Getting the Call with Melissa Albert

It seems to be the summer of Call posts! These never get old. So glad to welcome Melissa to the blog. Congrats, Melissa, happy to have you here to share your story.  

Thanks so much for having me, Michelle! I’ve been reading your Getting the Call posts for the longest time and always hoped that someday I could share my story here.

When I began writing my first novel, I was fourteen. I finished two years later, went through one revision, and began sending out queries left and right. In my mind, this book was ready for the world to see. It wasn’t. It actually embarrasses me to look back at some of the original drafts I was sending out to agents.

Still, I continued querying and received rejection after rejection. In the end, after almost two years of on and off querying, I got three full requests for that novel, but none of them ever panned out.

It was discouraging at times, especially when my sixteen year old self had been sure I’d written a best seller. I was even convinced there would be a movie deal coming down the pike, and I’d play the main character, Emma. Oh, please.

During the two years I spent querying, however, I’d gone on to finish two more books. This time around, I spent a lot of time honing my query letters and revising my manuscript. I revised and revised and revised until all I was doing was taking out commas and then putting them right back in. As scary as it was after my previous attempt, I knew it was time for me to start querying again.

I chose to query JUST BREATHE which was my YA contemporary novel. I sent out one query to begin with and woke up the next morning to a full request. I couldn’t believe it. I sent the full off and then quickly began querying other agents, hoping to get some more requests. And I did.

Two weeks after the first request, with a few rejection letters under my belt, I woke up at 9 am and decided to send out a query to an agent I really liked. Then, I was tired so I tried to go back to sleep. (Don’t judge me, it’s my summer break!) I couldn’t. I checked my phone, and there was an email notification on the front screen. Less than ten minutes after I’d sent the query out, the agent had enthusiastically requested my full. I couldn’t believe it.

The next day, I got three more full requests. After two years of rotten luck, it seemed like things were finally working out for me.

15 days later I woke up to a voicemail. It was from the agent that requested the full within ten minutes. They loved my manuscript. They wanted to talk. I shot up from bed, heart racing, and ran around my house trying to find my mom. I came skidding into the laundry room where she was sitting and said “I got The Call. Or technically, The Voicemail.” She squealed. I squealed. It was a very happy day.

Finally, after celebrating, freaking out, and researching whatever the hell I should know for speaking to an agent, I called back. We talked, and the agent was as great as I had thought. When we got off the phone, I emailed the other agents, letting them know I had an offer of representation. Three of them said they would put it first on their list and read it that week. One politely stepped aside. Two of the three that still had the full politely passed after a few days.

The weekend after I’d received the offer of representation, I went camping with my brother and his friends. I was really nervous because reception was spotty, and I knew I should be hearing from that last agent soon. I methodically checked my phone every second. Then, on Saturday afternoon, I put my phone in my pocket for ten minutes while our group tried to take a picture on top of a very big rock. When it was done, I checked my phone and there was The Email. The agent was in love with my manuscript and wanted to schedule a time to talk. We spoke the Monday I got home from the trip. The agent was wonderful.

I didn’t know what to do. I had never imagined being in a situation where I’d have to choose between two agents. I’m also an extremely empathetic person, so I couldn’t imagine turning one of them down.

In the end, I knew my heart was set on Uwe Stender, the agent that had given me the first offer of representation. I sent him an email and he was ecstatic. I had the contract signed and mailed within a few hours of receiving it. I know I couldn’t have made a better choice!

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Melissa Albert is a YA writer who is repped by Uwe Stender of TriadaUS. She majors in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at The College of New Jersey where she is going into her sophomore year. Lover of all YA fiction, she has three completed manuscripts and four WIPs. When she’s not writing, she’s singing, acting, dancing, and day dreaming about her days of playing travel soccer and doing competitive gymnastics. You can bribe her with anything chocolate or cat related.

Links:

Follow her on Twitter: @MelissaAlbert27

Blog: The Truth About Teens

Email: melissaalbert95@gmail.com

The Difference Between a Tag and a Beat

In honor of Pitch Wars, here's a little post about a basic of writing.

