Reading Skills Required

This morning, as my wife and I were working in the office, we both ran across a similar issue. She is a professor and is teaching an online class this summer. She had a student write in questioning whether she needed to buy the textbook for the course. Now, here is the thing. The first page of the syllabus has a box with the textbook listed as REQUIRED in both bold print and italics. This is also the 2nd week of the quarter and week 1 had a reading assignment from the textbook.

The student did not read.

I bring this up because while she was working on this, I was answering submissions and 60% of the submissions ended up in rejections because the authors were simply not reading submission guidelines.

I know I have talked about this before, but maybe it is time for a reminder.

Before you decide to submit a project to an editor or agent, whether it is as an e-query, snail mail query or a pitch at a conference, you need to take the time to read everything you can about the editor and agent, the publisher and their submission guidelines. Are you 100% certain that you and your manuscript is a perfect fit for this person.

Please note, when we talk about submission guidelines, we are not just talking about HOW you send a project to the person, but WHAT that person really wants. Is this a genre the person even acquires?

For example, I had 5 submission this morning for thrillers and mysteries. I do not acquire these stories. It doesn't matter if it is a female driven story, or you want to claim it is women's fiction because women like the writing, it is still a thriller or a mystery, end of story. This means no.

This really is not rocket science. A while ago, I was doing freelance critiques of query letters. When authors included who they were submitting to (which they should have done) I immediately went to the websites of that editor or agent to see what that person wanted, the format, the genres, and the likes and dislikes of the person. It literally took me 2 minutes and I had tracked down the information. You too need to do this.

Publishers, editors and agents are VERY transparent when it comes to the information they put out there for authors.

I would also add that if you think you are writing a particular genre, make sure to read it. I get this a lot with authors who claim they are writing romance. There happened to be a romance in the story, but the project simply was not a romance. The reason? They didn't read romance.

Please, do your research! You will find great success with your writing. I promise!