So I'm going to do a little Q&A now about offers of representation. Obviously there are going to be a lot of permutations and probabilities of these scenarios so I won't be able to cover everything, but after asking for the main questions on Twitter, here we go:

MY END

1. How do I know when I want to offer?

 I know I love a manuscript when want to tell people about it the minute I finish reading it. But I don't always know if I want to offer until I talk to you. Sometimes the manuscript is great, but I have notes. Sometimes I want to make sure you're not crazy. Usually I get to the end of the phone call before saying, "So, I'd love work with you and offer representation."

2. Do I pass the manuscript around to the agency first?

Often enough. We're a small agency, so that's really only one other opinion. But it's nice to have a second thumbs-up, especially if I'm a little on the fence. If I'm 100% in love with it, I might just want Caren to read it so she can be equally excited about it. But we also work on different kinds of projects, so if I want to sign a picture book, or Caren is signing a new romance author, it doesn't make sense for us to share, since we're not really qualified to judge. Ultimately, my list is my own, and those are my choices.

3. Do I always revise before offering or revise after offering?

There is no "always." Sometimes I see potential but not enough to use up more hours. Sometimes I know the work isn't that much, so I should grab it. I go with my gut on this one. No hard-fast rules.

YOUR END

1. Can you query more agents if you have an offer on the table?

Well, this is a funny one. Suppose you're only part-way through querying and you start to get responses faster than you thought. But you still wanted to query a few more agents that you like. Can you rush a query out to them? The short answer is: sure. It's a free country. I've advocated before for letting even the agents who only have a query know that you have an offer--more options are always good.

But you have to do it understanding that those agents might not get to it in time. If I take 2 weeks to read, then I might not see that email until you've already made a decision. 

Now, agents sometimes do this with editors. We start to get interest, so we submit more widely to create MORE interest. But I have relationships with those editors. I can call and say, "Hey, can you read this quickly? It's going fast." Because you don't have a relationship with those agents, you can't exactly say that.

And you also have a problem of not wanting the offering agent to wait too long. But...if you think you stand a chance at getting more interest, do whatever you want as long as you understand the risks.

2. How do you go about talking to an agent's clients?

This is easy. You ask the agent who is offering if you can speak to his/her clients. They will likely say yes, and if they don't, then that's sketchy. In this situation, I will consider which client of mine would be the most helpful to speak to, based on what they write and their overall situation. (Every case is different after all.) Then I'd put you guys in touch. 

What you shouldn't ever do is go behind the agent's back and get in touch with clients without asking first. Those clients have their loyalty to me first, so they'd say "Uh, is this person legit?" And you also look like a creepy if you're looking for contact info through back channels. 

It's a different story if you already have a relationship with an agent's clients already. In that case, it's a little more fluid, and hopefully the agent knows about t

Some months ago, when we debated about authors notifying agents of another offer of representation, some comments were made about the speed of things when there's real interest. That if an agent doesn't respond immediately, read immediately, and offer immediately, they must not really be that interested.

The same argument has been made with agents sending projects out on submission. The really big deals, with large offers of money, all happen overnight. Those editors who manage to pull big pre-empts together over weekends...those are the exciting stories you guys all love, because you think that's how it needs to happen for a project to get buzz.

Well, guess what? That's all crap.

We announced some great news yesterday for one of my clients, Kiera Cass, who just had her ENTIRE TRILOGY picked up by HarperCollins, in quite a nice deal. (Read: not a small potatoes one.) Before you get any farther, watch Kiera's celebratory video announcement. It's awesome. Then keep reading below.

Yesterday I got to thinking about Kiera's process, both in getting signed by me, and then landing this amazing deal. So I looked back at her timeline.

Kiera queried me on February 8th. Since I read on schedule and in order, I read her query on February 26th, and requested her manuscript. I didn't get to it immediately, but when I did I read it quickly. Then I thought about it for a few days. I then passed to Caren for a second read on March 18th. She loved it too. I emailed Kiera and asked to set up a phone call on March 22nd, wherein I offered representation. (That was my birthday, actually.) Kiera had another agent interested, but picked me a few days later. (Yay!)