Tag or Beat. Do you know which is which and how they involve writing. For many old hands, this is something they've learned long ago. But for newer writers, you may not have heard of them. It's easy for this distinction to skip your radar unless you have experience. I've seen many mistakes that are easily avoidable.

Tags and beats go with dialogue. Basically a tag is a sentence where you use 'said, asked, whispered, called, yelled, replied, answered,' any word that indicates someone is speaking.

A beat is an action. Your character is doing something while talking. Beats involve things like smiling, frowning, sighing, jumping, poking.

Why should you care these are two different things? What difference does it make if you can't tell tags from beats?

Because one gets a comma around dialogue and the other requires a period. Also the capitalization rules are different. And mixing up which gets what punctuation screams amateur.

Some examples of tags:

"Send me that full manuscript," the agent said.

"Where's your bio?" Brenda asked.

"I love this concept!" the mentor screamed.

The mentor whispered, "It's time."

"I have to have more," she said, "send it right away."

Note: also could be

"I have to have more," she said. "Send it right away."

What do we see here? No periods except at the end of the whole sentence, which includes the tag. Instead commas are used to end the dialogue. Why? Because tags by themselves are not a sentence. Thus no capital letter after the dialogue either, except for proper names. 

However, note that question marks and exclamation points do replace the comma. Also notice that when a tag goes between continuing parts of dialogue you don't use a capital letter on the second section.

Often you want to mix things up and avoid the extra wordage of tags. Now a look at beats:

"I'll never get this query right." Tootie sighed.

Blair smiled. "This is my best effort yet!"

"I like a challenge." She did a happy dance.

Natalie glared at both of them. "You dingleheads, I'll be the one picked."

"Girls, girls." Mrs. Garrett clapped her hands. "You give me a headache."

Here you will notice there are periods and punctuation all around. Why? Because you have two or more separate sentences. All sentences have capital letters. Unlike a tag, a beat is a sentence on its own.

But what if you have a tag and a beat? It's still handled as if one sentence.

Jo smirked and said,"Mrs. Garrett always has a headache."

"I can get this query right," Tootie whispered to herself, spinning on her skates.

"I can't wait for August 18th," they all shouted, while jumping in the air.

Commas and lowercase letters where needed, just like with a tag alone.

And here is one last special case to truly make it confusing. A beat between incomplete dialogue. Now you need dashes and no commas!

“I’ve got”—Brenda did a pretty twirl—“it all covered!”

So there's some explanation of tags and beats. Now bring on August 18th!

Getting the Call: Betsy Aldredge and Carrie DuBois-Shaw

A couple of firsts today: Our first set of co-authors! Meet Carrie and Betsy, who are also the Grand Champions of Query Kombat 2014. Their entry Shalom Sasquatch not only got the most votes from our judges, they also got the most requests from agents! Check it out and it's easy to see why. So glad they went with one of the agents from our contest!

A huge congratulations to this dynamic duo! 

(Left to right: Carrie/Miss Piggy, Betsy/Hermione Granger)

Close friends from NYU, we’d worked together on a variety of creative projects through the years. Some have been more memorable than others, like the time we produced and performed in a dystopian version of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in an old store front on the Lower East Side, but we’d always planned on writing something original together.

One Halloween, while on a ghost tour of Greenwich Village, we came up with an idea for a YA Paranormal novel. We passed chapters back and forth, just for fun, over the next two years. Once we had written about 40,000 words, we decided it was time to get serious about finishing the book and enrolled in a MediaBistro online class with writer Micol Ostow, which started in January 2013. The class was just what we needed at that time to push us to finish and revise the manuscript. Plus, we met other writers, learned how to work under deadline, how to give and accept feedback, and how to query agents.

After a few more re-writes, we started writing and re-writing queries and sending them out. We even made it into the Nightmare on Query Street contest and got some requests from that along with requests the old-fashioned way. In total, we probably queried 30 people, most of whom were pretty positive. But one theme stuck out over and over, even among those who liked the manuscript. No one was buying paranormal anymore. A couple of very nice agents told us to write something else and to be in touch.  That was all the encouragement we needed.

