Pub Rants

Category: requesting material

Because It’s May

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: It’s going to be in the 80s for the weekend! I’m so ready for that kind of weather.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? ROCKET MAN by Elton John

And Springtime can bring out the best in all of us.

Every year I participate in Brenda Novak’s On-line Auction for Diabetes Research. This is a cause close to my heart. My best friend, brother-in-law, and my six-year old nephew all have juvenile diabetes. This is personal for me.

So, I’m always delighted to support Brenda in this charity event, which happens every May. And although I can’t really compete with Celine (did you see that auction item!!!!), I am offering something new this year for a very lucky highest bidder.

Not only am I auctioning a 30-page read with a 5-day turnaround, the auction winner also gets a 30-minute follow-up phone convo with moi.

No really, this is exciting….

And if the winner skypes, we can even do the follow up call via video.

I’ll even put on lipstick and sit Chutney on my lap to say hello as well.

Really, does it get any better than that? Don’t answer that.

But I’m not the only one offering cool items. Sara is also doing a read and a follow-up call.

Jamie Ford is going to buy you lunch and personally show you around Seattle’s China Town where his novel Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet is set.

NLA author and former ICM agent Maggie Marr (who writes for TV by the way) is offering a screen play evaluation. She knows her stuff and here’s your chance if you are a screenwriter.

Anita, my assistant, will critique your query letter. Sherry Thomas is also jumping in on the query game. She helped Courtney Milan and look where that got Courtney.

Miranda Kenneally and Simone Elkeles are critiquing YA manuscripts. Laurence who is currently on submission and runs a terrific writer critique group here in Denver is also jumping in on the critique action as is Janice Hardy of the wonderful Healing Wars Trilogy. These folks are top-notch on giving feedback. You don’t want to miss out.

And there are lots of autographed author copies to boot.

And if you aren’t interested in me, lots of agents have donated good stuff. Jessica Faust will be your Agent for a Day (go Jessica!) and Jim McCarthy will evaluate a proposal (and I can vouch that he’s a smart dude). Fellow Denverite Kate Testerman is in the game as well as my nemesis (which I say laughingly as we have similar tastes and are always vying for the same projects) Ginger Clark. And you don’t want to pass on getting a read from Barbara Poelle!

In Romance, I adore Kevan Lyon, Natasha Kern, Deidre Knight, Elaine Spencer, and Elaine English so a couple of other good agents to keep in mind.

What are you waiting for?

Ack! I did not mean to leave out Tiffany Riesz who is offering a personalized love scene. Rock on!

What’s In Our Full Manuscript Queue

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: This is a first for me. CBS films has a dedicated FB page for LEGEND the Movie. And you get first peek at the just released cover. Sweet.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? MISSIONARY MAN by Eurythmics

This is actually a good question. A quick look shows that we have 8 full manuscripts in the queue to be read. And here’s where they fall:

6 titles are Young Adult (breakdown by genre, 3 fantasies, 2 paranormals, 1 contemporary)

1 title is adult literary fiction

1 title is adult women’s fiction

We just sent responses to an adult fantasy that we passed on as well as a middle grade title that had several agents interested but ended up not being quite right for us.

Of the 3 clients Sara just signed: adult SF novel, adult Historical Romance, and Paranormal YA.

And as a bonus, here is Kristin as a talking head yet again. This time I’m reading a short excerpt from the Philip K Dick nominee SF novel SONG OF SCARABAEUS for the awards ceremony last Friday. The sound is not the best so you’ll probably have to turn up your volume all the way up to remotely hear me. Warning, this scene will probably hook you in!

The author Sara Creasy thought I looked quite spiffy!

Query While The Querying Is Hot!

by Kristin Nelson

Status: Chutney is enjoying our new couch—as am I. What a nice chaise section on the left side of the couch! Perfect for reading.

What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? SUPERSTITION by Stevie Wonder

And this is definitely good for authors. Last year I have to admit, Sara and I didn’t take on that many new clients.

This week, Sara signed 3 new authors with terrific projects.

On top of that, the queries are just rocking right now. In the last 2 weeks, we’ve requested 9 full manuscripts. Yep, you read that right. 9!

I guess query while the querying is hot!

Best Query EVER!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: An illusion of spring time here in Denver. It’s going to be in the 60s several days in a row. Oh, here comes spring fever.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? NOWHERE FAST by Smiths

As you folks know, recently we did a big computer conversion here at the office. As part of the conversion, we’ve been migrating to a new email/CRM program that we are quite excited about. As part of the process, we’ve been cleaning out old saved email folders from our query inbox.

