Guest blog by Gillian McAllister
When I was querying, I found there was almost too much material on the internet (especially because some other markets, like America, rely only on queries and not on sample chapters which puts a totally different emphasis on things). That being said, I thought it would be helpful to distil some of the less obvious tips I read into five key points.
1. Your word count
I wasn’t aware that the word-count should be included until quite a late stage, but it helps agents to flag at the earliest opportunity whether there is likely to be a problem. While word counts are not strict rules to be obeyed, under 60,000 or over 150,000 is very unusual, and it varies again within those for genre. Fantasy is likely to be longer, but if your crime/rom com/police procedural runs to 150,000 words it might cause an agent concern.
2. Whose readership you would like
Do not say your book is ‘the next Harry Potter’, but do feel free to state in whose genre you are writing, particularly if you are working across genres. There are hardly any writers who sit exactly in my genre and, if I were querying now, I would most certainly mention Liane Moriarty’s name.
3. The age of your protagonist
This isn’t always necessary. In a police procedural, for example, it matters less because saying it is a police procedural tells the agent all they need to know about where to place it on the shelf. But if you’re writing dystopia, the distinction between YA and adult is huge. Likewise, women’s fiction with a twenty-year-old protagonist is hugely different from something like Thursdays in the Park which features two people in their sixties. It goes quite a way towards identifying genre.
4. You book’s hook
Don’t say it’s crime fiction with a gripping twist. Tell the agent what the hook is: its USP, the central question which needs answering in your novel. State themes, for sure, but always, always, always state your novel’s hook.
5. Why that agent
It’s so easy to do a blanket submission, but a sentence or two about that specific agent – a work they represent, how good they are at Twitter, a blog piece they recently wrote, a book they sold – goes some way to getting you to stand out of the slush pile and getting your chapters taken as seriously as possible.
GILLIAN McALLISTER‘s debut novel, Everything But The Truth (Penguin Spring 2017) follows newly-pregnant Rachel, who slowly begins to realise that her boyfriend Jack is hiding a huge secret about his past. Gillian graduated with an English degree in 2006 and is now a lawyer with a large law firm. Her blog has been featured in various publications including Company magazine and Gillian is represented by literary agent Clare Wallace at Darley Anderson. Gillian tweets @GillianMAuthor and blogs at www.gillianmcallister.com
More posts from Gillian:
Five ways to find time to write
Five ways to add tension to your novel
Five things I didn’t understand before I got my publishing deal
Five signs your book is ready to go out into the world
Five ways to stay sane while out on submission
The Bath Novel Award & The Bath Children’s Novel Award are international prizes which aim to shine a light on emerging novelists. Each offers a £2,000 prize, along with a £500 shortlist prize and the opportunity to be introduced to literary agents. To date, 75% of winning & shortlisted writers have accepted offers of representation, with 50% going on to win traditional publishing deals, most recently a six figure pre-empt: literary agent offers and book deals
CLOSING NOV 20th 2016: The Bath Children’s Novel Award
OPEN FROM 1 DEC 2016: The Bath Novel Award
