Will You Please Read Our Guidelines!!!

Writers scream all of the time that they really don't know what agents want. Over and over again they claim they are running blind so they just submit their projects to anyone who has an email.

And I say, "Bull!"

Far too many authors scream this and are doing absolutely nothing on their end. I am sorry to say this authors, but agencies and publishers DO put very clear guidelines of what they want, how to submit and so forth!

Over the weekend, I answered close to 50 emails and over half were for things I do not represent. I also get (although not this weekend) authors who email me from the link on my website that they do not know what to submit. Compound this with authors who use my form for submission and proceed, in the section marked:

PREMISE OF STORY:

(roughly 250 words)

Put in their first three chapters, or a full length synopsis. So, either we have authors who are illiterate, authors who cannot do basic math, or authors who seem to think they can do whatever they want to do.

Some of these authors claim they just don't have the time to research everyone, so it is for this reason they use sites like Query Tracker. Umm, let's think about this for a moment. These sites still have some basic information that tells the authors what to do. My links all say that I represent ONLY romance and women's fiction. These links also say to go to my website and get the specifics. 

And yet...

I get submissions from these sites with non-fiction WWII biographies or sci-fi erotic screen plays. Again, basic reading says I accept ONLY romance and women's fiction.

But still, authors proceed to state in these query letters that "I know you only accept this but I thought you would also be interested in my erotic cookbook..." This is like going to a big box hardware store as a distributer saying, "I know you only sell hardware, but my I want you to sell my lingerie collection."

Yes, this might seem like a rant, but it is simply the facts. Guidelines ARE there for you. These guidelines are crystal clear! So read and save yourself from getting no response because your query letter is a joke, or a rejection letter that you will likely not read or interpret, "I am sorry but I do not represent this genre" as "I don't appreciate your fine literature."

And finally, if  you do not know how to write a query letter, or you don't know how the submission and publishing process works, or you don't know the role of an editor or agent, or you don't know what genre you write...

this means you need to take the time to learn. Educate yourself.