more casual and less crazed atmosphere.

personalizing query

[wendybooks]

Many agents say to personalize the query letter and tell why I chose them. Is “I see from your website that you represented BookX” adequate? Or something more like “I read your blog and like your style”? Or what? The most honest reason would be “You’ve successfully repped something in my genre, so I’m querying you in the hopes that you’ll do the same for me.” What do you like to see?

Thank you for your time last night on the Chat, and for continuing the discussion today. That’s really kind!

Wendy

Re: personalizing query

[varkat]

Any of those will work, though you might want to sugar coat the more honest reason a little bit. If you can't say you're a big fan of author X, maybe "I've been impressed with what you've done for author X's career and know that any author would counter herself lucky to have you in her corner." I may be laying it on a little thick (*grin*), but still....

Hook vs Genre

[anonymous]

I'm pubbed electronically in muliple genres without an agent. Now that I'm ready to expand into print, I'm torn between two genres. Should I query the story I think has the biggest "hook" or the genre in which my voice is the most distinctive?

Thank you for last night. It was very helpful.

Re: Hook vs Genre

[varkat]

That's a tough one. It comes down to which novel you think is the strongest. Personally, I'm a sucker for voice, but it still has to be coupled with a fresh concept. If you've got that, I'd lean toward the genre with the distinctive voice, but that's me. Others may feel differently (and it's a tough call to make sight unseen).

Question

[anonymous]

Is it acceptable, advisable, for an author to market herself as a “writer” to an agent, as opposed to querying a specific ms? Such as: I’m an established journalist who has had two of her novels (one adult, one juvenile) place well in the Bookland Press Literary Contest. I’m also working on a series of edgy YA novels….

Re: Question

[varkat]

Well, yes and no. We'll want to know all that, of course, but we'll need to see some material on whatever you'd want us to market to be sure that we're on-board with it. So you'd still have to query on a specific project or projects and be prepared to send pages.

Re: Question

[anonymous]

Thank you, Lucienne. That certainly makes sense. To agents, what I write is as important or perhaps more important than who I am. http://www.eileenschuh.com