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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

What Agents Are Chirping About!

I've said it one or two (okay, maybe four or five) times, and I'll say it again—if you’re not following agents on Twitter, you’re missing out! Click on the agents' Twitter names to go to their individual pages. Here are some tasty tidbits from the last half of June:

sarahlapolla Sarah LaPolla (Curtis Brown, Ltd.)
Lesson: You need to have the whole package, writers. Brilliant idea + brilliant writing. It's not an either/or deal.

greyhausagency greyhausagency RT by JillCorcoran (The Herman Agency)
Telling an agent during a pitch that you have been rejected by over 100 agents is not a great start!

mer_barnes Meredith Barnes (Lowenstein Associates)
Really, any manuscript over 400,000 words is just. not. query-able. Come on.

SarahGreenhouse Sarah Davies (Greenhouse Literary)
For my heart to leap, it would have to be a very special werewolf. So many have padded across my inbox already today.

BostonBookGirl Lauren E. MacLeod (Strothman Agency)
Don't start a query telling me all the great lessons a MG reader will learn from your book. Do you want to read a book pitched like that?

SarahGreenhouse Sarah Davies (Greenhouse Literary)
If querying, keep a careful response log. We see lots of resubmissions, already declined. Those peeps' inboxes must be a disaster area.

ChrisRichman Chris Richman (Upstart Crow Literary)
Important agenting announcement: I'm closed to unsolicited submissions until September. More details here:
http://bit.ly/dnYas8 (1/2)

SarahGreenhouse Sarah Davies (Greenhouse Literary)
Query writing is often portrayed as an arcane science. Just keep it simple, clear and brief. And voila, it does the job!

KSonnack Kelly Sonnack (Andrea Brown Literary)
Still dreaming about signing up an amazing YA thriller writer.

SaraMegibow Sara Megibow (Nelson Literary)
ps. going in to
#RWA11, yes, I admit, I have a love for wonderful historical romances (secret info) ("what I like").

sarahlapolla Sarah LaPolla (Curtis Brown, Ltd.)
Reminder to YA/MG writers: Your main character's grandparents did not fight in WW2. They fought in Vietnam.

sarahlapolla Sarah LaPolla (Curtis Brown, Ltd.)
Would add "overly written imagery to describe the setting" to Openings to Avoid list. There's a place for that, but it's not right away.

mer_barnes Meredith Barnes (Lowenstein Associates)
If you're putting the F-word in your title, you better have a f*cking good reason.

That's all—enjoy the rest of June!

29 comments:

  1. Those were rather amusing. Thanks!

    -Vicki

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  2. Nice. I like these, short and sweet. =)

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  3. I love these roundups. They always make me smile. Thanks, Jess!

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  4. Hmmmm... have to admit I am NOT a Twitter follower... yet.

    Considering joining now!

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  5. Can I tell you how much I love that you do this? Not being on twitter myself, it is such fun to read the little quips and see what it going on in agents' minds.

    Love it!

    Shelley

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  6. LOL! Those are great. Wow, I'm pretty "no holds barred" but I wouldn't use the F word in a title...

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  7. These are great. Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Great roundup! I think I need to figure out my TweetDeck so I can keep better track.

    ~Debbie

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  9. I love the tweets you post, Jess!

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  10. Lol I like Meredith Barnes tweet - hilarious. FYI, my URL has changed and is now www.lindsayncurrie.webs.com

    Have an awesome day:)

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  11. I follow most of these tweets and they are humorous as well as informative. Clever to put them all together here as a kind of almanac.

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  12. Nice! I'm still not on Twitter, but this reminder is a pretty persuasive one...

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  13. These are great, Jess! A few made me chuckle.

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  14. I don't have twitter- it'd get so hasselly I am sure! ( : But this sounds interesting!

    Ok, thank you! I hope you like my reviews!

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  15. You are so wonderful to hunt and gather all those helpful agent quotes.

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  16. I loved this. Some of those made me laugh and other made me think back to make sure I haven't done any of them.

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  17. Great list, as always. One of these days, you might motivate me to actually use that dormant twitter account of mine!

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  18. How about I just keep following you and get all the awesome details that way!!! Hehehe. Just teasing! I follow a few of these and I love when I see them hinting at what they want! Here is hoping come September they're looking for some really fun chick lit about bad dating ;)

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  19. I just found your blog (via Twitter) and it is an incredible resource. Thanks for sharing.
    Ruth

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  20. ha! that last one! as always, thanks jess! :)

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  21. Time for a new Twitter focus! Thanks for the push.

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  22. My heart really does go out to agents sometimes; the stuff they have to wade through! :)

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  23. Great compilation! Yep, agents are people too, and it's good to see their opinions on these things. We don't make stupid mistakes that way, too.

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  24. Those are great! *sigh*

    And really?:

    Telling an agent during a pitch that you have been rejected by over 100 agents is not a great start!

    Really?

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  25. I follow a few agents and I enjoy their nuggets of wisdom. You posted great tweets.

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  26. Informative and funny!

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  27. These are great--and entertaining. :) Thanks for sharing!

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  28. Banned complain !! Complaining only causes life and mind become more severe. Enjoy the rhythm of the problems faced. No matter ga life, not a problem not learn, so enjoy it :)

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