So that was a full 6 weeks minimum from query to offer. We then revised for a month. And I sent the project out in early May. We settled a deal in mid-June, after the standard few weeks of editors reading, BEA happening right in the middle, my bugging people, editors getting me great feedback, taking things to committee, etc.

None of this happened overnight, and yet...an amazing project was just bought by an editor who is ecstatic about it. No one is less than enthused. And the offer didn't disappoint.

What's the lesson? Contrary to popular belief, speed isn't everything. Things can happen right on schedule, according to the usual timelines, and still have wonderfully happy endings. There's a reason I say how long things take for me to read. I need that time. Editors need their time too. There's a lot of backstage activity that needs to happen.

So next time someone tells you that an agent is only interested if they get back to you quickly, or if an editor doesn't offer immediately, tell them they're an idiot. 

Another month, another stat blog post. I'm clearly a little farther behind schedule than I'd like to be also. But most notable in May was the drop in volume. It looks like it's perked back up now in mid-June, but...May is a mystery. Here are the full stats:

• Total: 261
• Requested: 9
• Categories of Requested:  2 picture books, 1 middle-grade fantasy, 2 contemporary YA, 1 paranormal YA, 1 dystopian YA, 1 YA fantasy, 1 adult non-fiction
• Queries with attachments: 10

So compared to last month, I got about 100 fewer queries. That's a big drop. Where did people go? I will say that there are 166 queries in the queue for June so far, so I should be back up to the 300+ level for this month. Yay.

Still, my request rate was up again. So qualitatively, things seemed better. And I had a few referrals of manuscripts that I requested as well, which don't really count as slush pile submissions.

Otherwise, I don't think there was anything truly notable worth mentioning. The usual array of misspellings, calling me the wrong name, derivative books...

If you have questions, definitely let me know. 

A few months ago, a lot of you guys yelled at me for switching things up on you by saying that I wanted to be notified of an offer even if you'd only queried me. The rational (I believe) for why so many people were pissed at me was that so many agents want things different ways, and how on earth can you be expected to get it straight? (I still think that's lame, by the way.)

Well, today I was contemplating adding another form rejection (I have a few I use for different reasons) that would be sent to all queriers who seemed to have missed the boat on how to submit to us properly to begin with. But I am hedging on this one. Mostly because I'm not sure it's my job to do your work for you.

I think I'm part of a group of agents who goes ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty in terms of educating the writer community. We blog, we Twitter...we go to conferences galore. But is this good will or genuine responsibility? I think it's a little from Column A, a little from Column B, personally. More from Column A though.

So I am going to ask YOU, my faithful readers, and hopefully some not-so-faithful readers who like having opinions to answer the following questions:

1. Whose responsibility is it to make sure you submit properly? Mine or yours?
2. Where does my responsibility end? 
3. And more specifically: should I bother with an extra form rejection for Those Who Do Not Seem To Get It?

As we all know, this is not the job or field for the weak or the flighty. You have to contend with hours of labor, waiting, rejection, more waiting, criticism, more waiting, and maybe more rejection. It sucks. And it sucks on our end too. We aren't always winners, can't always sell the project, and have to give some bad news. Just the other day I finally got some great feedback on a project that'd be sitting out with editors for awhile, which reassured me and made me shout, "I don't suck at my job!" 

So undoubtedly there are many stages at which you have to evaluate your status and decide, "Do I give up?" It might be mean giving up on a certain book. Or giving up in general. Truth be told, I encounter a lot of people who maybe need to give up. They aren't skilled enough, their books aren't ever going to make it. But I can't do that. A) It's cruel. B) It's not the point or my job to do that.

While I do think there are too many people who think persistence is enough to get published, or feel the need to even be published when maybe they should just be writing for themselves, it's really an individual's call. So if you're not ready to let go yet, who am I to tell you that?

But there do come points where giving up might be necessary. Sometimes I've had to retire a project, or table it for awhile. And my decision to do that is part gut feeling (What kinds of responses am I getting? Are they encouraging or not?), but mostly when the following statement is true: there aren't any more options.

Which I think are things you have to take into account when looking at a story you're working on or trying to get placed. Look at the responses. Look at the options. Weigh them against each other and think about how quickly you want to exhaust those options or if there's work yet to be done. Unfortunately, it's case by case, and I can't give such quick advice.

