Warning: Only For Those Who Can Handle The Truth

Thought I'd post some figures for everyone. This post will be short and sweet, but I think I'm going to try for an end-of-the-month roundup every month. We'll see how it goes....

Total number of electronic queries* received since January 11: 1,622**



Total number of requested partials since January 11: 82 (40 waiting to be read)

Total number of fulls from requested partials since January 11: 6

Of the six fulls:
- I offered two representation (super "Squee" because I love them both!)
- My boss offered one representation (and they signed with her)
- I rejected one
- Two are currently waiting for me to read them


So, I'm not a numbers person...but I suppose it can be broken up like this:

Of electronic queries received, 5% turned into partial requests.

Of the partial requests (doing this out of 42 since 40 have yet to be read), 14% turned into full requests.

Which means, with the current numbers, out of all the queries sent, less than one percent receive an offer of representation.

And this is just in four months***.

The numbers are harsh - definitely won't lie. But I think it goes to show that this is why it's so incredibly important to ensure that you not only follow submission guidelines (so it's not an automatic rejection) but also ensure your writing is strong, your work is polished, and that your voice stands out within the crowd.

I didn't post this to depress anyone or say you should throw in the towel - there are 40 partials sitting in my 'to read' folder and who knows if all, some or none will be great (I'm shooting for all - that would be pretty fantastic). But I did want you to see the numbers as they are at this point in time.


I think sometime this week I'll do a partial roundup of reason why I did/did not request the full...thoughts?

~K

*I didn't include USPS queries, because I don't keep numbers on those. If I had to guess, based on the stack I have here that are queries we've received since last week, I'd 'guesstimate' about 700 since January 11.

**Yes, that's right. 1-6-2-2. 1,622. I really didn't think I had read that many. Wow. I know other agencies get way more but still...I'm the only one that reads slush here for the two of us.

***Why since January 11th? Because I deleted all rejected queries from before then (my e-mail has only so much space).

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Contest Crazy / Intern Mania / Um...other stuff?

Housekeeping!

• Super Awesome Skype Contest: So the fabulous Suzie Townsend and I saw each other at a conference this weekend and were discussing our upcoming schedules. Unfortunately, between the two of us, we feel we can't come to a fair decision (aka watch the entire video rather than just a few seconds of each) without taking some time out to do so. Therefore, we will have our contest winners posted on Monday May 3.
• Internship Opportunity: I owe a lot to my former mentors (Caren, Elana, Joanna and Nancy), so after deliberating with my boss, we agreed to take on one intern for the summer. It's general interning tasks: reading slush, reading submissions, reading proposals (do you get the drift here? Lots of reading). For a full outline of what to do / what's involved, check out our Internship Post. However, a quick cut/paste of the general description: Lowenstein Associates is a full-service literary agency that handles non-fiction, children's and adult fiction books. We are currently looking for one intern to read slush, write reader's reports for requested submissions, and general agency/office tasks. Must be organized, articulate and confident in correspondence. Interns may have the opportunity to attend industry related events. Ten hours a week, preferably split between two days. Some take-home reading/evaluation will be required.
• May Contest: book giveaway. I have a lot of things coming up (BEA, conference, a couple guest contests, guest interviews (see next bullet), and I feel that a book giveaway would just be appropriate during a busy time so I can continue to give the appropriate time and detail required to everything. I can promise they'll be ARCs (Advanced Reader's Copies = aka, not out yet so you get them before everyone else!) and you'll have your pick. So stay tuned, because that will be announced on Monday, May 10.
• Write Water Cooler: I love me some Write Water Cooler people. :) So I've agreed to do a Summer Spree. What's that? It means that Absolute Write will be opening up an Ask the Agent thread (details to be released sometime in the near future) on May 12. Basically it's just a thread where you post questions, and I answer them. Or so I'm told... ;-)
  
• Blogging! Anything in particular you'd like to see here? Info on books? Questions? What do you want out of this blog. I love the hands-on effect so far and want to keep it up. So if there's something you wanna see, comment below!