After a crazy brainstorming session in August 2013, we came up with a wacky idea, to write a YA contemporary romance about Bigfoot hunters. We still had queries out for the other manuscript, but rather than refreshing our inboxes every two minutes, we got excited about writing again. We drafted, revised, and worked with our critique partner and a couple of beta readers, until we felt it was ready.

Then we heard about Query Kombat and thought it would be a great way to test the waters with this manuscript and get some valuable feedback from other writers before wading into querying again. We wrote and re-wrote our query (sense a theme here?), with insight from a few professionals (thanks Lauren Spieller, Kate Brauning, and Taryn Albright).

We know how competitive pitching contests are, so when the hosts announced they were giving away free passes, we entered, and won one from Mike, who loved our short pitch. Phew! We were so relieved to be able to skip the slush and go right into the contest.

We figured the competition would be stiff and we’d be lucky to just get past the first round and get seen by agents. But something happened along the way. We kept winning. At the top of each round we assumed this would be the last round for us – that we would be eliminated. But it never happened. Before we knew it, we were the grand champions and had received 10 agent requests! We were completely floored that so many folks liked our pitch and writing sample so much.  

During the contest, we also sent a handful of queries to other agents who were on our short list, a few of them responded asking for partials as well. We expected that it would be a while until we heard anything, but within a few days we had an offer of representation on the table from Agent A who loved the manuscript. We quickly went back to everyone who had a full, partial, or query, because you never know. We heard from all but one agent. Most requested the full and said they would read our manuscript before our deadline. Only a couple bowed out right away, and a few agents came back later on saying they really liked it, but weren’t quite in love. Then two more offers came in from Agents B and C!

We had a long phone conversation with each agent who offered. They were all great in different ways, but we were undecided. Then, two days before we were going to make a decision, we got a fourth offer. We quickly set up a call with the fourth agent, knowing our decision deadline was around the corner. However, before we even ended the call, we just knew, “the way you know about a good melon,” to quote When Harry Met Sally. This was our agent, the one we wanted to represent us.  She really seemed to get what we were trying to do and had great ideas to make our manuscript even better.  We knew we would enjoy working with her and that she would be a rock star champion for our novel.

So now, we are thrilled to say we are represented by Christa Heschke at McIntosh & Otis, who was one of the agents who requested our manuscript during Query Kombat.

If we had to offer some advice, based on our story, we would say to keep writing. You never know if the manuscript you are writing now is the one that is going to get you an agent, or the one that is going to teach you how to write the one that gets you the agent. Also, working on a new project keeps your mind off of all those queries out in the world.

Thanks to all the Query Kombat judges, and especially to Michelle, Mike, and SC for playing literary matchmakers and for creating such a wonderful community!

(Left to right: Betsy, Carrie)

______________________________

Betsy Aldredge is a former magazine editor turned museum professional. She’s worked at a library and at two independent bookstores including Shakespeare and Company. Born a book nerd, she is happy to pass on the tradition. Her four-year-old daughter is named after a Harry Potter character and already insists on sleeping with piles of books in her bed. She lives and works in New York.

Carrie DuBois-Shaw has had two plays for young audiences produced in New York City and spearheaded the new play development program at The New Victory Theater, a performing arts venue in Times Square dedicated to engaging and entertaining kids and families. She recently relocated to San Francisco, where she is enjoying the abundance of independent bookstores, sour dough bread, and fog.

Betsy and Carrie are members of SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). They met at NYU where they lived in a haunted dorm, studied theater, and were secretly delighted to be mistaken for English literature majors.

Blog: bookwildered.blogspot.com

@betsyaldredge /  @carriedubois

Giveaway for DARK SACRIFICE Release!

I'm having so much fun giving away a query critique for the one year book birthday of Kindar's Cure, that I want to do more. Here's a giveaway for my CP, Angie Sandro! You can win a copy of one of her books, a first chapter critique from Angie and a query critique from me!