And for the authors who are still waiting for that deal...I have a few clients you can talk to. It's rough. But that's the point where you try and trust your agent that it'll happen. We can't always predict exactly when it'll happen. The industry is mercurial like that. I've signed clients for one book, and then sold their second one. I've sent books on 3 rounds of submission before selling them. There are so many permutations, and you just have to take it as it comes.

So...hang in there. If it's meant to happen, it'll happen. But keep your butt in the chair, keep working, keep assessing the feedback, keep your options open and in clear view. And good luck.

So I almost hate to say this, even though I just tweeted it, but my volume of queries has been down significantly so far in May. I'm noticing this more because of the March and April Query Stats posts--I've been gathering up the May submissions as well. My numbers just don't compare to April. 

When these things happen I actually get a little paranoid. Where are the projects going? Are people choosing not to query me? Are my agent colleagues elsewhere seeing things that I want to see also? Did I do something wrong? Is my name not getting out enough places?

Or is it something else? Something in the water? Some subliminal psychological undercurrents? Something in the annual life-cycle of the writer species?

Someone suggested that maybe all the NaNoWriMo novels dried up. Or maybe there's a misconception that publishing slows down in the summer, so people we're rushing their projects out the door for quick sales. (Which is a silly way to approach this anyway.)

But you tell me: do you think there's any logic to why some months are heavier than others?

And while I'm at it...send me stuff! Good stuff. You know what I'm talking about. Right?

Happy release day, PICKLE IMPOSSIBLE! To celebrate the release of Eli Stutz's debut, he's holding a contest over on his Facebook fan page. Want in? Yes you do! Because we're giving away these prizes:

• First Prize: A signed copy of PICKLE IMPOSSIBLE and a partial manuscript critique from me.
• Runners Up: A query letter critique from both me and Eli (who writes FANTASTIC queries--learn from the master!) 

All you have to do is...tell us about the prickliest pickle you've ever gotten yourself caught up in. How easy is that? Surely you've gotten stuck in a sticky situation of some kind. Now it can win you something! 

Rules:

1. Become a fan of PICKLE IMPOSSIBLE on Facebook.
2. Leave your pickle of a situation on the wall.
3. Contest closes on Friday May 28th at noon Eastern time.

Go forth!

Big things are afoot over here on the CJLA blog. So this blog-post is just a little teaser to warn you about some awesome events coming up! They include...

• A big book giveaway contest for schools that need them (co-hosted with #yalitchat).
• A pickle of a contest for PICKLE IMPOSSIBLE's release next week!
• And...we're doing another pitch-fest soon! Stay tuned for details.

This blog post has been brought to you by the power of Twitter. It can alternately be titled "If You Liked It, Then You Should Have Put a Ring on It."

Something that's been known to happen both between authors and agents, and then agents and editors is the revision request without a commitment of a representation offer or a contract. Mostly, the request for a revision is a good thing. It means the agent or editor sees potential and wants to develop it.

I myself have asked an author for an exclusive revision on a few occasions. What usually happens is that I'll see something promising, read it, know something's there, but not feel confident enough to take it on without fixing those nagging areas. Part of this has to do with wanting to make sure you're also taking on an author who is CAPABLE of revision. Part of it is just making sure you can make it fit the market.

Whenever I ask for a revision, I do it with the best of intentions. I WANT that project to work. More often than not, this has had good results for me. I have several clients who I did an exclusive revision with first, and then offered representation after seeing the finished product. Those have also gone on to sell to publishers. 

My process is usually to offer the writer this trade: I will give you my notes, and in exchange you will give me first look at the revision. And if I don't choose to take on the project at that point, you are then free to take that revision anywhere you like.

I like to think that's fair. Because I don't want to spend a lot of time giving you notes for you to take my effort and give it to someone else first. And I want you to be free to take a hopefully stronger project elsewhere too. I don't usually set a time limit on it, since I can't dictate how long your revision process should take. 