That's all for now!

~K

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When you get the offer - what do you do?

Say "yes!" of course, duh.

Kidding...sort of...

Clearly every aspiring author would be thrilled at the offer of representation; however, I think it's best to keep a level head and just focus on how you and that agent who made the offer can work well together for your writing career.

Hannah Moskowitz, author of BREAK, is awesome.......................
(and a DBag! - she loves it) and was kind enough to guest blog today on a really important topic.

So here it is, straight from someone who has received "the phone call" before - Hannah's take on.............






What You Should Do When Offered Representation


I’d been querying for a year when I received my first offer, and my immediate reaction was exactly the same as it was when I got an offer from my second agent, and exactly the same as it was when I got both the phone calls telling me I’d sold my books. I forgot everything I’d been working towards, everything I’d wanted, and everything I’d researched long enough for my brain to scream OH MY GOD I AM NOT READY.

Call me crazy all you want, but I’ve seen this exact same reaction in a dozen writers, even the ones who are cool as cucumbers while they’re querying. The second an offer comes in, they freak completely out. They don’t know what to do. They can’t write an email. They can’t talk about it without bursting into tears. This is all very stressful, no one understands them, they can’t POSSIBLY discuss it with anyone because they’re just far too harried. Writers get offered representation and all of a sudden decide that it’s the worst thing that ever happened to them.

I get it.

Getting an offer is scary in a lot of ways, especially if you get more than one. You have to weigh all your options and--scary!--reject someone. And this is not the time when you want to make a bad decision.


So, to hopefully keep you from freaking the fuck out (and driving everyone crazy), I have five guidelines for you.

1. DON’T COMPLAIN. Look around and realize that the entire world of unagented writers would love to be in your shoes. Yeah, it’s stressful. But if you have to have a problem, this is a pretty excellent one to have.
2. PLAY SECRETARY. The first thing you do when you get an offer is email the agent and schedule a phone call sometime in the next few days. Then, track down EVERYONE who has a partial or a full of the manuscript. Tell them you want to make a decision in a week. This gives everyone time to read. Schedule phone calls with any agent who’s willing. Keep track of all of them. Don’t schedule two at the same time. Don’t freak out.
3. GET ON THE PHONE. Even if you’re planning to do most of your communication by email (which is the norm), there are things you can only figure out from a phone call. You want an agent who lets you talk, who answers your questions easily, and talks about your characters like they’re real people, just like you do.
4. ASK QUESTIONS. Either during the phone call or in some emails, you need to ask the following questions/raise the following subjects with every agent who offers:--What revisions do you have in mind for the manuscript?
   
   • If you have other manuscripts, give them brief pitches. What does the agent think of them?
   • What houses do they have in mind for the manuscript? (Most agents won’t tell you specific editors until you’ve signed, but most will tell you houses.)
   • How many clients do you have?
   • How often would you expect us to be in communication? How do you like to communicate? (This is huge. Just trust me. You want the agent who says “Call anytime.” Even if you won’t ever actually do it.)
   • How many editors do you sub to at once?
   • How long do you let a submission “sit” with an editor before you nudge? (This is pretty big. I had an agent who nudged after two weeks, and one who let them sit indefinitely. Guess who sold my book faster?)
   • What sales have you made recently? (Agents with a lot of sales are awesome, but keep in mind it probably means they have a lot of clients. Some writers like more attention than an agent with a ton of clients can give them. An agent without a lot of sales is okay, too, especially if they’re just getting started, but if you’re signing with a new agent, you want to make sure that they’re either a. with an established agency or b. loaded with previous experience in the publishing world.)
5. GO WITH YOUR GUT. In the end, there’s going to be one agent you fall in love with. And that’s really important. A ton of agents will give you great answers to those questions, because there are a TON of great agents out there. But it’s not going to be about the numbers, in the end. It’s about which one really gets you and your book. There is NO replacement for an enthusiastic agent. You deserve someone who loves you.