DARK PARADISE

Angie Sandro

July 1, 2014

Grand Central Publishing/ Forever Yours

 GOODREADS

“A vivid and entertaining storyteller, Sandro is an exciting new writer to watch." —J.A. Redmerksi, New York Times bestselling author

From rising star Angie Sandro, a steamy Southern gothic romance that will appeal to fans of Beautiful Creatures . . .

DARK LEGACY

Mala LaCroix has spent her whole life trying to escape her destiny. As the last in a long line of “witch women,” she rejects the notion of spirits and hoodoo and instead does her best to blend in. But when she finds a dead body floating in the bayou behind her house, Mala taps into powers she never knew she had. She’s haunted by visions of the dead girl, demanding justice and vengeance.

DEADLY SECRETS

Landry Prince has always had a crush on Mala, but when Mala discovers his sister, murdered and marked in some sort of Satanic ritual, he starts to wonder if all the rumors about the LaCroix family are true. Yet after Mala uses her connection to the spirit world to identify his sister’s killer, he starts to form his own bond to her . . . a very physical one. As they move closer to each other and closer to the truth, Mala and Landry must risk everything—their families, their love, and even their lives.

AMAZON / AMAZON UK /AMAZON CA / BARNES & NOBLE /INDIGO /iTunes

DARK SACRIFICE

Angie Sandro

August 5, 2014

Grand Central Publishing/ Forever Yours

GOODREADS

 A GIFT AND A CURSE

Mala LaCroix sees dead people—really. After using her psychic gifts to catch a killer, she's locked in a psych ward and must strike a deal with the devil to secure her release. Apprenticed to a dark arts practitioner, Mala vows to free herself and save her loved ones from danger. But she doesn't know who to turn to when her crush on Landry Prince turns into something more serious. 

A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH

Landry has sacrificed everything to protect Mala. A near-death experience changes him forever, and now he, too, possesses supernatural powers he doesn't understand. Mala and Landry must band together to defeat the dark forces—both human and otherworldly—who would use their abilities for evil. Even as they fall for each other, they must prepare to battle for their very souls . . .

 AMAZON / AMAZON UK / AMAZON CA / BARNES & NOBLE / INDIGO/ iTunes

  

One (1) Winner will receive a free Query Critique w/ (2) revisions from Michelle Hauck AND (1) Digital Copy of DARK PARADISE or DARK SACRIFICE (AMAZON US or BARNES & NOBLE), plus a First Chapter Critique (up to 10 pages) by Angie Sandro

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Angie Sandro was born at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Within six weeks, she began the first of eleven relocations throughout the United States, Spain, and Guam before the age of eighteen.

Friends were left behind. The only constants in her life were her family and the books she shipped wherever she went. Traveling the world inspired her imagination and allowed her to create her own imaginary friends. Visits to her father's family in Louisiana inspired this story. Angie now lives in Northern California with her husband, two children, and an overweight Labrador.

BLOG / FACEBOOK / TWITTER

 

Getting the Call with Gilly M

If first you don't succeed ....  You get the picture. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of encouragement and that can steamroll into the success you've been dreaming about! Thanks to Gilly for sharing her Call story with us.

The process of getting an agent began almost a year ago today. I was off work (I'm a trainee lawyer) with a complicated immune system problem and decided to send my languishing manuscript to the biggest UK agent after accidentally stumbling across their online submission system. The manuscript was finished, but not polished, and I thought nothing more of it. For me, it was a way of saying goodbye to a novel - called The Quarter-Life Crisis - I thought I'd grown out of.

Except... three weeks later I got a full manuscript request. I freaked out, obviously. I had nothing better to do, so I polished it fervently over a long weekend and sent it off. And over that weekend a strange thing happened - I fell in love with the manuscript again. So I started querying. 

Over that strange summer and into the autumn I received a mixed bag of feedback. Not the 20 form rejections I expected, but two full requests and a lot of personal rejections saying things like, "the concept wasn't commercial enough for us, but do keep writing and we would be interested to see the next thing you write." All of the feedback was very similar. I got one such email from another agent in October, the week after my first full request was rejected. This agent loved my writing - and had checked out my blog! - and wanted to speak. Sadly, it was not to be. They, too, liked how I wrote but felt the concept wasn't big enough for a debut. We chatted about my ideas for other novels. 

