Friday, June 01, 2012

Resist The Urge To Query

In case you have a fresh query letter or a fresh roster of literary agents to be queries, you are advised to put all of that aside for the next week.

No, it's not the usual summer hiatus to the Hamptons, although that can be an issue and it's true that most people in publishing disappear early on Fridays.

The literary agents are soon to be leaving their offices, to migrate to the Javits Center in New York.

You've noticed that they're still in the city, but there's no time for your query. Or your manuscript submission, if you're that lucky.

Full literary agent attention will be given over to Book Expo America, and not to you.

BEA, as it is called, is all about selling books. That's what a literary agent does. Ergo, the agents will be at the Javits Center trying to sell their clients' wares, while the publishers they sell to will be trying to sell their wares to book buyers and librarians.

It's a big deal in the publishing industry.

Your query, in comparison is not.

So don't waste a good query on an absent agent. Wait until they're back, and hope that you submit at the right time to get their maximum attention.

And hope the agent you're submitting to is in a good mood, maybe had a successful week at the expo, and knows a publisher who is looking for exactly the book that you've written.

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