Agent Monday: Focused Writing Can Help Land an Agent

Posted on April 18, 2016 by marielamba

MP900178092 Happy Agent Monday, everyone! Spring is in full bloom here, and as a Literary Agent, I’m here to help writers’ careers blossom and grow. To that end, I’ve been scouring my query inbox hoping for the next great writer to grab my attention and inspire me to offer representation. Too often, though, queries lack focus, or the writing does. So today, I thought I’d spend a few moments pointing out how focus can help you land an agent.

Focus on your genre… What is it? Your book should fit into one genre, and meet (and exceed) the expectations of those readers.

Focus on the agents that represent your genre… If I say I do not rep high fantasy, then don’t send me a high fantasy query (or pretend that your high fantasy is really something different). Spend your time and energy querying a receptive audience.

Focus your query… Make it clear what your book’s genre is, what it is about, why you have picked this particular agent to query (see points 1 and 2 above!).

Focus your writing… Make every word count, every scene vital to the story, and every action important to advancing your plot. Whatever you promise the reader in the beginning pages, be sure that you deliver exactly that!

Scattershot queries, writing that doesn’t fit anywhere in particular on a book store shelf or that crosses disparate genres (like a middle grade novel with a serious romance, or a picture book with adult themes, or a supposed thriller with a slow literary pacing), or books that disappoint because they promise something that they then don’t deliver — will hurt your chances of getting an agent, and finding an audience.

So think it through. What is YOUR focus? Zero in on that, and others will soon be focusing on YOU.

*Marie is a Literary Agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City. To keep up with all her Agent Monday posts, subscribe to her site.

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Agent Monday: Query No-No’s

Posted on March 7, 2016 by marielamba

MP900386224 Happy Agent Monday, everyone! Spring has finally taken hold here in the Northeast. Time to make things grow – like your writing career. Chances are if you have found this page, you are looking for an agent to help you do just that. This can be a tough and competitive process for sure, but it can be even tougher if you are making query mistakes that seriously ruin your chances.

We writers (NB: I’m an agent and a writer, so I totally get it…) have wonderful imaginations, which means we can worry about SO MANY things. I didn’t put my title in caps, I double spaced my query, I didn’t use a comma after an “and.” Maybe that’s why I’m not getting any agent offers? Nope. That won’t stop an interested agent from being drawn in, so relax. Here are some No-No’s that WILL turn an agent off, though:

Addressing your query to every single agent at once… I get these all too often. The email address of every known agent is included. I immediately delete these – as does every agent ever known.

Your salutation is general or non existent. Dear Agent. Dear Sir or Madam. Hello. That’s another mass mailer. That’s a goodbye.

You say your book is a YA/adult/historical/paranormal/thriller/horror/romance/Christian/humorous tragedy. There is no such shelf in a bookstore, and this is a sign that you don’t know your genre or market, and that your work will reflect that.

You know your genre, but are sending it to agents that clearly say they are NOT representing that genre. Maybe you think your work will change their mind or, more likely, you haven’t bothered to look at agent guidelines to see what we do and do not want to see. This ain’t gonna help you.

You send your query letter as an attachment. Would you open attachments from someone you don’t know? Neither will we – we will delete it.

You direct the agent to an online link to see your query letter or sample pages. That won’t work either. You need to follow agent submission guidelines and this won’t be a part of those guidelines – I promise.

Your query letter is poorly written and riddled with errors. Now I’m not talking about a misplaced comma or that one typo you found, horrified, after you pressed send. I’m talking about truly terrible writing that is careless and shows that the writer isn’t taking their craft seriously.

Chances are pretty good that if you’ve found this page, you ARE doing your homework. You may be saying, hm, I’m doing none of these awful things. Then take heart! If you are following submission guidelines, writing with care, and targeting your genre well in your writing and in your submissions, you’ve already risen to the top of an agent’s inbox. You won’t be immediately deleted. Your query will be read. You have given your manuscript a fair shot.

And, here’s a tip you may find helpful: If I were in your shoes, I’d be sure to include newer agents at established agencies in my query lists. These are people who have all the support of their agency, who have access to any editor because they are certainly legit agents, and who are eagerly building their client lists.

And, hint hint, I just might be one of those agents.

*Marie is an Associate Agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City. To keep up with all her Agent Monday posts, subscribe to her site.