After that phone call I had a cry and moved The Quarter-Life Crisis into a folder called 'first novel'. I'd had an idea brewing that autumn, so I did what anybody would do when receiving the kind of feedback I did: I wrote another novel.

I was back at work by this point, but wrote every single day between November and May. After work, early in the morning, on my birthday. I wrote 1,000 words a day for 80 days. And then I did a 'heavy lifting' second draft where I cut out boring bits and moved things around, and then I did two line-by-line edits, one before sending it to two readers I trusted and one after. In that time I also went to a Pitch Your Book event in London and ended up fleshing out the plot a little after I chatted to an agent there.

I sent it off to the five agents who had expressed that they would like to receive my second novel, and a couple more whose lists I really loved. And then I went on holiday to Mexico. I didn't fret or over-analyse, this time. I knew I'd written a novel that I, as a reader, would leap on if I saw it on the shelves in a bookshop. It had things my first novel didn't (namely, a plot AND a concept - always make sure you have a plot!).

Three days into my holiday, I got my first full manuscript request. It was from Clare Wallace at Darley Anderson. She had sent me one of the nicest rejections back in the autumn, and this time wanted to read the full. I received another full request not long after, sent them both off, and took a long-deserved break from writing. 

I received The Email while I was on a course for my day-job, while idly checking my email at lunchtime. It was from Clare, and she wanted to meet. There was none of the ambiguity that pervaded the emails in my last round of querying: it was unashamedly positive. 

We met in London and there followed one of the best afternoons of my life. Over tea and cake we chatted for hours about my vision for the novel, my characters, any weak parts of the novel, what we liked best. It was the coolest thing on earth to discuss my made-up character with someone else, not least a professional.

She made me an offer, and I nudged the other agent with the full, and the agents I'd queried, because it all happened relatively quickly (for the publishing world!) and I thought my queries likely hadn't been read yet. I received two further full manuscript requests and a few rejections. I waited a week for them, but after a weekend of soul searching, I accepted Clare's offer because I couldn't wait any longer and I really felt in my heart that Clare was the agent for me. Before I could pull the manuscript from everybody, one rejected it (I am sure she thought I was saving face when I said I had decided to work with Clare!) but I'll never know what the other two would have said. This was not my finest hour, but I'd made my decision and didn't want to wait any longer.

Clare and I are now editing ready to begin the submission process and it is all incredibly exciting. A year's worth of hard work: totally worth it. 

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Bio: Gilly is a trainee solicitor living and working in Birmingham, UK. She has been blogging for nine years. She takes baths every day, is a crazy cat lady, and professional worrier. She tweets at @Billygean and writes at http://www.billygean.co.uk   

Cover Reveal for Trefury: Mendi's Curse

It's really nice to give some time to Joyce Alton as she has done so much for me. Joyce moderates the speculative fiction forum where I spend so much time. She also runs the summer critiquing marathon that has done so much to clean up my manuscripts. I'm very excited for her first release! Congrats on your art work, Joyce!

An ancient legend is remade.

Meet the oddest, most-likely-to-fail partnership the planet Niyhel has ever known. He's cunning, intelligent, and dangerous. She's slow to trust, reckless, and loyal. And both of them have their own ideas about how to do things.

Thssk, a six-thousand-year old norhendra, has unwittingly caused the near extinction of his kind. Then he abandoned his handler, momentarily forgetting that she was an astral. She curses him as he flees the battlefield: the next handler he chooses will avenge her. Hunted by his past, it takes a divine summons and a volcanic eruption to rekindle Thssk's competitive spirit after a long hibernation. Racing against his enemies to rescue a boy from another planet?—he's the only one capable of pulling it off. But there's a catch, he has to select a new human partner to work with.

Tech savvy Cortnee Feyandihar is tracking down the people responsible for her mom's death while trying to gain a footing on a career path in the fields of music and dance. But when she goes too far with a corruption exposé, a last-ditch effort to salvage her future sticks her in the middle of an inter-world showdown and right into Thssk's coils.

