There is a Method to the Querying Madness
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2024
- Literary agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan discuss the reasons behind some of the most common querying "rules."
BookEnds is dedicated to making publishing a book traditionally a more transparent process, and it starts with these videos!
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds TH-cam channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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James McGowan is a Literary Agent at BookEnds and writer for children. He began working with the agency as an intern in the summer of 2015, and basically never left. He represents a talented group of authors and illustrators working in everything from board books to middle grade graphic novels. He also works in adult nonfiction, and adult mystery and suspense projects. James is the author of GOOD NIGHT OPPY, which is available now.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
I just want you guys to know I learned everything about publishing from you, and appreciate you so much!!! I started watching this channel when I had an incomplete first draft, and I am now on submission with my debut and signed with a top kidlit agency! You guys are seriously the best
Congrates with your success, your comment is proof these guys know what they are saying. I wish you the best and hope you find a publisher just as quick.
"Our job is not to read. Our job is to sell books." YES JAMES. Thank you. I'm a newer agent who feels perpetually guilty for not reading more.
Any chance you could read out some of the best query letters you got and tell us why those one resonated with you?
Thanks a lot for all your work. Your content is really helpful and it's an amazing platform for us to connect with other authors.
Even if you went off on a rant there - it's so useful! The truth is always better than an encouraging lie!
I remember when you had under 200 followers. Congrats on 17,000!
Oh yes, I've seen agent guidelines who still take snail mail (often alongside/as an option to emailing). Less so in fiction and especially my genres SFF, for sure, but they're out there!
Also, hearing Jessica say she had a bookshelf for her snail mail reminds me of when the company I work for took over a private company 4 years ago and decided to digitise everything. So much paper on shelves that we had to dig through...
500 queries a month, each?! That's insanity!
I adore both of you and watch your videos religiously. I followed all of the rules and jumped through all of the hoops and got an agent. Thank god, because it was HELL.
BUT (you knew that was coming, didn't you) this video really rubbed me the wrong way. The concept of "the query process has worked for a billion years so why change it?" doesn't take into consideration that better processes can always replace outdated ones.
Also, the concept of "you as the author need to learn how to sell your book" feels off to me. My job as the writer is to write and revise. I feel like an agent would be the salesperson. My skillset is in creating; I do not have the sales gene (if I did, I would be a personal fitness trainer to the stars). I should not be expected to know how to sell my art, that is the job of a salesperson, which is basically what an agent does.
I think the query process is upside down. Query Manager should be inside out: authors upload their MS and query letter analogs and synopsis and agents can filter based on category and genre and such to see if they're grabbed by the first pages and so on and then, ultimately, offer, if they so desire.
Anyway. While I DID jump through all the hoops and play all the games and secured an agent, I felt like it was utterly convoluted and backwards.
I'm in the query trenches now. This was so helpful! Thank you.
I'm still working on the book, but your videos are such a help in getting me ready for the next steps. I'm grateful. Also thanks for your tough love and humor.
I love you guys so much and appreciate all the tips and the insight into the publishing world!
Thank you. I have a blurb...now I will kick the best pitch I can into shape. You are very encouraging and give us a lot of insight that is so helpful.
We hear this. Thank you. So helpful.
Jessica, I like your mug.
The wonder woman cup!
Great stuff-as always!❤❤❤
I have been following your channel for a while and it will for sure help me a lot when I start querying this summer. Thank you!
If there isn't already (and I missed it), I would like to know how to handle trigger topics in a query - if at all - or how to avoid that you get a rejection because the agent just wasn't aware of it. Some agents have it on their pages as "Not the best agent for topics xyz..." - so can I assume it's ok for anyone else? How about marketability of such topics? Thank you for any insight on this!
Hi! We did a video called Trigger Warnings in Queries!
@@BookEndsLiterary Thank you for pointing it out!
Great video again, guys! I'm in the querying stage. I do have a question, and maybe it difers with different agents, but what initially grabs your attention when sifting thru queries?
Sorry... differs..not difers
We're always looking for a good hook that sets the book apart from others in the genre!
I have a few questions:
Do you think an author should limit querying to agents in the same country, or is it worth submitting queries to agents all across the author's linguistic sphere?