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Agent Monday: Twenty Turn Offs

Posted on September 1, 2014 by marielamba

Happy Labor Day everyone! Hope you do something restful today. We all work so hard – a break is definitely in order. Today, as we honor work, I thought I’d offer up a post on things that are not working for me in many of the queries and manuscripts I’ve received. The hope is that this will help you all be more productive and efficient in the future. Because queries to me include the first 20 pages of a manuscript pasted in, thought I’d list 20, count ’em, 20 turn offs. Here goes:

1. Misspellings, poor grammar, and misused punctuation.
2. Purple prose. Manuscripts that wax poetic about the fingers of dawn caressing the horizon, blah blah blah.
3. Mundane memoirs filled with “I took a trip,” “I have a weird family,” “I’m so cool and witty” stuff.
4. Manuscripts loaded with too much telling.
5. Queries that are full of unprofessional details – I have two cats. My husband is wonderful. I love shoes.
6. Dystopian stories – they all have this wall, and this underground society, and *cough cough* HUNGER GAMES *cough cough.*
7. Religious agendas or moral agendas.
8. Stories for children that talk down to kids.
9. Manuscripts for children written as if they were penned 100 years ago – as if the author has read only the classics and didn’t notice that kids and readers may have changed.
10. Manuscripts way over 100,000 words – especially children’s books!
11. Gore and extreme violence. NOT FOR ME.
12. Manuscripts that are just like a popular book already out there, only with a twist. Please be original.
13. Predictable plot lines. If I can read the first two pages and know exactly what’s going to happen, then it’s not for me.
14. Romance novels. While I like a touch of romance in fiction, I do not represent genre romance.
15. Hate-filled points of view, whether in fiction or memoir.
16. I’m weary of vampires, werewolves, zombies, fairies. Not my thing.
17. Weary of the “teen finds out on her birthday that she has special powers and is central to fighting an otherworldly war” thing.
18. Writers who aren’t serious about being pros. The business of getting published is a business – not a hobby.
19. Boring writing. Some writing is just a slog to read.
20. Queries that are simply unclear. If I read the query and find myself thinking, “Huh? This manuscript is about what???” – then I’m not going to even bother reading those 20 pages.

So that’s it! Twenty turn offs. So what DO I want? Well, you can read between the lines here. And look at my many past posts on this blog. Plus check out my guidelines here.

Wishing you all a very productive writerly fall.

*Marie is an Associate Agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City. To keep up with all her posts, subscribe to her site by clicking on the Follow link located on her page on the upper left margin.

Agent Monday: When I Won’t Respond

Posted on July 1, 2014 by marielamba

Happy Agent Monday… What? It’s TUESDAY? Okay, I know that. But I just spent a wonderful and very busy three days at the NJ SCBWI conference, so Agent Monday turned into Agent Recovery Day. (BTW, if you are looking for a great writer’s conference for kidlit, keep your eye on your regional SCBWI conferences. They always do a phenomenal job.) Today, I thought I’d cover something you should all know: I ALWAYS respond to every query I get, except for when the person querying me has made some serious errors. Errors that merit a delete instead. For example:

1. They have mass mailed the query to me
Signs of this? There is no Dear Ms. Lamba. No greeting at all. The entire query is generic with no reference as to why they specifically sent it to me. The email has clearly been sent to multiple agents at once (sometimes every agents’ email address is even there in the send-to field). Delete.

2. The query is sent as an attachment or has attachments
And I haven’t requested an attachment from this writer, as I might if I’d met them at a conference. Would you open this? I won’t. Delete.

3. The writer has sent this query to me before
Sometimes the writer changes the details of the query, or the title, or even the email it is sent from. I’ve even gotten the same query 3 or 4 times from a writer. Guess what? I remember. Delete and block sender.

4. The query has a greeting that is generic and/or wrong
Recent queries that have been sent to me have been addressed to Dear Sirs, Dear Agent, Dear Mr. DeChiara, Dear Publisher. Delete!

5. The query and/or querier scares the bejeebus out of me
Threatening language, creeps, etc. Delete, block and wash hands!!!

You get the idea. So, if you have queried me and haven’t heard back in a few months, and you haven’t done any of those crazy ass things I’ve mentioned here, then check your spam folder. Chances are you’ll see my response there. Because if you are not a crazy-ass querier, I will respond.

FYI, if you are querying me and I’ve met you before or you have a personal reference, then I might take a bit longer to respond to your query than the average time you’ll see on a site like querytracker. That’s because I know it will take a more personal response from me and I need to set aside time for that.

Happy July!

*Marie is an Associate Agent at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City. To keep up with all her posts, subscribe to her site by clicking on the Follow link located on her page on the upper left margin.

Agent Monday: Exciting Writing for 2014!