So. Congratulations, follow my rules, and email me -- until.hannah@gmail.com -- or stop my blog -- http://hannahmosk.blogspot.com -- with any questions. Thanks for reading, and thank you Kathleen for having me!


----


Thanks, Hannah!

Stick your thoughts/questions in the comments, and either Hannah or I will be happy to answer; however, I'll be following up on Monday with more thoughts/info from the agent's perspective.

K

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Glitter and Glam! And shame....

Just for the record, let it be known that Ms. Kody Keplinger (awesome author of THE DUFF which you need to pre-order like...now) is evil and sneaky and cute and adorable and just...mean. Yea. Mean.


See, this is Kody to everyone:



And this is Kody to ME:


(see Kody? Told you there was a onesie involved - but you're still adorable)

:)

Anyway, so I made the mistake on getting on Gchat and the convo basically went like this:

Me: Yo! Kodster. You're so full of awesome. What's crackin'?

Kody: Yo! KOrtizzle! SUP?

Me: So, I wanna be your fangirl at BEA. I'm totally gonna stalk your author signing booth.

Kody: I <3 you! YAY!

Me: Glitter and a t-shirt that says I LOVE KODY!

Kody: haha. you wouldn't.

And that's where I made the mistake. Cause my response?

"Of course I would."

::sigh:: (one of these days I'll learn...today is not the day...)

So, my dear blog readers, this is where we stand:

I promised Kody I'd show up to BEA at her signing table with a pink (groan) I LOVE KODY shirt - with glitter.

And I'm gonna fangirl her.

And she's gonna videotape it.

And she's gonna upload it to probably every Web site known to man.

What do I get in return?

::evil grin::

After BEA, Kody will make a vlog and sing (very nicely too) the Rainbow Brite theme song.

To which her response was, "But I don't know the theme song!"

Lucky for her, here's a link with the video to the Rainbow Brite Opening Theme Song

And here are the lyrics:

Rainbow Brite

See the shining light

Yes I'm gonna take ya to Rainbow Brite

Starlite flies

Right before your eyes

And rainbow colors will cheer you up

Magic Light

Gonna take you for a ride...

(repeat chorus)

So in a nutshell, if you want to laugh and see me embarrassed to high heck and back for an author who isn't even my client but I love her anyway cause she's made of awesome, check me out at BEA.

I believe if this were Twitter, there would be the following hash tag:
#WhatTheHellDidIAgreeToDo??

Did I mention I'm so NOT a pink/glitter person?

I wonder if I can turn this into a contest.... ::ponders::

K

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Contest Ends Wednesday!

Don't miss out on the opportunity to chat it up with Suzie Townsend and I via Skype. Click here for the details.

Contest ends WEDNESDAY at 11:59 p.m.!

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Contest Alert: OPWFT to GotYA

So the fine people over at OPWFT (Old People Writing For Teens) - have moved their home base (you may remember OPWFT - the group I peeked at when I was talking about the cool kids club on Absolute Write).

They're hosting a contest in honor of switching their home base and their name (GotYA). And let me tell you, the prizes are pretty awesome:

TODAY’S CONTEST:

FIRST PRIZE: Win a $75 gift card to the book store of your choice!

SECOND PRIZE: Win a $15 Amazon gift card and a copy of Beautiful Creatures



HOW TO ENTER:

I entry for following our BRAND NEW AWESOME BLOG

1 entry for tweeting about our BRAND NEW AWESOME BLOG

1 entry for watching our vlog, then commenting your own fake bio line accordingly on our BRAND NEW AWESOME BLOG

Winner will be drawn randomly—no wait, picked in a random drawing (because drawn randomly makes me think someone is going to sneak up on you when you’re half-dressed in the morning or just walking out of the gym all sweaty with your hair plastered to your head and do a quick pencil sketch, and that’s just not cool) at midnight EST, Monday, April 19th. So what are you waiting for? Go! Do it now!

P.S. Anyone who followed us prior to midnight EST last night gets 5 extra entries—WOOT!



