What are literary agents’ querying pet peeves?

2014_January_agent_queryingThe excellent Writers in the Storm blog posted recently on Query letter pet peeves – Agents speak.

Listen up, writers. It’s hard enough to get an agent today. You at least want to do your best to avoid sending your masterpiece out into the world and having it summarily ignored because you’ve inadvertently angered your dream agent.

Eleven literary agents weigh in and share their pet peeves in query letters. As we know, agents are busy people who are buried under an avalanche of writing. It seems obvious that it’s easier for them to reject queries that don’t follow the basic rules.

Some of the advice is obvious – do your research, get the name of the agent correct, check for typos, have a clear idea of what an agent does. Others such as how much personal information to include, and how to structure your query may be new to you.

So, if you’re a writer querying or thinking about starting to query – be sure to first take a look at this helpful Writers in the Storm post.

And good luck!!

4 Comments

  1. evelyneholingue on January 31, 2014 at 7:19 am

    Yes, good luck, indeed. It’s as hard to get an agent as it is to get an editor. Keep writing, though. Cheers!

    • kimberlysullivan on January 31, 2014 at 9:20 am

      Thanks, Evelyne. Agreed it’s tiugh – but the good thing is that there’s more information out there than ever for writers. Still writing… : )

  2. Catherine on January 31, 2014 at 12:12 pm

    Never give up! Thanks for this Kimberly will have a look. I think we all just have to push on.. ciao cat

    • kimberlysullivan on January 31, 2014 at 6:09 pm

      Oh, definitely, Catherine. Yearly retreats to Matera help, too! : )

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