Amy’s Bad Advice #8

It’s worth what you paid for it.

For this weeks bad advice let’s talk about that beautiful and glorious moment when you discover that a literary agent wants to read your manuscript…and what not to do about it…

First, do not include the draft number in your file name. No one wants to see that you’re on draft 897 or 1.

Do not include anything weird in your file name for that matter. Just your name and the title of your book. Unless the agent has specified something else.

Also, and this goes without needing saying really, but please send a clean draft. Make sure you are as free of error as possible. Every missed comma or typo takes the agent out of your story.

Next, don’t use weird formatting or fonts. It’s not precious. It looks stupid. You want your story to Stand out. That is all.

Lastly. Please double check you have followed the agents guidelines for submission and then….Don’t harass them before the time they have requested is done. A lot ask for 2-3 months. I know, that’s forever, but it’s worth your patience.

In the meantime. Feel free to twitter stalk the agent. You never know when they might talk about you. But, remember. They probably aren’t talking about you.

This concludes Amy’s Advice for Thanksgiving time. You’re welcome.

To learn more about literary agents and all this jumble I rant about all the time you can see my previous posts:

Query, Querying, Queried…

Know When to Hold them…

…Amongst several others.

Or check out agent extraordinaire:

Janet Reid, The Query Shark. Her blog is my go to for pretty much all things writing. She’s straightforward, insightful and hilarious.

Cheers, Amy