Agent Interviews

They have not reviewed my website.
Because you experienced and write about an event, doesn’t mean it is artful.
Writing is a craft.
Practice practice practice.
Read read read.
Edit edit edit.
Read your work aloud.
It takes time to read.
No means no.

We prefer a five page sample in the body of the email for longer works, and picture book texts can be copied in entirety. No attachments.

They submit stories outside my wishlist. They tell me everything except what their story is about. They don't list genre, market and word count.

With QM, this really isn't an issue. It is all formulated. Not understanding the limits, formula, and rules of a writer's chosen genre is the #1 problem that causes me to reject people.

Sometimes writers don't have an understanding of where their book fits in the market. An author needs to present to the agent a compelling case for why they should take on that book, and how they could sell it to publishers. A large part of that, for an agent, is understanding where the book fits in the market so they can find publishers with gaps for that type of fiction on their list. So making sure the genre of your book is correct and clearly outlined at the top of the query letter is really important, as is finding appropriate comparison authors.

They send stuff we don't handle, like poetry, scripts, and stories for young children. They fail to include and email or a stamped addressed envelope that works in the UK. They address us as Sir/Madam or To Whom It May Concern. And for printed submissions, they're often hard to read because of single line spacing, a small font, and being printed on both sides of the paper. Not to mention being wrapped in parcel tape that means opening the package involves serious wrestling.

Too many authors A) send their queries to my personal email rather than my query inbox, or B) don't include the materials requested on our website. I ask to see your first five pages (for fiction) or pieces of your proposal (for nonfiction) because it helps me make my best decision about your book, and if you leave them off your query, I can't objectively compare what you've sent against the dozens of other queries I see that day.

Ignoring it. There are multiple ways that's evident, including:
Sending out a cattle call ("Hello, I have a ...") instead of personalizing the query.
Pitching in an area I don't represent (for readers older than teens, for example)
Hurling multiple emails for multiple projects (pitch only one, please. See above answer)
Typos, misspellings, wrong names in address.
Sending an email, followed rapidly by a correction email because the sender discovered typos, or sent the wrong version, or had another idea and changed the ms, etc.
Sending attachments, even though I note explicitly that emails with attachments will be deleted without being read.

Asking me first if it's OK to submit (thereby causing me one more stage in an already labour-intensive process); sending me work in genres I don't cover; sending me work from the States on the basis that no one in the US understands it because it's too literary or intelligent; sending a blurb rather than a synopsis (I need to know the actual whole story); apologising in advance.

Send a picture book when we are only looking at middle-grade fiction, etc.

Submitting genres we don't represent

Forgetting to include the most important information: the queryants' name, the title of their manuscript, their genre, their word count. Not writing a clear pitch or synopsis. Please do not hard sell your work or denigrate the work of other writers.

They send me projects for genres that I don't handle, and they submit before the work is ready.

Not following guidelines.

Oftentimes manuscripts come in far under or far above normal word count range. It is important to check on what the normal word count range is for each genre and reading age. Another common mistake I see is from writers that do not commit themselves to writing a full query letter, which makes for anemic information and difficulty in knowing whether or not to request a manuscript based on a query letter.

Huge information dumps--unbelievably long explanatory emails. Terrible writing. Poor spelling. Addressing a query to another agent and sending it to me. Multiple submitting with cc's to everyone else so we can all see who received the submission. General stupidity. People don't do their homework--you have to spend some time researching who you submit to. There is tons of information available, so there is no excuse for being a lazy bum! Again, Brevity. Simplicity. Clarity.

I receive submissions via email and whilst I will always still read and respond to these, it's much easier if you use our website submissions portal. I also receive submissions for genres I don't represent - such as children's books, poetry and screenplays.

I’m generally a good match for children’s and YA novels and nonfiction and the occasional picture book. It’s rare that I take on a project for grownups.

They send in unsolicited materials rather than queries. They waste space repeating back to me something from my website rather than sharing what's special about their work. You have such a brief window of attention with a query, make every word count.

We do not accept attachments to emails. We get a lot of email attachments. The query MUST be in the body of the email.

Don't follow directions on the website. Submit to multiple agents in the agency.

It varies, but the biggest issue I see is authors submitting to me personally without invite or referral, without going through Query Manager. And I know my QM has been closed to submissions, but it's because my client base has kept me very busy. I assume that any querying author wants the assurance that if they get picked up by an agent, they will be a priority. Queries, as frustrating as it is to those in the trenches, come after client obligations. The authors I work with have to take precedence.

They don't check the Agency's website to find out if we are currently accepting submissions.
They send scripts or plays, which we don't accept.
They send off-topic manuscripts to us, e.g. children's books, which we don't represent.

Sending queries for picture books, which I don't represent.

Nothing that actually bothers me. I'm grateful to receive interesting queries.

They don't bother to read the requests we have for what we want. They are too obsessed with being "original" and not enough with understand what we want in the form we want it, and why that might be. They are, in some ways, so focused on their own goals, that they don't stop to think that others who are here to help them need to translate what an author has written into a form an editor can use to convince colleagues this is a book that will MAKE THEM ALL MONEY -- AND, is well written at the same time.

The guidelines clearly state that we want proposals submitted as Word doc attachments rather than in the body of the email. It's difficult for us to make comments if we don't have a Word document for which we can use Track Changes.

About the process? I guess they sometimes don't pay attention to how many chapters I request when looking at opening pages. It's three chapters. Just three.

They forget to introduce themselves, spoil the book in the query letter, or reach out to me without doing any research, resulting in me receiving manuscripts in genres that I do not represent.

Simply put, not following the stated rules and guidelines.

So many people miss out telling me what their book actually is - it's very difficult to assess whether something is working if you don't know what the author was trying to do.
Beyond that, I think it's mostly just not reading the guidelines properly, our form works for the majority of submissions and is fairly self-explanatory, but we do have instructions for when the form isn't suitable and people rarely follow those properly.

They submit to more than one of our agents at a time. It is best to pick one, query them, and if rejected, then feel free to submit to another person at our agency. They don't include the requested 5 sample pages with their query. Generally, people often just don't follow the directions outlined on our website for how to submit.

I think they believe with all agents that if they send good work, they should get the offer. An agent has to balance so many complex business decisions and think very selectively about taking on new clients. If I said yes to every good project I've ever seen I would have about a thousand clients by now.

Including an attachment, or submitting in a genre I don't represent.

I often see writers mislabel the genre of their query in order to submit a project for consideration in a category I don't represent. I understand the urge to tweak the label so that you can get your query material in front of a larger number of agents, but it's not very effective. I can tell from the summary or writing sample when a genre label is incorrect and if my inbox is closed to a specific category, it does mean that I'll pass even if the concept sounds interesting. Likewise, if I don't typically represent a given genre, that's because I don't have the background to effectively represent that kind of project or relationships with editors who acquire those types of books, and calling it a different genre won't change my ability to sell the book.

They don't give a clear description of their book