Sometimes it just doesn't work though. And these cases are always really tough. Sometimes the project can't evolve past "potential." Sometimes the author just isn't skilled enough to fix it. Invariably I feel a little guilty if I pass on a revision. The idea isn't to make the author jump through unnecessary hoops. It's to make sure we're getting the right projects signed. Our hope is always that even if the revision doesn't work, the project is still stronger and someone else might have luck with it. 

This happens on the other side of the table too. And I've admittedly been just as frustrated when an editor has asked for an exclusive revision on a client's book, loved it, and then declined to offer. That happens too. So I understand why writers might hesitate without us offering to make anything official.

But I think at the end of the day, someone taking interest enough to want to see where it can go is a good thing. And this industry requires such collaboration, that any input is inevitable and will help you. So just keep your expectations in check, and you should be in good shape.

I promised. So here we go...

• Total: 351
• Requested: 8
• Categories of Requested: 3 MG, 3 contemporary YA, 1 YA fantasy, 1 narrative nonfiction 
• Queries with attachments: 15
• People who wrote thank you notes: 18

So compared to last month, I saw a 22% increase in queries. My request rate also went up a little. But...it's still only just shy of 3%. (Isn't that scary?) And again, there were some spam queries that all the agents I know, and some I don't, were CCed on. I delete those right away, mark as spam, and don't count them. 

My thoughts...

Style

There were a few notable events in the query pile this month that show me how little people must research ahead of time. There was one email in a pink font on a flowery pink background. My eyes hurt just opening it, and I didn't even care what the content was. Had it been on paper, I'd have expected glitter and perfume. There were also several letters that barely qualified as letters. Either incredibly casual, like "Hey there, can I send you something?" or just reeking of "I don't know what I'm doing." Those are hard to deal with, but by and large I try to find what the book is somewhere (if it's there) and send a rejection.

There's also still that weird syndrome of a lack of sample pages. I really think every listing of mine says: please include the first 3-5 pages of the manuscript in the body of the email. If it doesn't somewhere, can someone let me know? 

I included the number of thank you notes I got for my form rejection letter. It's nice when people are polite. It's less nice when they also ask me if I can recommend another agent. I don't write back to these.

But at least compared the number of people who are still sending me attachments, there are more polite people than sloppy people. The number of unsolicited attachments I got DOUBLED this month. Probably a fluke, but it goes to the point that a solid 10% of people just aren't paying attention AT ALL. And many more just plain don't get it in the first place.

Requests

I seem to be on a middle-grade kick, which is good. I'm looking for good middle-grade, so my requests fit that bill. The concepts on each of these seemed promising, hence the requests.

Obviously the narrative nonfiction was an exception, since I so rarely do those books, but I loved the writing. 

As for the YA, the contemporary YA seemed to be stronger this month in terms of writing and premise. I may also be burned out of dystopian and fantasy. Bear in mind, I already represent 3 authors who have published or about-to-be published dystopian novels. As much as I love them, I'm going to be picky. I don't want to be a one trick pony.

And that's April! Time to dig into May...and I enjoy this now, so stay tuned for the next installment next month.

Another great book hits the shelves today, and this one is an odd twist for my usual areas of representation. A big happy release day to authors Ken McKenzie and Todd Harra for MORTUARY CONFIDENTIAL!

I may mostly do children's books, but who could say no to collection of true-life stories from undertakers? 

The authors also won me over with the way they met: doing a calendar, called Men of Mortuaries, that Ken started as a vehicle to raise funds for his breast cancer treatment foundation, KAMM Cares. Ken will also be donating a portion of the profits from the book to his foundation.

So run, don't walk, to pick up this awesome, heartwarming, and macabre collection of a profession you've always been curious in that morbid kind of way.

This blog post has been a few days in the making, and one that I'm somewhat anxious to post. I am going to say some things you are not going to like, which stem from sitting in on an authors panel at SCBWI Poconos this past weekend. The panel was comprised of 2 more notable authors, and several picture book authors who had placed their books at small presses. People I'd never heard of and probably won't ever.

A question was asked of the panel: do you have an agent?

Only one author, Sandy Asher, had an agent. No one else did, including the bestselling Judy Schachner of the Skippyjon Jones books. When asked why they didn't, most said they didn't feel the need for one. They were doing just fine on their own. But are they?