So check out GotYA's new blog and enter by midnight Monday! (I totally said tonight on Twitter...sorry)

~K

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Awesome Conference

The people in Houma, LA rock. I'll post more info later, but for now...I thought I'd show you how amused I am by the fact that I smile like an Anime character...

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Patience is a virtue...

It's been kinda a few hectic weeks, but we're still chuggin' along over here at the office. A few updates for anyone who's curious/waiting:

• Queries: All queries from before 3/22 have been answered. If you sent one and did not receive a reply, then it means that either my reply is in your spam filter or you did not enter your e-mail correctly in the form (happens way more often than you think).
• Partials: I responded to about 23 of the 28 partials I had....I fully plan on replying to all partials which I requested before April 8th by this Friday. If you have a partial with me and do not hear from me by this Friday, feel free to follow up on Monday (give me at least the weekend before emailing me).
• Fulls: I have no timeline on fulls other than I hope to reply within 4-6 weeks of your submission. Sorry I can't be more specific right now....

Random Facts:

• Right now is about the time that the London Book Fair gets started. It's this huge book fair in London (crazy right? Who woulda thought that's what it was...not like the name gives it away or anything...) where publishers and agents from all over the world meet to pitch their projects in hopes of convincing overseas publishers to buy them. Ergo, as Foreign Rights Manager, this is kind of a busy time for me. I'm not there right now nor will I be going; however, I have spent a lot of time preparing our pitch lists for our current and upcoming titles for our overseas scouts for when they meet with publishers for us (did you follow that?)
• Right now is about the time that agents have (hopefully) finished receiving royalty statements/checks (or are still receiving them) and have to sort through them, do the numbers and cut checks for authors and send them in with copies of statements. This happens twice a year (March/April and September/October), so it gets a little hectic at all agencies.
  
• Right about now is a very hot time for Spring writers conferences. We're traveling everywhere. (Wanna know where I'll be? Look at the right column for a list. Want me to be at a certain conference? Tell them! :) ).
• Right now is about the time taxes are due. Hopefully an agency is already done with theirs (as we are - *ahem* - cause we rock), but you never know :shrug:
• While all this is going on, we're still working with our clients on their current and upcoming projects, checking in with editors to make sure upcoming releases are still on schedule, receiving galleys and ARCs for promotional purposes, working with e-book amendments from publishers (I get about 5 a week), etc. It never stops.
  
• I don't read partials in order. There. I said it. Sorry to disappoint. If something is more interesting, I jump straight to it. It happened with all of my clients, and I don't think there's nothing unfair about it. I try to read in order, but if something jumps out at me than I'm hitting it up first.
  

My point?

We strive to have a quick, or at least a considerate, turn around on everything from queries to partials. Just keep in mind we do have a multitude of other tasks we attend to. I'm in no way complaining about these things we do - if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't be in this business...trust me.

Do I Tweet while at work? Sure. But if I didn't Tweet or Blog, there would be no way I would have my name out there as a new agent. I probably wouldn't have found two of my clients (who specifically said they found me via Twitter, and I'm so glad they did!) which would make me a sad panda. But I definitely do not let it jeopardize my priorities. Simple as that.

Do I blog while at work? Nope. I blog from home, save the post and then throw it online at a later date. So if it's time specific I know it's ready to go. I don't have to write it while I have other things on my to-do list.

Bottom line: I have my career priorities:

• Clients
• Foreign Rights
• Helping Contracts Manager and B
• Slush

I strive to get back to everyone in a reasonable amount of time, and if I could access my queries from home, I probably would be a little faster. But unfortunately, that's not the case.

So if I don't hit my 2 week goal of responding to queries, then I'm sorry to disappoint. But if you sit tight and have a little patience, then you'll hear from me. Promise.

And if someone picks you up in the meantime, then it's clearly someone else's gain, and I wish you nothing but the best in your writing career.

Side note: One week left in the Epic Skype Chat Contest. Don't miss out!

