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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » book proposals » Page 5

book proposals

Send Simultaneous Submissions or Not?

By Steve Laubeon August 7, 2017
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Bryan Mitchell asked, “What is the max number of submissions you should send at a given time? I’ve heard ten but that sounds off; to me, it seems it should be less than that if you are carefully considering the agents you reach out to.”

When approaching agents I encourage simultaneous submissions, as long as you let us know you are doing so. But, as Bryan answered his own question, there is no magic number. The number should include those you think are the best fit for your project based on what you’ve discovered in your research.

Please do not ever send your proposal to multiple agents in the same agency at the same time. This happens to our agency nearly a half dozen times a week and it is annoying. It is almost guaranteed to receive a rejection.

There are some services on the Internet who will sell you a list of agents and make it simple to hit them all at once. We can often tell when this happens and it is not a good thing for the author.

Why Simultaneous Submissions to Agents?

Since each agent has a backlog of proposals to review it can take time to properly evaluate them all. If you send it to Agent ABC and it takes two months to get a “no thanks” then you send it to Agent DEF and it takes two months… By the time you get to Agent XYZ it could be a few years.

Better to target your first group of choice agents and send to them all. That way within a couple months you can find out if any have interest. If they all say no or let your proposal languish in the inbox (a form of benign rejection) then you can move to the next group of agents that you have researched.

A simple sentence at the end of your letter can say “This is a simultaneous submission.”

Where Do You Start Looking?

The Christian Writers Market Guide has nearly 60 agencies listed with around 100 agents from which to choose. That is a good place to start your research.

You can also go to any number of quality writers conferences and meet with the agents who attend. I was at a conference at the end of July and there were six agents in attendance.

If you are a part of a writers group or a larger association like RWA or ACFW or AWSA you can ask for referrals from those who you trust in that network.

Do Your Research, Please

I’ve said it before, but it is worth repeating. A book proposal is like a job application. If you are looking for employment I suspect you would research the company to which you are applying and would customize your application to that organization.

The same thing applies when approaching an agent. We try to make it relatively easy to contact us and we do not hide our names. Why then does the occasional writer think they can get away with the salutation “to whom it may concern” or “dear agent”?

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Category: Agency, Agents, Book ProposalsTag: Agency, Agents, book proposals, Queries, Simultaneous Submissions

What Happens in the Agency After I Send my Proposal?

By Steve Laubeon July 24, 2017
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Jeanine asked, “Please help me to get a picture of what happens to a manuscript that has been submitted (via email) to your office, from the time of its arrival to the time of the agent’s acceptance/rejection.” Thank you for the question Jeanine. I will first give a silly but kinda true answer of what happens in the agency as follows: We avoid looking in the incoming proposals inbox …

Read moreWhat Happens in the Agency After I Send my Proposal?
Category: Agency, Book ProposalsTag: Agency, book proposals

Books are Sold with Proposals

By Dan Balowon June 20, 2017
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If you think about it, the first step leading to the eventual sale of any book begins with grabbing someone’s attention with a short description of the book content. The proposal or short description motivates the agent, publisher, book retailer or reader to take the next step, which is different for each, but everything is set in motion by something less than the full manuscript. No one first …

Read moreBooks are Sold with Proposals
Category: Book ProposalsTag: book proposals

Make Me Jump off the Fence

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 18, 2017
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So, when querying me, maybe you followed my guidelines, submitted an appropriate manuscript, and your work has much to recommend itself. So why am I not getting back to you right away? Am I ignoring you? I’m sure it feels that way, and I’m sorry. What has probably happened is that your manuscript (and yours is not alone), has me sitting on the fence. Think about that expression. Who wants to sit …

Read moreMake Me Jump off the Fence
Category: Book Proposals, Get Published, PitchTag: book proposals, Get Published

Where Do You Find New Clients?

By Steve Laubeon April 3, 2017
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“As an agent, what percentage of your new clients come from meetings at conferences vs. general email or postal proposals? Can you address the importance of conferences?” Thanks to Scott for the question. It is a good one. Another way to frame it is “Where do you find new clients? Blind submissions or conferences?” The answer, as always, is “It depends.” Meeting someone at a conference is a …

Read moreWhere Do You Find New Clients?
Category: Book Proposals, Christian Writers Institute, Conferences, ConventionsTag: Agency, book proposals, Christian Writers Institute, writers conferences

Frustrated by Rejection or No Response? Try This

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon March 30, 2017
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Last week I wrote about authors who send agents submissions despite the fact those agents clearly state that they don’t represent those categories. When this happens, I sense one of three things from the author: exuberance, ignorance, or frustration. Exuberance An author who’s been successful for decades still can be exuberant about her work. That’s not what I mean here. In this case, the author …

Read moreFrustrated by Rejection or No Response? Try This
Category: Book Proposals, Pitch, Pitching, PlatformTag: Agents, book proposals, Frustration, Pitching

When Proposing a Series of Novels

By Steve Laubeon March 27, 2017
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“Are today’s publishers more interested in an individual novel or a trilogy? Also, when submitting a proposal for the completed first novel in a planned trilogy, is it better to focus on the first novel or give an overview of the complete trilogy? Is there an upper limit to how many books should be in a series?” These are some excellent questions submitted by both Peter and …

Read moreWhen Proposing a Series of Novels
Category: Book Proposals, Genre, Get Published, PitchingTag: book proposals, Series, Stand Alones

Do You Really Want to Change Our Minds?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon March 23, 2017
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Agents know how difficult it is to break in to publishing, to keep your stride as a midlist author, and to stay on top once you’re there. We realize where you’re coming from when you send us something we say we don’t represent, thinking it’s so wonderful we might change our minds. Maybe it is that wonderful. Maybe we might change our minds. But is that what you really want? Let’s look at two …

Read moreDo You Really Want to Change Our Minds?
Category: Agents, Book ProposalsTag: Agents, book proposals

The Ambitious Author

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon March 16, 2017
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Recently my office received an unsolicited submission from an author unfamiliar to us. Of course, this is not unusual. But here is a list of what is unusual: The submission was openly cc’ed to 185 agents. The author sent writing samples for 28 books. The author said she wants to write across all genres. At least one entry offered graphic detail of a sexual encounter. The author stated her age as …

Read moreThe Ambitious Author
Category: Agents, Book ProposalsTag: book proposals, Queries

WHAT Were They Thinking??

By Karen Ballon March 8, 2017
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You know, one of the things I’ve learned since becoming an agent is that people have an odd sense of what’s appropriate. Happily, quite a lot of what I receive is well prepared and enjoyable to read. But I’d have to say that anywhere from a fourth to even, on a bad week, a third, of what comes in falls squarely in the “I don’t THINK so” camp. So here, just to help you avoid such things, are some …

Read moreWHAT Were They Thinking??
Category: Book Proposals, Humor, PitchingTag: book proposals, Pitching
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