My heart SUNK. For several reasons. First, because they were clearly devaluing what I do for my authors. Second, it was a bad instance of misinformation. Third: what those contracts must look like? Oy! And fourth, because it highlighted a real problem we have right now in children's publishing (at least within the conference circles) with picture books. But let me back up. I've already expounded on why people need agents. So today I just want to talk about picture books.

There is clearly a problem with picture books these days. Conferences are loaded with people who feel driven to write them. (I've polled people before and it feels like 75% of the room is there because they write picture books. Some day I'll ask them exactly WHY they feel so compelled to do this. That's more of a mystery to me.) Most industry professionals (even those of us who LIKE picture books) have an automatic internal eye-roll at this point, because the bulk of the quality of these manuscripts is not stellar. They are on overdone topics, and don't really add anything to an already-crowded market. (Sorry, it's true.)

On top of the quality and quantity issues, there are very few agents who will even consider them. It's not because we don't LIKE picture books. I love them. So why? Because the money is terrible. The money is terrible for me, and for you, and for the publishers (unless that book backlists forever). The market is flat, advances low, and production expensive. Not to mention shelving issues at bookstores, who take VERY small numbers of debut picture books. We can love picture books as much as we want, but they are ROUGH financially, and when I need to pay rent, that's not the best way for me to do it.

And yet, all these writers feel compelled to write MORE of them, and also to do their darndest to get them published somewhere. Anywhere. I know you're stuck if you're a picture book author and want to get published. Agents won't take you, you're tired of us rejecting you (and probably bitter at us), so you'll try anywhere. But would you rather be published badly then not be published? Would you rather toss rights away just to get some print copies of something? Which is really the part that kills me. 

I'm all for congratulating successes and perseverance, but I also want to ask this question: How are we measuring success and what are we telling picture book writers at the conferences to do? Just keep trying no matter what? 

I don't have any real answers here. It's a conundrum, to be sure. I firmly believe authors need agents. But if that's not an option for you, I'm not exactly telling you to give up. But I wish the REAL reason agents don't work on picture books was better understood. We're not trying to limit your success. We just know that success in this arena is severely limited right now. And I'm willing to bet good money that my definition of success is probably not the same as those authors on that panel. 

I assume there will be lots of thoughts in the comments. Knock yourselves out.

~Elana

I promised a few weeks ago that I'd do an experiment. So instead of deleting after responding, I moved every March query and its accompanying response from me into a new folder, so I could do some analysis. Here we go:

• TOTAL: 286
• REQUESTED: 3
• CATEGORY OF REQUESTED: 2 YA, 1 MG
• QUERIES WITH ATTACHMENTS: 7
• CATEGORIES I DON'T REP: 24

Other items of note: 

Numbers:

The actual number of emails I received was a bit higher than 286. That number does not include anyone who emailed me a second time (almost immediately) with a correction to their prior query. I would guess there were a good 10 of those. And then there were a few cases where the querier CCed the entire industry on the email. I don't respond to those and they get deleted.

I should add also that while my request rate is always low, this month was very low. This is because I happened to sign 2 amazing new projects right in the middle of the month as I was beginning to read the March 1st queries. So as the ebb and flow goes, I was going to need to be really wowed to want to see something.

Genres:

If you think about how many queries were not categories I rep in relation to the total number received, that's about 10%. 10%! The bulk of them were for memoirs. I don't really do those. The remainder were largely for some non-specific type of adult fiction. And a minority were still for...vampires! Is there a listing for me anywhere that doesn't say "No vampires"? If there is, please let me know. 

Addressing problems:

• ADDRESSED TO "Dear Agent": 3 
• ADDRESSED TO "Ms. Johnson": 3
• ADDRESSED TO "Elana Johnson": 2
• SPELLED MY NAME "ELENA": 9

We're a small agency, peeps. There are 2 of us that work here. And only one of us is even open to submissions right now. That would be me. So these 17 queries that just didn't even know who I am are kind of annoying. And look how the misspelling of my name trumps the letter being addressed to someone other than me. Please read carefully. Double-check spellings of names. For your own sake. You look sloppy otherwise.