~K

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Another contest....not hosted by me! :)

So I really love the people over at FinePrint....when Suzie asked me if I'd help out and volunteer some time for a contest in honor of her recent sale, I said sure! :)

I'm afraid I can't answer any questions on this one, so if you have any - ask Sarah Wylie on her blog :) But I did copy/paste the details below...


** NOTE: this is NOT my contest...you HAVE to go to Sarah's blog to enter...please don't enter in my comments section...thanks!

~K

Posted Monday, April 7

When I found out that All These Lives was going to be published, I promised we'd do something fun and celebratory. I've made some incredible friends within the blogosphere, and I wanted to find a way we could celebrate together.

Well, I got to thinking and the answer quickly became clear: Blog friends + Fun + Celebration = CONTEST.

So, here's what's going to happen:

1 Lucky Winner will receive a critique of their first 30-40 pages by the fabulous Suzie Townsend + a pack of Twizzlers + a copy of Hex Hall

3 Lucky Winners will receive a query letter critique by one of these three agent extraordinaires: Kathleen Ortiz, Joanna Stampfel-Volpe, or Colleen Lindsay (One agent will be randomly assigned to each winner.)

1 Winner will receive a writer's survival guide consisting of Twizzlers, a copy of Silver Phoenix and When You Reach Me, and a cute notebook and pen so you're never tempted to do this:

1 Lucky winner will score a lunch date with THE Janet Reid and THE Suzie Townsend. Um, yeah, that's not a typo. (I'm tempted to enter myself. Would it be so wrong?) Unfortunately, this is not a free trip to NYC. BUT if you live in the NYC area, or whenever you're visiting NYC? You. Janet. Suzie. LUNCH.

So those are the prizes. Here's what you have to do to enter:

*BE A FOLLOWER
*FILL IN THE FORM BELOW. Since there are a few different prizes, you'll have to indicate in the form which prize you most want to win. Sadly, I can't guarantee that you'll get your first choice, but I'll try my very best.

The contest ends Sunday April 25 11:59 p.m. EST. I'll use a random number generator to select six winners. Winners will be announced on Friday, April 30, and notified by email.

Okay, READY. SET. GO:

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Give credit where it's due...

So I don't post every single blog post or video I see that I love because I just...don't have time and there are tons.

But this one deserves special attention, imho.

Emilia Plater is a 16 yr old aspiring author who has such a positive, optimistic outlook on the world of publishing. I originally went to see her super awesome I Love Publishing video, because I got a ZOMG YOU'RE IN IT! e-mail, lol. But a look at her web site and it's clear she not only has done research on how to survive in the industry, but also informs her blog readers in an entertaining yet informative fashion.

Kudos to you Emilia! You've gained a new Twitter and blog follower! And thanks for the shoutout ;-)

~K

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#NWW, Cool Kids...err Writers...Club, Queries, and Partials, OH MY!

So I'm hanging out at home writing this post that I'll throw online tomorrow (Wednesday), since I'm currently without Internet. ::shakes fist at Verizon:: They said they'll have service up and running again "soon," but I'm sure everyone else in the building is peeved, as well.


The Cool Kids Table - YOU can actually be part of it!!! No membership fee required.
So I always thought this Absolute Write Water Cooler was a place for writers to vent about agents/inform each other of wait times/gossip about the publishing world. I had no idea it also included forums for query critiques, partial critiques, random support and more! While, granted, I do think certain areas harvest some unnecessary drama, I do think that overall it's a great tool for authors. For someone just starting out and wanting to know more about the road to publication, it can certainly be a gold mine. ::thumbs up:: It's like the Cool Kids Table you always wanted to sit at when you were in middle school (in which case, if you were the cool kid, pshaww to you), except this cool kids table accepts everyone!

From what I can tell (after two hours of major time suckage), the people there seem really supportive and encouraging. It's a great way to build a critique group, support group or heck even just cheer on your fellow writers on their road to publication. Actually, because of one of the posts I saw by the lovely Hannah Mosk (author of BREAK), I had a chat with her and she's going to guest post sometime later this month on a topic I think is super important to all unagented writers. Stay tuned!


