Contrary to popular belief among some fearful authors, literary agents will not be scared off and disappear into an angry puff of smoke the moment you send them a follow-up email. An agent’s inbox looks like the electronic equivalent of Niagara Falls, and at any given time they will have literally thousands of pages in […]
You tell me: How many hours a week do you spend writing?
Writing a book is a huge undertaking. It takes an immense amount of time and the only real way to finish it to chip away at the task a bit at a time. So how long do you spend writing a week on average? For me, I had very little time to write for a […]
Why writers need to perfect their first thirty pages
Back when I was a literary agent, I did something that many writers found extremely odd. When I liked someone’s query letter, I asked them to send me the first thirty pages via email. If I liked those thirty pages, I would ask to see the whole manuscript. Why didn’t I just ask for the […]
Everything you need to know about novel word counts
Ah, word count. Few elements of the book-writing process inspire such hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing as trying to constrain your novel within certain seemingly arbitrary bounds. In this post I’m going to tell you: Why word count matters for novels Standard word count ranges for various genres The word counts of some famous novels for comparison […]
You tell me: What’s the best fictional city?
A great setting can make a novel unforgettable. And there have been some great cities in novels that inspire our imagination, make us want to pack our bags, or run away screaming. What’s your favorite city in fiction? I’d have to go with the wildly inventive Besźel/Ul Qoma from China Mieville’s The City and the City. What […]
How to come up with good comp titles for your book
A good “comp title” (which I’ve seen variously expanded as “comparative title,” “comparison title,” or “competitive title”) can help put a literary agent or reader in the right mindset when you’re trying to pitch your book. A bad one may leave them with their eyes glazing over. Bear in mind that with agents, unless the […]