Miscellany:

This was the first month I got a query sent from an iPhone. Yep, "Sent from my iPhone" signature at all. And it was one of the categories I don't rep. So that person's tactics probably need some re-evaluation.

I also got a decent number of thank you notes and/or people asking me who else I'd recommend they query. Needless to say, I don't reply to those either. A rejection isn't an invitation to conversation, unless I indicate as much. You're responsible for your own research. I'm not doing it for you.

And then of course is the ever-rising syndrome of "just plain unprofessional" letters, that show me people are querying somewhat casually. Several other agents have commented on this on their blogs this week, so I'll just reiterate their points. Whether it's just that the internet blew the lid off the filters, or that people are lazy, it is definitely too easy to send off those letters. Whoever I'm railing against probably isn't reading this post, but at least I can hope that those of you who are will be better prepared.

Should I do it again for April? I think I might. I'd like to see if there's a rise or fall in any of the numbers.

Just a quick note from the trenches today, to send you over to Twitter to follow a great thread: #whatitmeanstobeanagent

Started by superstar Jason Ashlock, many luminaries and minor luminaries (i.e. me) have been contributing our thoughts on our job, from the sublime to the mundane. 

Go enjoy! And learn something. Back to reading for me...

~Elana

I caved yesterday. I said I wouldn't do it. I always wait for second generation devices. I have integrity.

Nope. I caved. I bought an iPad. And I love it.

We can blame best-tech-geek friend, who also succumbed to peer pressure on Saturday after holding one that belonged to his friend. I in turn got to use best-tech-geek friend's on Sunday, and felt instantaneous jealousy and seduction. I always knew I'd want one eventually, but I was determined not to be one of the initial suckers who had to deal with buggy software or hardware for that matter. So much for that.

I've been interested in the iPad since the rumors and the announcement. Sure it's expensive, but the price was better than I thought it might be (the first iPhone cost $600, remember). It also piqued professional interest since it opens up the market on e-books, which I think is great for publishing (if they can make the business model, that is). But most importantly, on a personal level, I needed a better solution for my productivity device issues. Plus I like shiny things. (And man, is it gorgeous.)

I've had a Kindle for almost a year, but I've almost stopped using it entirely. I'm not really an e-book purchaser, and I really wanted it for manuscript reading. But the file conversion from .doc to Kindle format (and 15 cent charge if I emailed directly to the device) was annoying. And then if I put notes into the document, I couldn't get them back off again. I ended up having to read everything twice if I wanted to send notes to an author. What a waste.

So the iPad is a great solution. It has Pages: an actual word processor. Without file compatibility issues. (I almost can't get over that fact. Microsoft and Apple are playing nice? Super!) Now...it doesn't support "track changes" yet. But you know what? That's a software upgrade away, and I can work around that in the meantime. I have already loaded it up with Word documents, easy peasy. I am even taking this to the SCBWI conference this weekend and doing my Power Point presentation from Keynote. (I suck. Deal.) 

On the whole, I'm not entirely sure what the real use and niche market for this puppy will be. Nobody does. What I know so far is: this is not a phone, and this is not just a big iPod. This is something else entirely. All in all, I have a lot of discovery ahead of me. But I'm kind of excited to be an early adopter this time around, even if I feel a little dirty about it. The possibilities are pretty cool both for publishing and for productivity in general. I'll keep you posted!

It's a big release season at CJLA! Another awesome title we're so proud of hits stores today. Head on out to your local store and make sure they have David Patneaude's EPITAPH ROAD on the shelves. Then buy one!

In celebration of this eerie dystopian novel's release day, there's a party and contest happening on over at the Facebook fan page. 

RULES:

1. Become a fan of EPITAPH ROAD on Facebook.
2. Write a note on our wall telling us what you think the world will look like 50 years from now.
3. Contest ends on Friday, March 26th at 12PM Eastern/9AM Pacific time. Get in your entries before then!
4. Spread the word!

THE PRIZE:

David will pick his top 3-5 favorites, and those winners will get a signed copy of EPITAPH ROAD from David and a query letter critique from me.

Go forth and tell us how you think the future will unfold! And congrats, David, on your big release day!