Partials and Queries...dun, dun, DUN!
I regularly see some Tweets and posts floating around re: "OMG such and such agent requested a partial from you but hasn't even responded to my query! wtf?"

I'm going to address that from my own humble view/opinion. In no way do I speak for all agents, because we all have our own process.

When you go to our web site and fill out a form to submit your query (instead of e-mailing it and having it automatically deleted), it sends it to my e-mail and is automatically filtered into my Queries folder. I don't even open it until I make time (like I will on Wednesday after dealing with some Foreign Rights offers and Permissions) because, as Colleen Lindsay and every other agent will tell you, our job is not to just read queries.

When I do read the queries, I'll either request a partial or reject. Once the partial comes in, I send back an e-mail to let you know I received it (I like to be polite) and file it away in my Partials folder to read at a later date.

Now, I get my work e-mails forwarded to my Blackberry, since I'm always in and out of the office, running around the whole frickin' island (and in April, across the Eastern seaboard and the Gulf). About 99% of the time I will just delete a query off my phone (don't worry - it's saved to my work e-mail still - it's not like I delete it and never see it) and when I log in at work, I file it away to my Queries folder.

On a very rare occasion, if I'm just curious or click by accident and open it, I will read the query to see what it's about. And if it's good, you best believe I'll request it. No point in shooting to the Queries folder if I've already read it, right?

Is it fair? To that person, absolutely. To others? Eh, depends how you look at it. But I hope by now you've learned life isn't fair, and I'm a huge believer that if it's meant to be, it will happen with hard work and dedication. All this means is that the ones that are filed away for later will still be read - just at a later date. Not the end of the world.

I do make a conscious effort to reply to all queries within 2 weeks of submitting, but as well as know things happen and that's not always the case. Again - each agent is different, as some don't even reply.

As far as partials are concerned, I usually read them in order received. So for instance, as of yesterday I have 19 partials in my inbox (which I plan on reading most, if not all, on my plane rides this weekend) and the oldest one dates to 3/6. I try to get back to authors within 4-6 weeks of submitting partials so that I have time to sit, relax and read. I very much doubt anyone wants an agent to read a partial while said agent is in a hurry, and I rather wait until I have time to relax and read so I can give them my full attention.

However, if there's one partial that's just standing out among the others, then yea I'm going to hit that one up first. It's like anyone who has a TBR pile (to be read): if you have ten books you've been wanting to read but then you just happen to snag a copy of the OMG I'VE BEEN WANTING TO READ THIS FOREVER book, guess what? I bet you're going to read that OMG book first. It doesn't mean you won't give the others the time and attention they deserve, it just means that one has happened to pique your interest and you want to see what happens now.


Finally, I'd like to end on a happy note :) Colleen Lindsay announced #NWW (No Whining Week), which I think is great. So, on a non-whining note, I will say this:

I am about to dive into a pile of slush that is currently at 404; however, I will read each query with the greatest amount of enthusiasm possible and will love every second of it since after all, I do kinda have a thing for slush.


What are YOUR thoughts on Queries, Partials, Cool Kids' Table and #NWW?

~K

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Random "Paint" Diagram

So it came to my attention that someone didn't know about TweetChat. And since I didn't want that someone to be constantly refreshing their Twitter page (especially when that someone would be experiencing #YAlitchat for the first time), I decided to draw them a diagram on how to use TweetChat.

Please note I did it in Paint, and it is certainly by no means a technological masterpiece. I shared it with a few, got a bunch of chuckles and then was told if I did not upload it then they would.

So here it is...enjoy. (Make sure you click ON the picture so it expands and you can actually read it)

~K

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the REAL day in the life of an agent

Seriously. All your questions answered. Take an inside peek at this real video on the day in the life of a literary agent (not just ONE agent but TWO!)

A Day in the Life of Suzie and Jo

It will ALL make sense after you see this.


Enjoy!

~K

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