Well, Anita had a folder where she saved some of the best email queries NLA has ever received. And I’m sure you guys realize that I’m using the word “best” euphemistically here.

We unearthed one that is just too good not to share.

This query was for a memoir about the author’s life long relationship with his um… his um… his Johnson, summer sausage, ding dong, one-eyed monster.

Folks, I can’t make this stuff up.

His had a separate personality and was the cause of his interesting career (and no, it wasn’t in THAT business).

Best yet? It was time to let him out of the closet and present him to the world in the first book of a trilogy. Yes, you read that right–a trilogy.

The only question that remained, according to the query letter, was whether the world was ready for it.

Only you, dear blog readers, can answer that question!

Sure Enough—Killed Off In First 5 Pages

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: My To Do list was ridiculous and I didn’t even finish one item on it. In good news, some other fun stuff happened.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? ONE AND ONLY by Teitur

I actually typed up yesterday’s blog entry while at the office. I headed home and then met with a friend for dinner. When back at home, I picked up my kindle so I could take 30 minutes to review some sample page submissions. (On a sidenote, this process is pretty typical for me. I only allocate about 30 minutes to review submissions. Now if something grabs me, then I’ll go beyond the allocated time frame. That’s how I know something is good if I’m “staying up” to finish reading the sample. I’ll ask for the full the next day).

But back to my story. I pick up my kindle and pop open the first submission—a young adult work. Sure enough, the main protagonist dies within the first five pages.

Considering I just literally blogged about that hours before, the irony was not lost on me. Y’all will be happy to know that I didn’t stop reading the submission. It was actually a rather cool premise so I did read the sample pages in its entirety (so about 30 pages). Ultimately I decided to pass on asking for a full. I didn’t connect to that main character and considering she is already dead, I felt like that was a rather crucial ingredient to make this novel work for me despite it’s rather unique setting and concept.

I figured blog readers wouldn’t mind hearing about this. As for queries that have yesterday’s outlined trends, we don’t dismiss them out of hand by any means. But it certainly has to go the extra distance in its uniqueness so that we’ll ask for sample pages.

So keep that in mind.

Age Is Just A Number

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF! Getting ready for Book Expo the week after next.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? QUESTION by Rhett Miller

Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of queries from young people—and we know this because these writers are highlighting their young age in the query letters they are sending us.

I have a couple of thoughts on this.

1. No matter how you spin it, highlighting an age in your query just doesn’t come across as professional. Here at the agency, we don’t care how hold you are; we only care about how talented a writer you might be. If you have a good query with an interesting novel, we’ll ask for pages whether you are 15 or 85.

In fact, just last year we offered representation to a 15-year old writer. Now I didn’t know that when I called to offer representation. It hadn’t been mentioned in any of her submitted materials. In fact, we had a great phone convo and she actually didn’t bring up the topic of her age until the very end of the phone conference. She brought it up because she needed to know how it would work since she was under the legal age of 18. The answer to that question, by the way, is nothing really changes except that her parent or guardian must co-sign the agency agreement and if the book sells, the publishing contract.

Ends up she had several agent offers of representation and went with another agency so we didn’t end up signing her. (Side note: Her YA novel did sell though as I saw the announcement on Deal Lunch.)

But my point here is that her age didn’t matter; I would have still signed her on as a client.

So this makes me speculate that young writers like to specify their tender years for a couple of possible reasons:

1. Maybe it will impress us that they’ve finished a novel so young?

I find it impressive that anyone finishes a novel quite frankly! And I’m only going to be impressed if I offer for rep and then discover that you have that much talent and you are only 15 because when I read the sample pages, I couldn’t tell.

2. Maybe we’ll go easier on them while reading the pages?

Nope. We don’t grant leniency because of age and cut you slack while reading your sample pages. You’re either ready or you’re not and that’s going to show on the page via a clear demonstration of writing mastery and talent.

And ultimately, I think your writing talent should speak for itself—regardless of your age. So my advice? Don’t mention it.

Sooner Rather Than Later Please

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Yesterday got away from me. Sorry for the blog silence.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? JUST SAY YES by Snow Patrol

I do think writers have a valid beef regarding how long it takes for literary agents to respond to a full manuscript. I’ve heard horror stories of writers receiving rejection letters a year later—even two years later. Some writers have never received a response. I sympathize as that’s rather ridiculous. Here at NLA, we really do try and turn around full manuscripts in 4 weeks if humanly possible. In our full manuscript request letter, we say we can take up to 2 months to respond just to hedge our bets.

