Good night, everyone 🌚

Hope you got some good writing done today 💜

Your query letter is a knock on the door and not the key to representation.

Glad you found it helpful :)

😄

Good morning, humans 🌞

What are you working on today?

Good night, everyone 🌚

Hope you got some good writing done today 💜

Book Broker: an interview with Jane Dystel Our agency receives hundreds of query letters a year.  I ask to read about 50% of them and of that percentage I might reach out to three or four people to ask them to come with us.

Book Broker: an interview with literary agent Jane Dystel

"Our agency receives hundreds of query letters a year. I ask to read about 50% of them"

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#amquerying #mswl

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The problem with plot points Outlining a novel with plot points can, at first glance, seem like a paint-by-numbers, formulaic approach to writing.

The problem with plot points

"Outlining a novel with plot points can, at first glance, seem like a paint-by-numbers, formulaic approach to writing."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/t...

#writingcommunity

Book Broker—an interview with Lisa Hagan Do your homework; there are submission guidelines available on the internet and on the agents' websites. Everything is formulaic and easy to follow.

Book Broker — an interview with Lisa Hagan

"I definitely look at the comp titles; it is the best way to get a feel of what the proposed book is similar to."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

Good night, everyone 🌚

Hope you got some good writing done today 💜

Personalization in your query letter is nice. But it's not a make-or-break aspect of your submission.

PS. No I'm not actually a Nicholas Cage fan 😅

Is Save the Cat! for lazy novelists? You’ll never be able to create an engaging plot with deeply nuanced and compelling characters simply by using a formula.

Is Save the Cat! for lazy novelists?

"You'll never be able to create an engaging plot with deeply nuanced and compelling characters simply by using a formula."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/s...

#writingcommunity

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Book Broker – An interview with Emma Finn There’s been a huge upswing in enthusiasm for smart non-fiction right across the board recently, which is a pleasure to see. And I think and hope both agents and editors are being more proactive in…

Book Broker — An interview with literary agent Emma Finn

"It's our job to root for new writers so I'm never looking to catch authors out with tiny errors"

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

Good night, everyone 🌚

Hope you got some good writing done today 💜

Some tips on choosing the comparable titles for your query letter based on the 100+ agent interviews we've done for the Book Broker series.

Yeah that's a good point. A reset is definitely more likely to happen in spec. The issue is more when the prologue is completely at odds with chapter one, like it could be from a different novel

What Three-Star Reviews Really Mean for Authors | Jane Friedman Readers who give three stars are often responding to the intersection between their expectations and the book—not the book’s inherent worth.

"I’d be lying if I said my first 3-star review didn’t give me pause. ... What could I have done differently? But the longer I sat with it, the more I understood what it really was: not rejection, but neutrality."

@lindaksienkiewicz.com discusses—w/admirable & rare rationality—the three-star review.

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Story Skeleton—The Great Gatsby Keep in mind that story structure is more about convincing readers to keep turning pages than it is about how to write a story. Within the dimensions of narrative structure, there are still limitless…

Story Skeleton—The Great Gatsby

"Keep in mind that story structure is more about convincing readers to keep turning pages than it is about how to write a story."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/g...

#writingcommunity

Good night, everyone 🌚

Hope you got some good writing done today 💜

Book Broker—an interview with Cecilia (CeCe) Lyra When I first became an agent, I made myself a promise: that I would never forget what it feels like to be on the other side.

Book Broker—an interview with Cecilia (CeCe) Lyra

"I should be able to identify a book's hook right away."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

Good morning, humans 🌞

What are you working on today?

“Alcohol” comes from the Arabic al-kuḥl, originally referring to a fine powder of antimony used as eyeliner (kohl). The term broadened to mean any refined or distilled substance, eventually giving us its modern meaning.

#etymology

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Hope you got some good writing done today 💜

"When A (inciting incident) happens, B (character) just do C (action) otherwise/before D (catastrophe)."

This amazing logline and pitch-builder formula comes from literary agent Hannah Shepard. we interviewed her for our Book Broker series.

🤩🤩🤩

Thanks for sharing :)

Fake Query Letters by Dead Authors Don't make agents cry for all the wrong reasons Fake Query Letters by Dead Authors offers new strategies to ditch the heartache, headaches, and frustration of querying. We step into an agent's shoes t...

OMG. Yes. @darlingaxe.com