On a world where starships are born, homes grow, and flowers can flatten entire cities, the fates of two lands hangs in the balance, as do the lives of millions of people. Yet it all pales in comparison to Thssk confronting the repercussions of discarding his previous partners as he struggles with his unpredictable new one. Everything Cortnee thought she understood has turned inside out and she must utilize every skill in her arsenal to get a grip on her new reality. If they can't learn to communicate and work together, he won't achieve the great future he was promised, but if they do, Cortnee could fall like her predecessors—into madness.

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Joyce Alton writes fantasy, science-fantasy, and historical fantasy. She is an avid reader, having a soft spot for classic literature, a good MG or YA adventure, anything that will make her laugh out loud, or which is beautifully written. She loves rainy days, helping other people, and spending time with her family. She is married to a wonderfully supportive husband and has three children. She currently lives in Idaho.

Follow her on Twitter

Like her page on Facebook

Follow her blog, Yesternight's Voyage

Review Tour for Salvation by James Wymore

A man wakes on a frozen battlefield when a scavenging couple finds him among the dead. As they nurse him back to health, he is struck with the horrible realization he can’t remember who he is or anything about his past. Taken in by the kind pair, he begins helping with their farm. She even takes him to meet her family, especially her single sister. The ideal life offered in the high mountains of Winigh is shattered when he sees a transport bringing enemy monsters to the shores below. Cut off by high snow on the pass, their fate will soon be the same as the town his company failed to protect in the last battle, if this estranged soldier cannot help them fight off the next wave of invaders. Even worse, the people of the town don’t trust this Selene soldier. He has a strange resistance to their folk magic which some say make him as dangerous as the enemies preparing to destroy them.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22049165-salvation?from_search=true

Amazon US: http://amzn.com/1620075237

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KD1VLXQ

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/salvation-james-wymore/1119537581?ean=9781620075234&itm=1&usri=9781620075234&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-GwEz7vxblVU-_-10:1&r=1,%201

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/salvation-37

Salvation is an action-packed story of a man with no memory. He's rescued by a sweet couple who are salvaging metal from a battle field. With no memory, the couple christen him Elwood. 

Elwood may not remember who he is, but he still remembers how to fight. When the village of his kind rescuers is threatened by the fish men, he leads the way in showing the mountain people how to prepare and defend their homes from unprovoked attack. 

Very nice world building in this story. Great descriptions of the mountains and the defenses they build to protect their village. The fish men made for a very different sort of opponent. Plus, there was just the right amount of romance to sweeten the great fighting scenes. I enjoyed how what seemed like the ending, was in fact just a switch in action.

About The Author:

Tall tales and imagination filled James Wymore’s formative years as he moved around the American West.  Constantly in pursuit of a gateway to another world, he failed to find a literal door to another reality.  However, he learned to travel everywhere fantastic through writing.

As an adult, James voyaged to other continents, where new philosophies and cultures fed his desire to see life from different perspectives.  He then immersed himself in studying nature, in the hopes of finding a loophole.  Along the way, he continued creating stories about alternate worlds like the ones hiding just out of sight.

James finally settled in the Rocky Mountains with his pet wolf, Kilgore, and started publishing his work.  With three books and six short stories in print after just one year, he celebrates the best supernatural portal he’s found so far—the mind.

Social Media Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

Pick me! Pick me for your PitchWars Mentor!

This is my first year being a PitchWars' mentor. But not my first contest rodeo. If you direct your submission (using the correct contest form from Brenda Drake's website) to me on August 18th, I'm not afraid to wear a funny hat for you!

Let's get the bio out of the way. Here's all about me:

Michelle Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of northern Indiana with her hubby and two teenagers. Two papillons help balance out the teenage drama. Besides working with special needs children by day, she writes all sorts of fantasy, giving her imagination free range. A book worm, she passes up the darker vices in favor of chocolate and looks for any excuse to reward herself. Bio finished? Time for a sweet snack.

She is a co-host of the yearly contests Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, Sun versus Snow, PitchSlam, and New Agent.