Perhaps you and other agents you know regularly receive queries from abroad? Do you have opinions on that if so?
And would you say that agents generally work in very similar ways in most countries?
Thanks for all the helpful videos!
Hi! We have a video titled "Do US Agents Take on International Clients?" which covers some of your questions here! We can only speak to how agents work in the US, though
I love writers who don't want to follow the process. They make me look better in comparison. 😁
Are you guys open for hiring literary agents or your mentorship program? Into the new year.
Jessica, do literary agents ever offer represent authors books who are in other countries? I have received 4 rejections so far and with no explanations for the rejections, so I'm wondering if its because my book is a South African family saga, but which could happen to any family in any country.
I've written four books now, all complete, and have ideas for more. However, with my current work-life balance, it's difficult for me to adhere to the type of writing schedule I read about from many published authors, ie writing a new book every year. My genre is adult fantasy/SciFi.
My question is this: assuming that any of my books are "good" and deemed publishable by an agent (ie there's market demand), would an agent want to work with me? My concern is that if I should be so lucky to sell a book, it might be a while until I could churn out another one. Is this a deal-breaker for agents? Thanks and Happy New Year.
Hi! Yes, lots of authors take several years in between books, and that's totally fine. You'll just have to let your agent know what to expect because if your project sells, they'll want to have a good idea of how many books they should try to get you on contract for plus the timelines, and if it doesn't sell, they should have an idea of how long you'll need until you can finish your next project to take out
@@BookEndsLiterary Thank you for replying. That's a relief! I've read the webpages for authors I enjoy, and authors early in their writing careers and got the impression that there's a demand for them to write, revise, and turn in new manuscripts waaay faster than I can at present. May I ask what sort of schedules are typical for my genre?
These videos are so helpful and much appreciated. When I first started writing, the tradition publishing process seemed to be this mysterious black hole. Now, it seems like a series of bite-sized chunks that are workable. Best of luck to your agents and clients!
This video was definitely helpful, as always. Thank you! I have a question: PB Party contest is coming up and I saw that James McGowan is on the list of participating agents. Are there any plans of a video about PB Party (how it works, submission tips, what James is looking for as a participating agent, etc.) before the Feb. 22nd entry submission day?
Hi! No, we don't do videos geared towards specific pitching events or things of that nature, but we do have videos about generally pitching PBs! Good luck!
@@BookEndsLiterary Thank you!
Definition of an agent - A villain to 99% , a hero to less than 1%.
Question: if I have self-published some novels and only sold a few, would an agent consider my new book?
If it's a totally new book, yeah, an agent will definitely consider it just like any other book! They shouldn't hold your self-pub sales against you, since self-pub is an entirely different business than trad pub and the success of it isn't necessarily reflective of how you'd perform in trad pub
@@BookEndsLiterary Thank you!
Writers who don't want to follow the process can always self publish. But they probably won't because there's a process - certain steps - you have to follow to do that, too.
If a Great author out there with finished novels is for whatever reason a poor queryer and doesn't particularly want to self publish, what are some way(s) agents can get a hold of their work? It'd be a shame if a potential best-selling author has the book(s) finished but isn't able to breakthrough because of being a poor queryer!
I know actors have business managers but I don't think there's an equivalent for unknown authors.
Would sending a full manuscript with contact information even be viable for someone like that?
Hi! Most agents only accept queries as a legitimate means of contact regarding representation, so our best recommendation is to research queries and improve the query! An author can do this by having people who have never read their book assess their query and then give feedback about why it's not working for them.
Just after the holidays, NaNoWriMo recently passed, so... QUERY TIME! Nope. Edit time. Proof time. Work on the query/synopsis time.
Why do agents have to fall in love with a picture book writer's body of work? Why won't career agents sign picture book writers based on one book like every other age category?
sometimes they do! but they often ask to see a portfolio of work because picture book authors usually submit more books per year than an author in another age category (since they are short and editors are able to read/accept/reject more quickly) so an agent would prefer to get a holistic look at your work
@@BookEndsLiterary that makes sense (and thanks for the fast response!) but it's still so frustrating when an agent loves one story you send but not the follow up ones. Although I guess it's equivalent to an agent loving the first few pages of a novel but not the full ms...🙃