How We Read Queries
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Jessica and James sit down with Senior Agent Kim Lionetti to discuss how we all read queries, sample pages, and synopses. Also, what the difference between these three things are and why they're important to an author when submitting their work to literary agents!
To learn more, visit our blog!
bookendsliterar...
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.
--
Since interning at BookEnds as an undergrad in the summer of 2015, James has (basically) never left. He's just continuously level-up-ed inside of BookEnds. Now he is the Literary Assistant and Social Media Manager for the team. He’s been a reader since his mom gave him the first A Series of Unfortunate Events book and ordered the sequels regularly through Scholastic book orders.
James is currently growing his own list and is actively seeking submissions in adult literary and upmarket fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense. He is also accepting submissions in all sub-genres of Young Adult fiction, and is actively looking for Picture Books that make him laugh.
--
With a client list including women's fiction, mystery, young adult and romance, Kim enjoys working on a wide range of books. She's currently eager to grow her list in the areas of women's fiction, suspense, and young adult. Most especially, as an Autism mom, she is dedicated to representing the stories and voices of individuals with special needs and their families.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Kim currently resides in New Jersey with her son (knock-knock jokester extraordinaire), daughter (budding Francophile and resident drama queen), husband (80s aficionado and sports trivia master) and Winston the twenty-pound cat.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jamerrson
Connect with Kim: BookEndsKim
I like this topic and glad a reject isn’t decided by synopsis alone. Some of us can write a full novel and just can’t tell it well in a synopsis.
It is still likely you need the query and synopsis to be good as well as the manuscript. Agents haven't time to read all manuscripts so they have to make a judgement call off the query and your first few paragraphs of the manuscript.
Very helpful about including the full plot in the synopsis and 2 to 3 pages. Thank you.
Oh, a 3 page synopsis made me chuckle, I wrote a 3 pager and was told to reduce it to one. 3 would feel luxurious!
I would love to see a video on simultaneous/mass submissions and their etiquette...
I thought the query and synopsis were so fun to write! I felt like I was giving my novel a good shine up! I’ll have to submit it here... still working on my queries.
I find the whole dynamic between Author - Agent - Editor - Publisher so interesting. Because you basically have 3 Layers of people who judge how good your book is who couldn't write a good book themselves to save their lives. It's a little like a Sports Coach and an Athlete. The Coach could never Win a Medal but he can help the Athlete to get one. I imagine this is similar. You, as an Agent, can't come up with a good Idea, but you can Judge if an Idea is good. And then of course the Editor is just a huge help to the Author to get all the technical stuff right. Very cool. I never thought about that before i started writing. (This is of course Conjecture. But i would imagine if you knew exactly how to write a Bestseller, you'd just do it.)
Actually, this process does not guarantee anything. It is not really much like the athlete and coach relationship, which is based on creating excellence. The book industry talks about product. The three layers of people winnow the influx to identify formula that sells for a predetermined shelf life.
Sooooo helpful...thank you! I love your TH-cam videos...I giggle a lot, you guys are awesome...I'm not quite ready to submit yet, but you are at the top of my list...please remember my name😙
Good name!
You always have such tasty food in your videos! I want to reach through the screen and grab one of those cookies...
We like food :)
@@BookEndsLiterary So do I
Interesting to see how you feel about synopsis. I don’t feel as up tight about doing one as I used to.
Sometimes they help spot small errors in your actualy story.
If I'm considering a book it's based off the first 2 paragraphs, never even read the blurb (query) so guess if I were an agent, I would be going off those 2 paragraphs first.
“So.” You are the judges. 😱
Very 👍🏾 good
Do you guys think agents occasionally reject books that they like simply because they feel they will not be able to get a publisher to bite and sell the thing? Maybe the wordcount is too massive or the genre mash up is too weird for the current market?
Also, in regard to this video, does genre ever play a role in the order you look at things submitted? Like if it is a scary novel in the horror genre, do you go right to the synopsis for a quick check on the plot set up to see if it actually does sound like it will be a good, nerve-wracking read late at night or does it all still fall on the query letter?
I'm thinking my questions may be subjective agent to agent but it would be cool to hear from people in the business anyway.
Thanks for the informative upload. These help a lot. They really do.
Take care.
Jeff
Yes, that is for sure a huge factor in what an agent takes on. We typically ask ourselves two questions: do we love it? do we think we can sell it?
Also, can't speak for everyone but some of us surely read by genre. James will sometimes be in the mood for just a YA novel, and read all of his YA queries. A lot of this is subjective, though.
Yeah, I figured it would be unique agent to agent. I bet it makes the day more fun to pick a genre and wade through them all in one go. That actually sounds fun.
Thanks for the fast reply.
