Pub Tips and Query Fails!

I love Twitter. It is a wonderful source of information, tips and people.

Today's blog post serves two purposes. First, it allows me to procrastinate starting the massive spring cleaning efforts I must begin as soon as I am done writing this. Second, it allows me to share with you one of the resources I truly love.

I will make comments as needed. However, most of these are rather self-explanatory.

Enjoy! The format is as follows: The name of the person who made the post, then their post.

LindaEpstein

#pubtip Can you at least try to hide that your query has been forwarded to 10 other agents? Those blue forward lines are distracting me.

emilyreads

Dear random author: For the last time, I WILL NOT EAT YOUR COOKIES. #pubtip

agentgame

Reading a query that was interesting up until the part where it said the wordcount was over 390k. Don't do this. #pubtip

(Why: Most epic fantasies, even the 'long ones', tend to cap at 250 words. There are exceptions, but not often. If you're writing epic fantasy... do yourself a favor and save the 500,000 word monstrosities for book #2.)

Ginger_Clark

Authors, the following words have VERY different meanings, so stop mixing them up: important/impotent; prostrate/prostate #pubtip

BostonBookGirl

Finishing your 100,000 word book in 10 days is not a selling point. Might be true, but don't put that in your query. #pubtip

LindaEpstein

#pubtip Novelists: if you're not done writing it, it's not time to query an agent. No matter how "good" it is. Query when it's complete.

tor_intheory

an MFA, while it may improve your writing skills, does not make you more publishable or guarantee you success as an author #pubtip

LindaEpstein

Eight sentences. Only seven paragraphs. #queryfail

... twitter has failed and won't let me access the older posts to get out some of my favorite query fails. That said, please head over here for #queryfail and here for #pubtip. Both of these feeds often have a lot of excellent resources for writers. It is really an eye-opener to see just what gets an agent riled up.