Dear readers,

After the balagan (Hebrew for "utter madness") that arose this week after I suggested it might be nice to let agents with queries know you've gotten an offer, I thought it might be helpful for me to give you a rundown on how I tackle my query pile. Especially because several people mentioned that my 2-3 response time on queries just isn't fast enough if I want to stay on top of the hot projects. (I think that's totally unfair, by the way, but I'm not arguing with you anymore.)

So the first thing you should know about how I read is: I read everything in the order it comes in.

There are almost NO exceptions to this rule. It's the only way to make it fair and democratic, and to keep myself organized. This way I don't lose track of requests, I can easily label things, and clear things out by date. (Sidenote: We here at CJLA use Google Apps, which has the BRILLIANT label & filter system of GMail. I have distinct colors for QUERIES and REQUESTED. Every email with the word "query" or "submission" in the subject gets automatically filtered into the QUERIES folder. And emails are threaded, so I know if I have responded.)

  The only time I will jump ahead is if I see a name that is referral, or if someone is letting me know that they have an offer on the table. Those are special circumstances. Everyone else goes exactly in the order in which they came. Everyone gets treated the same.

When I had fewer queries coming in, my habit was thusly: every morning, over my cup of coffee, I would read the queries from that same day a week earlier. So on a Monday I would read last Monday's, etc. Now I'm a bit busier so this doesn't happen as often. But I'd like to get back to it since it kept me timeline. Now I most often read 30 in a batch, which is a little more draining. But I am still within 3 weeks on response on queries, and nothing exceeds that. If it does, then it got marked as spam because you did something silly like send it to me and 50 of my nearest and dearest agent friends. 

When I open your letter, I usually do a quick eye scan for both format and keywords that look interesting. These are speed reading tricks. The more cleanly formatted emails are more pleasing to the eye and are usually more inviting for closer reads. The jumbled ones are less so. If there is an attachment, you are most likely going to get a rejection letter, because I explicitly say don't do that, and it's 2 extra steps for me to read what you sent, plus you could be trying to poison me or my precious laptop.

Once I kind of have that initial sense of what I'm looking at (and haven't seen that it's clearly not for me), I read the letter more closely. Unless it's a genre I don't handle in the slightest, I move down to the sample pages. (Unless there are no sample pages.) The sample pages are a real deal clincher for me. If the concept looks good, those first few pages better match up. And if there are no sample pages, well, that concept better be freaking AMAZING for me to request it. It has happened.

Every now and again, there's something interesting about a query, but I'm not sold, so I set it aside for a few hours or another day. But I hate seeing lingering things, so I get back to those quickly.

Now, once I request something, I smack that extra label on that email, so those are tracked also. And I tackle those by the same chronological order as the queries. The timeline is less strict here, because my request-rate varies, but if I see that a manuscript came in 2 weeks ago and I haven't looked yet, I'll speed up. 

I have a feeling you would probably like some stats. I do not have any at the moment. I am, however, doing the following: I am keeping all March queries and responses, and I will do a round-up of one month's worth of queries and detail stats in early April.

Cool?

~Elana

So today, after a little incident in my query pile, I posted something to Twitter that started a bit of a kerfuffle. That tweet was: 

@elanaroth: You know, I'm quick on query turnaround. Requested one sent on 2/23. Author already got an agent. Am I wrong to have wanted notice of offer?

With all apologies due the writer who sparked this reaction from me (seriously, it's not just you, I'm sorry!), this kind of thing happens sometimes. I'm going through my query pile, see something I'm interested in, ask for it, and get a note back, "Sorry! I've already gotten representation."

My reaction today had a few parts. First: well, shucks. Second: How did that happen in the 2 weeks since the query came in? And third: why didn't you tell me you got an offer?

Now, I know the standard operating procedure is to notify only the agents who have partials or fulls that you got an offer. And I fully support that. There's nothing more irritating than reading something, thinking about it, and then having someone not give you the courtesy of a response before accepting another offer. Like, why did you bother?

My reasoning for supporting that rule is thusly: this is your career. If other people are considering your work, and some of them are really digging it, don't you want to be able to make the best decision? The first offer is not always the best one. 