Her epic fantasy, Kindar's Cure, is published by Divertir Publishing. Her short story,Frost and Fog, is published by The Elephant's Bookshelf Press in their anthology,Summer's Double Edge. She's repped by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary.

I've also done quite a bit of editing and have done many, many query critiques. I know what makes a good query and a good first chapter. I can help you make yours into a polished specimen of beauty.

My CPs call me the Queen of Plot Holes. I hate filtering with a passion. I love to eliminate crutch words. Editing is not work, it's an art form. 

I should perhaps mention that Query Kombat 2014 ended in June and already SIX entries have gotten agents. Should I make that bigger? 

SIX entries got agents so far!

So what am I mentoring?

I'll be mentoring MG! Yay for MG!

My MG manuscript about silly hamsters landed me the wonderful Sarah Negovetich. I've done a lot of reading in that age category for my day job. It's sort of my expertise during contests. My co-hosts send the MG my way.

I love the voice of middle grade. I love that middle grade can be silly and that the subjects are lighter. I love to see an MC finding their place in the world. I love that MG usually involves a happy ending!

But what sort of MG do I want you ask?

Broadly speaking, I prefer the genres of fantasy, humor, adventure, mystery, thriller, and some types of contemporary. Historical fiction is a must see for me. I'm not keen on science fiction, but I'd look at light science fiction. I'd look at about any genre in MG.

I'm most drawn to something with humor. But not necessarily all the time. A unique concept will catch my eye. Voice, voice and more voice.

I'm not as interested in stories about heavy family squabbles or dark subjects. Parents divorcing. Addiction problems. Abusers. Those are probably not for me.

I like an underdog who is scrappy but not negative.

I like a hint of romance for upper MG.

I like a cozy mystery.

I like historical set in Western Europe or early America, but I want to see any sort of historical.

Diverse characters are great. But they also have to be interesting and three dimensional.

If your story involves bullies, it had better have a new twist on them. The same goes for fairies, werewolves, vampires and zombies.

If I've picked you before in another contest for an agent round, you're better off trying someone else. (Probably.) I like to give new people a chance. 

I like a first chapter that shows me something about your MC's personality. Make sure your first chapter has a mix of action and exposition. Don't talk at me the whole time. Let your character do something also.

Some older MG books that appealed to me: Anna of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, Little Women, Eight Cousins, Narnia, Chronicles of Pyrdain by Lloyd Alexander.

New MG books: Princess Academy, School of Fear, The Path of Names, The Golden Door, Harry Potter.

If you want to have fun, send your submission to me! I love to interact on twitter. I will give feedback on all my submissions and will be requesting more pages if I like yours.

 And did I mention that SIX from Query Kombat have agents so far? Thanks for considering me!

And here are the links for the rest of the mentors. 

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Query Questions with Jessica Watterson

Writers have copious amounts of imagination. It's what makes their stories so fantastic. But there's a darker side to so much out of the box thinking. When a writer is in the query trenches, their worries go into overdrive. They start pulling out their hair and imagine every possible disaster.

 

Here to relieve some of that endless worrying is a new series of posts called Query Questions. I'll ask the questions which prey on every writer's mind, and hopefully take some of the pain out of querying. These are questions that I've seen tossed around on twitter and writing sites like Agent Query Connect. They are the type of questions that you need answers for the real expert--agents!

If you have your own specific query question, please leave it in the comments and it might show up in future editions of Query Questions as I plan to rotate the questions.

You'll remember Jessica Watterson of The Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency from my New Agent contest! Jessica is looking for several age categories of romance. Here's some more information about her query slush. (We love the same movies!)

Is there a better or worse time of year to query?

For me, there isn’t a really inopportune time to query.  But there are definitely times when I get to my inbox slower, like around the holidays. Obviously right around holidays are going to be inopportune times to query. 

Does one typo or misplaced comma shoot down the entire query?

 Not necessarily.  The main thing I focus on is content.  However, if my name is misspelled, that definitely has a negative effect on the query.

Do you look at sample pages without fail or only if the query is strong?

I look at the sample pages without fail, unless the query is not something I acquire in.

Do you have an assistant or intern go through your queries first or do you check all of them?

