What I Think About When I Think About Saying Yes

Hello friends,

Sorry to miss a Thursday newsletter last week. I'll be making it up to paid subscribers this week, don't you worry. But for everyone, I want to talk about some stuff that's been going through my mind recently. I mean, isn't that this newsletter's whole jam?

Anyway, I've done a lot of events lately (and more to come!) where people are there just to ask me questions. I love these kinds of events (invite me to your book club!) because A: I don't have to do anything to prepare for them and B: it tells me exactly what the audience wants to hear. I aim to please. Some of the most common questions I get are what makes you say yes to a query? What makes a query letter stand out to you? What's in those first pages that makes you want to read more?

The answer to all of them, as you might expect, is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. There isn't just one answer that makes me say yes to a query and every question-asker knows that. But still, they hope. They hope I'll say this one specific thing that I secretly know is in YOUR query or this one quick trick you can add right away to guarantee your success. There isn't one thing you can put in a cover letter or resume to secure that interview or job. There isn't one thing you can do on a date to guarantee that person will fall in love with you. I'd suggest people stop asking this question but really, I think writers need to hear the answer that there isn't one simple trick to anything in writing over and over again. There also isn't one abstract quality to things that make me say yes, especially ones you can apply to your own work. Heck, there aren't a dozen abstract or concrete things you can do to make me say yes. It's probably already there, or not. And if it's not there for me, it'll be there for someone else.

Anyway, I was reading something recently that I considered taking on, and I wanted to walk you through my thought process. I have already communicated with the author of this project, so if you're in my query or requested ms pile, this is not you. Not to burst your bubble, but I don't want you all to read between the lines of anything I say here and think she's talking about me!!!!!!!!!, either in an exciting or despairing tone.

So, I read this query letter, a referral from a current client, in my Query Manager inbox. I didn't, uhhhh, get to the query for far too long. I'm sorry. It happens. It's been a busy spring and fall. Anyway, I had read the query itself and the premise was interesting. It's an adult novel. That's all I'm telling you so you won't all be like Kate is looking for this exact genre!!! This is where the market is headed!!!! Let it be known and ring throughout the land!!!! The genre here is a stable one and this book is on the literary end. Anyway, I flagged this query as something to spend more time on and then....I did a lot of other things, including read many, many client books, many, many other queries (almost all passes), negotiated a bunch of deals, did a lot of travel, and all the mess of life. I always think I'll have some time on Friday to really sit down and spend some time with this stuff and Friday comes and I do all the stuff I didn't get done Monday thru Thursday. Such is the life of the agent.

More time passes and I am ashamed.

Finally, I get to a point where I can spend more time with this project. I read the sample pages and request the full. I put the full on my kindle and....some time passes. I won't tell you how much because it makes me feel bad. I'm sorry. It's more than a week and less than a year. I know!!!! I'm sorry.

So I start reading this full manuscript request in earnest. Mind you, I'm not avoiding reading it because A: I'm not interested, B: I want to torture the author, C: I hate queries, and D: I don't think I will sell it. I don't know if I can sell it or not! I just have many things vying for my attention and they have to be ordered somehow. Current clients > potential clients. You'll want that to be true when you're the client.

I'm reading this manuscript. It's got me invested. The story is unique and the voice is good. The prose is clean and I don't anticipate needing to do a line edit. I don't know yet if I have any overall editorial comments–we'll see what it looks like by the time I get to the end. So far, so good editorially speaking. The author is an experienced writer and it shows. (Previous trad pubs, but in a different genre.) This is a feather in the author's cap because I don't have the bandwidth to take on many clients that require heavy editing. I quite literally don't have the time.

I'm reading and reading. The manuscript calls to be a bit, not too loudly but somewhat, when I'm not reading it and I take that as a very good sign. I want to read it in my spare time. Remember, this is my job. My reading has been very scattered lately and I can't seem to get deep in a book (published or not) so it's nice to feel that familiar I can't wait to read that book feeling. I'm in it with the story. It's progressing nicely. I'm having a tiny bit of trouble keeping the character names straight but it might be a function of me reading the book at night/before bed when my brain might not be as sharp as possible. But I'm able to keep up. I don't think it's the fault of the storytelling.

I'm committed to reading the whole manuscript now. I want to see what happens in the end. (I don't remember if the author said as much in the query and I don't feel the need to go back and look.) (See, I TOLD you it doesn't matter if you tell the ending or not in your query. The STORY made me want to read the whole thing. Not the query.) I actually feel like everything hinges on how the author sticks the landing here because I feel like that will be part of my pitch. I'm already thinking about how I would pitch this to editors and who those editors might be. Half way through the manuscript I don't exactly have a clear understanding of it but I'm turning it around in my mind. The submission list is still hazy in my mind, too. It could go either way–literary or the literary end of the genre this book is playing with. Maybe both. It would depend on how the author sees her book being published, if she has a preference at all. I can picture the cover of this book, but I can't quite see its editor.

I keep reading. And reading. I have to take a week away from it to read a client manuscript but it's in the back of my mind that I want to keep reading it, which is a very good sign. I finish it and the ending is very satisfying. It does what I hoped it would, which is make me clutch my Kindle to my chest at the end. This is the VERY BEST FEELING. Honestly, it's what I want all books to do to me, regardless of genre. And it's a feeling I can convey to editors, too, explaining how the plot and language got me there. That's the pitch. That's the hook. And with that, I can see more clearly who the editor is and the comps I would pull out in my pitch and therefor the readers for this book. That seals it. That's what I need to offer representation to an author.

So I set up a call. And I'm not going to tell you what happens next. When there's more to reveal, I'll continue the saga. But this is what goes through my mind when I'm considering taking on a query. I'll do another one where I tell you what goes on when I pass. Stay tuned!

I'm Coming Your Way

Upcoming Events Near You

So many things coming up! I'm doing a FREE virtual event with the Queens Public Library on December 4th at 6pm ET for their Literary Thursdays series. Register here! We'll be talking about my book and I'll be taking questions!

I'll be attending and teaching a workshop at the SCBWI Annual Conference in NYC on January 16-18th. Register here!

Do you live near Frenchtown, NJ? Join me for a Lit Lunch with the Frenchtown Bookstore on January 25th at 3pm! Let's eat and chat! Register here.

And more to come! Virtual and In person! If you'd like me to come discuss my book with your bookclub, Zoom or IRL, just contact me here. I'd love to chat.

Thanks for reading, friends. If you liked this newsletter, share it with someone you know needs to hear it. That's how we keep the lights on at A&B HQ. Word of mouth marketing is the only thing that really works. Tell me what you think in the comments below.

XOXOXOXO,

Kate

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