Posted on January 6, 2014 by marielamba

Happy Agent Monday, and HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! Yeah, I know, it’s been a while since this weekly column has popped up, but it’s been a few weeks filled with action on both the agent and writing sides of my life, plus there was the whole triple holiday thing with family and friends tossed in. What? Agents have a life? Well, sometimes… Anyhow, I know that with resolutions formed, many writers have vowed to get an agent for their manuscript. That means that I’ll be getting lots of queries from folks very soon. (It’s kinda like the way the gym suddenly gets VERY crowded every January.) So lets chat a moment about this resolution…

Are you vowing to get an agent in 2014? Are you going to send me a query very soon? Then there are two things I ask. Thing #1: Exciting writing! Make sure your manuscript and your query are the very best they can be before you even consider hitting send. And Thing #2: Please do your homework about every agent you send to, and follow my and each agent’s submission guidelines scrupulously.

Not doing Thing #1 or Thing #2 will mean a rejection, and that is NOT your goal for 2014.

I’m looking forward to lots of exciting things in 2014, including my client Carmella Van Vleet’s debut middle grade novel ELIZA BING IS (NOT) A BIG FAT QUITTER! (Holiday House Books, Feb. 14, 2014). This is a touching and hilarious book about a girl with ADHD who must prove to others (and herself) that she can stick with something to the very end. And it’s already been honored as a Junior Library Guild selection.

I’m also thrilled to announce that we’ve just inked a deal with Charlesbridge Publishers for TO THE STARS! a non-fiction picture book Carmella has co-authored with astronaut Kathy Sullivan about Kathy’s interests in science and the world, which led her to become the first American woman to walk in space. Talk about cool!

Another amazing thing I’m looking forward to? My client M.P. Barker’s stunning historical YA novel MENDING HORSES (Holiday House Books, spring 2014). Her elegant writing grips you in the drama of a family-friendly “Water for Elephants” about three outcasts – an Irish orphan, a roving peddler, and a girl hiding from an abusive father – who join a circus, help its damaged horses, and must battle violence to mend each other. Check out this wonderful trailer here for MENDING HORSES.

In my own writing, I’ve just finished up an article for Writer’s Digest Magazine that’ll be pubbed in their May issue, and I just might be working on a picture book of my own. I’ll keep you posted on that. Plus there are a few other exciting things simmering on the agent end of things that I’ll be able to announce soon…

So 2014 is off to an exciting start all around. Remember Thing #1 and Thing #2, and best wishes to you all for success and joy in your own writing in this brand new year!

*Marie is an Associate Agent at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City. To keep up with all her posts, subscribe to her site by clicking on the “Subscribe to Marie’s site here” link located on her page on the upper left margin.

Agent Monday: Quick Checklist for Submitting Writers

Posted on July 29, 2013 by marielamba

Happy summery Agent Monday, gang! Today, a quick checklist for submitting writers. Are you in the process of querying agents? Or about to be? Then this post is definitely for you. It’s a quickie post today (hey, it’s summer, right?) Hope this list is helpful. (Note: I’m talking about FICTION submissions here, since non-fiction is a little bit different.) Here goes:

1. Complete your manuscript. You can’t query with just an idea or a few chapters when it comes to fiction.

2. Edit it to perfection! You don’t really get second chances – so don’t just use agents as sounding boards as to whether your book is good enough. Give us your very best! Also, don’t expect the agent to bite on a rough manuscript just cuz the idea is pretty cool. And don’t think that it’s up to editors at publishing houses to do all the basic editing for you. Nuh-uh. You must deliver a manuscript that is as perfect as possible. Use beta readers. Put the manuscript through your critique group. Hire an editor if needed.

3. Know the genre you are writing for and where your book fits in. Be able to tell the agent exactly who the audience is for this book. Mainstream? Middle grade contemporary? Young adult thriller? You need to know. And you need to also deliver a manuscript with the right point of view for that audience, and one that runs the proper length for that genre. Get that wrong, and you hurt your chances.

4. Write the perfect query letter. Need tips on that? There’s plenty of info out there for you to gather on it, plus scroll through my Agent Monday posts for more specific do’s and don’ts.

5. Research agents that actually represent what you write! Don’t waste your time on folks that aren’t interested in your type of manuscript or who aren’t currently accepting clients. Do your research. The Internet is your friend!

6. Follow the guidelines. Please! Do a search to learn more about your agent list, pull up their guidelines and follow them. Not following them can earn an instant rejection. Trust me on that.

7. Send out queries in waves. Don’t hit 50-100 agents at once. Start with, say, 10. If you are getting 100% form rejections back, then perhaps you need to improve your query letter. Then send out another wave. Starting to get requested pages or full manuscripts? Then you are on the right track.

8. Keep writing! Writers write. Don’t let the query process stop you cold. It’s something that should go on while you are also working on your next piece of fiction.

Happy querying, and good luck!