I definitely check all my queries myself.  One woman operation right here!

If the manuscript has a prologue, do you want it included with the sample pages?

YES, this must be included.  Sometimes a prologue just really sets the tone of the whole piece.

Some agencies mention querying only one agent at a time and some say query only one agent period. How often do you pass a query along to a fellow agent who might be more interested?

Unfortunately not too often.  Since I am the only acquiring romance at my agency, unfortunately a lot of what I read wouldn’t be of great interest to any of my colleagues, but I get the occasional gem that I hope someone I work with will love.

Do you prefer a little personalized chit-chat in a query letter, or would you rather hear about the manuscript?

 Quite honestly I want to hear about the manuscript, which is surprising because I’m sure my authors think I’m quite chatty and longwinded now.  But, I’m always going to be the person who wants to get down to the nitty-gritty first.

Most agents have said they don’t care whether the word count/genre sentence comes first or last. But is it a red flag if one component is not included?

I definitely need to know genre and word count, because if the submission is something not even in the genres I acquire, I might be a tad irked that I spent extra time going through it.  Also, when someone doesn’t include those points in their query, it feels like they aren’t taking this submission seriously and that it was just thrown together.

Writers hear a lot about limiting the number of named characters in a query. Do you feel keeping named characters to a certain number makes for a clearer query?

Quite honestly I say keep the names mentioned to only key integral characters that I will see in your synopsis.  While an author might think that their list of characters is not overwhelming, they have to realize that since a query is so short, you really just want to have the big chunks of meat in there that will hook an agent on the line.

Should writers sweat the title of their book (and character names) or is that something that is often changed by publishers?

Definitely don’t sweat this, and for sure don’t become attached to the name of your MS.  Those are things that will most likely be changed at some point in the editing process.

How many queries do you receive in a week? How many requests might you make out of those?

I receive anywhere between 150-200 queries a week, especially since I’ve been more active on blogs and social media.  Out of those, I may request about 6-8 per month. 

Many agents say they don't care if writers are active online. Could a twitter account or blog presence by a writer tip the scales in getting a request or offer? And do you require writers you sign to start one?

If a writer doesn’t have one, to me not the biggest deal in the world.  I honestly would suggest it to any author I sign, but would never force anyone to join social media against their will. J

Some writers have asked about including links to their blogs or manuscript-related artwork. I’m sure it’s not appropriate to add those links in a query, but are links in an email signature offensive?

Personally, I don’t find them inappropriate if there is one or two.  However, if it’s a link to every social media account of theirs, then I start having issues.

What themes are you sick of seeing?

Normal girl meets billionaire and her life changes drastically. 

Do you consider yourself a hands-on, editorial type of agent?

Yes to both.  For sure before I take anything to market it has gone through editing with me.

What’s the strangest/funniest thing you’ve seen in a query? 

Strangely, I have gotten a few queries where male genitalia is the main character of the MS.  I don’t know if this is because I mainly represent romance, or if people think I look like I would really enjoy stories with that premise (I don’t, please don’t send me anymore of those).

What three things are at the top of your submission wish list?

1. SCOTTISH HIGHLANDER ROMANCE- seriously I am a SUCKER for these so if you have one, I want it.

2. I want a modern Robin Hood type romance novel.

3. Small town romance ah la Kristen Ashely, I LOVE these.  

What are some of your favorite movies or books to give us an idea of your tastes? 

Movies: The Wedding Date, Clueless, Bride and Prejudice.  (I may have a love affair with Jane Austen).

Books: The Blue Castle – L.M. Montgomery, anything by Karen Marie Moning, The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay.

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JESSICA WATTERSON joined SDLA in late 2013, and currently assists Sandra Dijkstra and Elise Capron.

She graduated from the University of California at Irvine with a degree in Sociocultural Anthropology and English. Jessica has made books a serious part of her life for many years. During college, she started an indie review blog which has featured author interviews and has reviewed several self-published books that eventually ended up on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Please note: Jessica is specifically not interested in: children's books, middle grade, cookbooks, poetry, short stories, screenplays, self-help, or religious/spiritual books.