Jeff
I wonder how many great books have been rejected due to poor queries.🤔
Not many. I imagine good writers produce good queries, generally.
Mk, so i absolutely need a synopsis before submitting my query to yous guys. Good to know.
Love the cookies. Also, great tips here. Sharing this one.
I am that author that can not write a query. I have studied and watched everything on query writing. However, I am also that reader that doesn't read the back of book.
I respect an agent who doesn't ask for a sample, but how do you find the author's voice from a query letter?
Helpful stuff. Looking to try again with another book and I'm glad I found this channel!
on a side note, I gave up sugar and bread three weeks ago and those cookies are killing me.
Glad we can help
@@MrDanroche We're sorry
Did you send first book to everyone? Or self-publish it for the experience?
Write Heroes I finally found a home for it with a smaller publishing house. Hoping to gain knowledge because I have a few more novels I’m trying to tighten up. My main goal is to find an agent
Nothing wrong with starting with “so”. All the greats begin with a consistent opening.
- Thor Skywalker: “Now”
- Mauler (in his non-rant videos): “Hello, ladies and gentlemen”
- The Holy Sword Ekusukaribā: “Fool!” or “My legend begins in the 12th Century!”
I am confused. You rarely read the synopsis, why do you ask for one?
As a new author this video confused me. There seems to be inconsistencies in the way they read queries. One says I never read the synopsis, next minute is sometimes I will if, or if I like the sample, I'll read the synopsis, ?!?
Every agent reads queries differently, and it goes to show you that there is no *exact* system.
They meant: they read the query first. If they don't like that, they read nothing more.
If they like the query, they request the manuscript and the synopsis. They will then read the first few pages or first chapter, if they like that, they will read the synopsis, if they like the synopsis, they will read entire manuscript(or more of it at least) if they like that, they will aske to be your agent.
That's how it normally works. Some of their comments weren't so clear.
@@ClintLoweTube Thanks. Now that I understood 👌
For the longest time I thought the synopsis and sample were the same thing, just interchangeable terminology. Oops, haha. Great vid, thank you!!
Glad to clear that up!
out of curiosity, how often do agents get turned down for their submissions to books they want to publish? Does this happen?
Nearly every single book has a collection of publisher rejections.
Can the chapter you submit with your query be another chapter rather than your first chapter?
We think it should be your first chapter. We want to be introduced to your book in a way that would hook us to want more.
I think I could accomplish that either way. One of my editors from school suggested I submit one of my later chapters as a short story with zero need for context of the story at large. Although within context it made me cry at the end. ( My writing can make myself laugh 😃 or cry 😢 )
@@Slaterybooker that's bad advice if you want a novel published traditionally. You can submit a chapter to a short story mag, but will likely hurt your chance of publishing the novel later. Just ensure your first chapter is awesome.
Well, all of this time, I thought that the query, blurb, and synopsis were the same things! Why do some agents /agencies clump these terms as *'so?'*
I wonder if you would reject Hemmingway because he spelt your name wrong?
Do you accept short stories if so what is the word count for this Agency. Thanks
"So" Trophe?
Jessica, If you don't read the synopsis, why make us struggle through the writing of it?
I, for one, don't like jumping through hoops if it's for nothing.
It's not very considerate of the Writer.
We have videos on the channel about why synopsis writing is a crucial skill. Also, remember Jessica is but one agent.
So, Basically, wether your book gets a shot depends upon the agent's sanity- or lack of- on that day?
That your face is stapled on her dart board...and the staff cheers when her dart hits dead center?
and that there is no subjective system in their selection process... just wether they have had their daily "fix" yet ??? :)
How cruel to leave those cookies in view.
So...please remember my name!
You are so mean with those cookies. Like... seriously. Bad people. But I'm actually more of a cake person. I'm going to make some tea, grab a piece of cake and watch some more of your videos. I'm trying to get into the query-writing-mood so binge-watching your videos will hopefully do the trick. And everything is better with cake, right?
Image if your book ends spelled "book"IIIIIIIIIIII"ends" instead of "bo"IIIIIIIIIII"ok"
You're welcome :)
I get a kick outta the way the cookies are opened up toward the camera.
I found the bit on the varying length of the synopsis very interesting. A while back on Twitter I saw a conversation (which wasn't exactly an argument, but there was a lot of mansplaining) between two writers where the male writer said that the definition of a synopsis was that it had to be less than two pages, or something like that. Apparently not, if they used to be as long as you mentioned in this video! Lol.
Shorter is usually better tho.
They are so silly and immature. How can these flies decide on books value?
Thanks! We seem to be doing it pretty successfully. Best of luck to you.
@@BookEndsLiterary I don't have a book to publish but you are all lowbrow.
So, if a person does not write queries well, their skill and talent at book writing is irrelevent. Hey, the important gate-keepers are busy!