5 Tips for Getting Agents to Read Your Manuscript
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
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The first goal for any querying author is to get agents to read their sample pages - and for the agent to love them so much that they request to read more. But if you’ve been getting rejection after rejection, it could be a sign that agents aren’t responding to the excerpt you’re sending them - or that they’re not reading it at all. Today, I’m sharing five tips for getting more agents to read and connect with the sample pages of your manuscript so you can give yourself the best chances of success when querying.
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MORE WRITING AND PUBLISHING ADVICE:
How to Write the Perfect Book Blurb for Your Query Letter: Dos and Don’ts: • How to Write the Perfe...
Write a Prologue or Not? The Great Prologue Debate: • Write a Prologue or No...
Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make in the First 10 Pages: • Top 5 Mistakes Writers...
HOW TO GET AGENTS TO LOVE YOUR SAMPLE PAGES:
01:59 - Write a strong book blurb
03:20 - Submit the correct length and format
06:00 - Send the opening pages
07:38 - Polish your prose
09:15 - Know when to revise
ABOUT ME:
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey-whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
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The blurb is the big one. Many literary agents will read your query letter on their smartphone while waiting for coffee, or riding the train into work. And the rest will read queries as time allows. A good blurb makes all the difference in a lot of cases. And writing a good blurb takes practice, something I've learned the hard way. Read a few blurbs to get a feel, and then practice, and sharpen your own blub.
After 20 rejections, we have 3 options: Quit, Keep Going, or Revise. Of these three, REVISION is the only choice that will increase our knowledge, experience, and wriring techniques
Love your channel, as a author almost finished my debut novel, your information is invaluable. Thank you 🤩
So glad you find it helpful! Thanks for commenting :)
It stands to reason the book blurb would be important to an agent. The book blurb is also what sell your book to a editor and ultimately to your reader
You may get alot of rejections but keep going you will find your right agent
So funny, this video was uploaded 10 minutes after I had sent my first query letters! Thankfully I followed your advises, before you even tell us! Thank you for your content.
Good luck !
@@kathrynp7595 Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
Congrats on getting your first query letters out there and good luck with the process!
Thank you. The waiting game for a response feels like vacation time! I enjoy this process!@@AlyssaMatesic
I have written two novels and sent out dozens of queries. I've had a professional editor clean up my work. At best, an agent referenced my main character in a kind rejection. I also had an agent inform me that my middle grade novel should be a young adult novel because my main character is too old for middle grade, even though my editor suggested that my story should be marketed as middle grade. Frankly I'm frustrated and not sure what else to do.
Thanks for this Alyssa🙂🌻
Great timing as I'm in the middle of looking for agents again.
After countless rejections, I had to take a look at my stuff again. Hired a new beta and she certainly found some issues that the opening pages weren't compelling enough. That the side character had more description than the protagonist. Also my blurb got a rewrite too as it did change the story.
After 2 weeks of querying, I had some very fast responses. Sadly rejections again. Although they sounded a bit more personal. Especially the ones I query again after stating that it has been revised.
I went to Upwork and hired a few beta readers. There were commonalities, but what's nice about having around three or four is the broadened viewpoints. I can't tell you how many times several people would miss something critical, and that fourth set of eyes would notice and save me from huge oversights.
You sent your query to agents you have already queried?! I thought you weren't supposed to do that...
@@CurstSaden I only queried a small amount at that time. When I finally got feedback, I withdrew from the ones I haven't heard back. Also, if you generally made changes, you can try again.
@@rowan7929 This is good to know. Thank you!
Just want to say thank you for making these videos! I’ve been watching you since I started taking publishing seriously last year, and just started querying last week. It’s been going surprisingly well so far, in part (I think) because of your advice :)
I'm so glad you've found my videos helpful! Congrats on getting your work out there and good luck with querying!
Thank you miss Alyssa. I’m getting closer to that querying time and only you and few others can be thanked for that. P.s. I could simply kiss the screen every time.
Thank you.
I am currently preparing to query for the first time and working on final revisions on my novel, so this video was very helpful! Thank you!!
So glad you found it helpful! Good luck with querying!
You mentioned formatting for samples in terms of point and margins but not page size. You can now write in a file set up for paperback/B format so should queries all be prepared on A4?
i really wish i had some feedback from the agents they mostly all say the same thing
I have the same problem. They get so many queries so they rarely have time to give any feedback. I understand, but it's no less frustrating for us writers
9:49 Exactly how many is a "significant number" of rejections?
Question: When ou copy and paster a double spaced doc into an email it goes in as a single space. Do you need to go through and double space in the email?
Would it be practical to send the book blurb out to the beta readers?
What's a good number of beta readers to have?
I met the criteria for an agent overwhelmingly, however I haven't heard back since I sent it in July.
Also I found out the agent has a review service. Should I go through that route?
How important are comps? If I pick comps that aren’t great, is that a make or break if the rest is good?
Hi Alyssa... I've been watching your videos since day one, and I believe I have watched every single one of them. I was wondering, Is there a way you can add a short intro to your videos? Something that always appears at the beggining: a logo, an animation, moving pictures, etc... At times, your videos start all of the sudden without a warning and this feels abrupt, like I've just joined the middle of a live video that was already going on. I strongly believe this simple introduction could elevate your channel. I'm talking of something 2 to 3 seconds long... I've seen this done successfully by other yutubers. Either way, thank you for your good advice. 👍🏼
Not all agents are experts, apparently. Years ago one agent criticized my WW2 novel for citing color film being used to show off the new jet fighter. She said there was no color film in the '40s but the fact is there was. She criticized my spelling a character Grendl and insited only Grendel was correct. I have seen Grendl spelling in actual use. I felt rather frustrated at her filling her valuable position of literary agent with such ignorance. She was an accredited agent, too.
So this is a major issue for me. How would you write a book blurb for something that takes after the bible in how it's written? Its not a religious text as its a fantasy story but I grew up reading the bible and it's how I structured my story.
I've only sent out about 12 or so query letters so far with no requests. A question I keep having, though, is if an agent has requested say 3 chapters with the query, does my prologue count as a chapter. In this example the prologue is only like a page long, I've just been including it.
I would say it counts as a chapter. It's not chapter one, but it still functions like a chapter, so I would send that with chapters one and two.
One question; when agents asks for the first twenty pages, do they mean twenty double spaced or single spaced? Should the first these page also be double spaced?
Manuscript submissions are double-spaced pages, 12-pt Times Roman, standard margins, so query requests should be the same.
Most of the times they will state it what they want. I read only on a few who asked for double spaced. others are happy with 1.5.
But, if the query is through querytracker, then it doesn't matter as it's a copy/paste anyway.
Is it possible that an agent has you in their “maybe” pile and will leave you there unless you nudge them with an offer? Like they’ll only request for a full if someone else wants you? Or am I just being bitter 😂
Do you know how to find agents for controversial things? I'm writing about a survivor of institutional torture. I've already got survivor and unharmed beta readers, but it's personal and honest about what goes on. It's gruesome, and honest.
How do you find people with backbones?
The per-agent bespoke query process is ridiculous. It highlights how the industry is broken straight out of the gate.