But I guess the specific question today is, do you notify the people who only have your query letter that you've received an offer? 

Truthfully, it could go either way. I'd like to think that if you queried me at all, you are interested in my representing you. So a query that is no longer viable just says to me, "Psych! I wasn't really serious about that." Is that what you're going for? Or did you really want to see what I thought? Pulling it from me without telling me tells me I'm irrelevant. And it wastes my time when I do get to your letter.

And if anything, contacting those query-only agents will help you. One Twitterer said this actually prompted more offers on her book. How awesome is that? You're saying no for them by not giving them the heads-up. And the worst they could say if you did? No. What's to lose? Nothing.

That said, I do understand the rationale behind only contacting the people who have requested material. Those people have already expressed interest. There are also a lot of non-responder agents out there. So there's no way to know if you've already been passed over and you're just adding clutter to the inbox.

But for me, the moral of the story is I don't think there's ever any harm in being a good communicator, which in this case involves tying up loose ends. And since it's your career, I'd hope you make those kinds of communication decisions--and representation decisions--wisely. There's so much conflicting information out there (I probably just added to it) but common sense and courtesy go a long way. 

Yell at me below...

~Elana

I seem to have found my new favorite website, since I'm doing two posts in a row featuring Indexed. But I thought this was particularly hilarious and appropriate for us here in the publishing field. 

courtesy of Indexed (thisisindexed.com)

Now, I have a feeling if this were the bracket for YA trends, vampires would beat out zombies and take the championship, and fairies would have made it a little bit farther. But I won't lie that I kind of wish the zombie apocalypse beats out the vampire trend eventually...

Would these be your picks?

~Elana

I thought I'd start this Monday morning off with a tidbit of both writing whimsy and food for thought.

courtesy of INDEXED (thisisindexed.com)

I think you can read this one of two ways:

1. The better the writing, the better the read.
2. The more you read, the better you write.

One of my English professors in college always said that if you wanted to ever be a writer you had to READ EVERYTHING. Read constantly. Fill your head with words, because the more you read, the more you know how to use them. The more ingrained the ebb and flow and structure and grammar of the English language seeps into your brain.

Even just the repeated viewing of printed words on the page teaches you what your written words should look like. And I think a few glimpses into the query pile would show you some examples where it's clear people aren't quite familiar with the basic LOOK of prose, let alone it's finer nuances.

So what do you think? And what are you reading these days?

The winners have been chosen! Thanks to everyone for participating in the DOUG-DENNIS and the FAT FIB contest! Darren and I had a great time today reading all your fibs, you fantastic liars, you. 

Before I get to the winners, I want to mention that there were a few funny trends in the lies, which lead me to believe you are all constantly thinking about the follow:

1. Chuck Norris
2. JK Rowling
3. Food

Seriously!

Also, after reading the fibs, Darren and I realized we couldn't stick strictly to our first, second and third place prizes. So we changed it up just a bit. There was actually a tie for the grand-prize, and we also liked a whole lot of them for third place, so we decided to a group of honorable mentions that all get BAH stickers. More winners!

And now, without further ado...

The GRAND PRIZE winners of a signed book and a partial manuscript critique are:

• @DelilahSDawson for: "I don't make snow angels. I make snow narwhals."
• @mistyprovencher for: "I did not eat the crayons. I just smile rainbows."

SECOND PLACE of a limited edition BAH poster and a query letter critique goes to:

• @LiteraryMouse for: "Just below the Earth's crust is a thin layer of chocolate pudding. Geologists don't talk about it because they want to eat it themselves."

And a whole batch of HONORABLE MENTIONS who are getting BAH stickers:

• @Donna_Earnhardt for: "I carved the faces on Mount Rushmore...with my toothbrush."
• @KeimComley for: "My homework ate my dog."
• @KCBooks for: "I did not eat brownies for breakfast."
• @YolaRamunno for: "I don't know what I really look like because every mirror I look into shows me someone different."
• @JaneLebak for: "Actually, Wednesday will be held on Thursday this Friday."

If you are one of the winners, please email me at: elana [at] johnsonliterary [dot] com. 

Congrats to everyone! And happy release day, DOUG-DENNIS AND THE FLYAWAY FIB!