All About Deal Announcements
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Literary agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan talk about everything you might want to know about how deal announcements are made in publishing!
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'm into the third draft of my women's fiction, magical realism subgenre, manuscript and while working on the chapters, I can't believe how much research went into this script! It's taken months! I've researched everything from flowers to thoroughbred racing! I remember, when I'd just submerged myself in the publishing industry, how I couldn't figure out the oddities of deal language! I recall being terribly thankful when I ran into the chart explaining the monetary category word choices!📚
I have a request for a deep-dive that might seem boring, but it’s something that has held me back from submitting to agents as an autistic author. What are all the current formatting industry standards, from email subject titles to line spacing and indenting in synopsis documents. Some agents/ agencies list their preferences on their websites, but lots don’t. Also, when you Google these sorts of rules, there is a lot of conflicting information. As an autistic woman, it’s frustrating to face unclear directions, because it’s like the “unspoken rules” everybody else seems to know and take for granted we face in all other spears of life. It’s a common experience for autistic people to try our best and make choices based on our own intuitions, then get punished for missing the mark on those unspoken directions we are supposed to “just know.” I hope that makes sense why this is so important to me!
Here are the biggest items I’m unclear about:
-How long is a synopsis supposed to be if the agent doesn’t say! I’ve seen no longer than 1k words in an agent’s blog post from 2023, then other saying it should be no longer than a page, which I understand to be 250.
-How should I format a synopsis document? I’ve seen both skip a line between paragraphs with single spacing, and to double space with indents like usual.
-How should I format my manuscript document? That question has lots of aspects to it, but one main thing that gives me anxiety is whether or not to start halfway down the page at the beginning of each chapter.
-What is the current word count range for debut adult fantasy? I’ve seen to not go over 100k and to not go over 120k. I suppose this would be helpful for all genres and age classifications, too!
-Can you use non-novel comp titles in elevator pitches?
I have loved this channel for years, and you’ve helped me so much! Another common struggle as an autistic woman is that sometimes people think I’m being mean or snobbish when I get into detail and speak passionately, so I just want to say that that’s not my intention at all!
Hi! I can add this to the list of potential video ideas :) We can give a general idea of some of these things, but unfortunately a lot of them aren't really rules and will differ agent to agent. For example, the length of a synopsis can really depend, and the true answer would be that the synopsis should be as long as it takes to walk through the story and cover each of the important beats (note: beat is different from a plot point/event! Knowing this might help when writing the synopsis). I know this is kind of vague, and some agents might clarify that they don't want synopses to exceed 1k (for example) words, but if they don't specify, you can just cover the beats of the story and send it off at whatever length it is (I think, with standard formatting, they should end up between 4 and 10 pages-more on standard formatting below).
The formats of documents (both synopsis and manuscript) is often less important than the actual content at this stage, because it's just about making sure that it's easy to read-so, you should know that it's very unlikely for an agent to reject you for getting the format "wrong" as long as it's legible! That being said, a good rule of thumb would be double spaced, 12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, indented first line of paragraphs, and page breaks between chapters in the manuscript. Whether the chapter starts at the top or halfway down the page is less consequential, as is a space after each paragraph. So that's personal preference.
We typically recommend 100-120k words for adult fantasy!
Yes, you can use non-novel comps in your pitches!
@@BookEndsLiterary Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this. You addressed all my concerns very well, and now I feel empowered to actually send out some submissions! I’m glad you pointed out when the rules are vague, because hearing it from a trusted source eases my anxiety and gives me “permission” to do what I feel best. Thank you, again!
@@BookEndsLiterary The majority of resources for writers provide guidelines of 1-2 pages single spaced for a synopsis. Some agency websites will specify otherwise, but 4-10 pages seems a significant deviation. Is 4-10 pages a typo? Should that be paragraphs instead of pages? Or do you mean that's the preferred length for BookEnds specifically?
This wonderful channel is essentially a Literary Flight Simulator that helps guide authors through every step of building and flying a novel that will hopefully one day land on the aircraft carrier of traditional publishing without crashing! 😍
Great video as always! Thanks for cranking out the fire content while also juggling queries and representing clients! It does not go unnoticed!
Acting fabulous across the board. Directing and pacing excellent. Storyline all you could wish for. Enjoy
Great show! I would love to hear about past book discoveries. "I was sitting in my car reading a manuscript, and....😊
I sometimes wish publishers marketplace and publishers Weekly weren't named so similarly, causes a lot of confusion 😅
Well, I sent my fantasy novel to Jennissa Graham. After e year's work, I hope it grabs her attention. I won't be sad or say anything bad about Bookends, if it doesn't. In the end, it's my writing and story that has to win the day. Fingers crossed. God bless everyone. Corey 😊
Good luck!
@@BookEndsLiterary Thank you. 😊
Do you think a debut author submitting to an agent their book not knowing the principle of double spacing on their book would cause a denial by the agent to look at their book?
9 times out of ten yes because it’s standard practice that your book is in double space as it’s easier for editors, etc to go in to read and comment on when editing the book. It’s a standard that if not done shows you have done little to no research in looking into what needs to be done and if you didn’t research that small info what else have you not done as a first time author in researching what needs to be done.
They will likely still look at the manuscript if the query interested them, but double space is generally preferred! That being said, the other replier is right that some agents might be more picky and see single-spacing as potentially indicating an inexperienced author
Hi there. What about when an agent wants samples in body of email? Formatting is so wonky! Thank you!! Love your channel!! So informative!