When we send out our full request, we also ask writers to keep us in the loop regarding any other agent interest and that includes offers of representation. Why? Because we don’t ask for an exclusive time to read and if we are going to invest the time, we want a shot at it potentially. Who wants to waste time over the weekend reading a novel that’s no longer available because another agent has snatched it up?

I mean, good for the writer for getting an offer so quickly but yesterday, I was a little annoyed because that’s exactly what happened. We spent time this weekend reading a novel that was of interest to us only to receive an email first thing Monday morning saying the work was no longer available as the author had accepted an offer elsewhere.

Now I guess that the offer could have come in over the weekend and the writer did notify us as soon as possible but it’s rare for agents to offer over a weekend. Not impossible but it’s not the usual mode. Also, if the writer thinks other agents will potentially be interested, why not find that out before committing to an offer? At least give those with a full a chance to respond (and I get that this is completely self-interest on my part but it is my rant after all…). In this case, we only had the submission for 3 weeks.

So, that was a lot of hours taken away from client material and other projects that I’m not getting back and will need to make up this week by working late every night until I’m caught back up.

Makes me grumpy. Okay. I’ll get off it now and move on.

In-Depth 30-Page Critique Once A Year

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I got one major contract off my desk and on to somebody else’s at the publishing house. Always a great feeling.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? SOMETIMES YOU CAN’T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN by U2

Yesterday I was explaining that agents don’t often have time to give detailed feedback because that would entail a critique of the manuscript and doing so is time-consuming.

Well, I should have clarified. Once a year, I always take the time to do exactly that for one lucky auction winner.

I read the 30 pages twice. First read to familiarize myself with the submission and the second read to actually write in-depth critique feedback in track changes of the Word doc. Just like I do for my clients when I read before submitting their material.

So if you want in on that action, it’s time to head over to Brenda Novak’s yearly auction to raise money for diabetes research. My critique page is here. Since I have a good friend plus a brother–in-law with diabetes, this auction is close to my heart.

Happy bidding!

And don’t forget to check out some other great items like a read/critique from Sara Megibow, lunch with Jamie Ford, and if you are a Nathan Bransford fan, he’s offering a critique with a follow up consultation.

4 Submissions

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I actually caught up on quite a few things sitting on my desk so I’m feeling like it was a productive day.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? IF I HAD EYES by Jack Johnson

As I mentioned, Sara and I have tried to do a lot of reading as of late. Since you guys seem to like these reports, I don’t mind sharing although I personally don’t think they help you blog readers all that much. So much rides on the writing.

But anyway, last night I read four different sample pages.

Submission 1—Was a nicely written work but didn’t feel big enough for what I’m looking for in women’s fiction.

Submission 2—I’m a pass because the work was not my cup of tea but I thought Sara might like it so I sent on to her (romance).

Submission 3—Liked it. So did Sara. Fantasy genre. We asked for a full. Author’s name did not indicate gender (big grin here). Even if we are looking to add some more male authors to our client list, if the writing isn’t there, it’s a no go.

Submission 4—YA. Great concept. Didn’t find myself getting attached to the characters or the story. I did read all of the 30 page submission as I kind of hoped it would eventually grab me. I can see another agent liking it though. Told the author so.

Not sure if I’ll get any more reading done tonight as I’ve been reading a client manuscript that has me really excited so I can’t wait to get home to continue reading it.

Submission Cycles

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: It was a quiet day. NYC socked by snow. I imagine most editors didn’t make it into the office and just worked from home. Perfect excuse for a reading day.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? KANDI by One eskimO

You guys are going to hate today’s blog entry. After all, it’s hard enough to catch an agent’s attention in general so you definitely don’t want to hear that we have “modes” But hey, I try and share the unvarnished truth so here it is.

Agents read in cycles. There are periods of time where the workload is so overwhelming because of current client stuff, finding new talent is the last thing on our minds. We get behind in reading queries, sample pages, fulls because we aren’t reading incoming submissions on a regular basis.

Then the reverse can be true. When everything is running smoothly and 6 clients haven’t all delivered their fulls in a one week span of time (grin), then suddenly we are hot to find something new, something exciting, something that just reaffirms how much we love this job. So we’ll tackle the slush like it’s on fire.

Guess what mode we are in right now? Yep, now is a good time to submit.