5 Agent Insights

I'm continuing with sharing some of the tidbits I picked up when attending the Pennwriters conference. One session I attended, How to Succeed for Writers: Agent Insights and Tips, was led by Marie Lamba and Roseanne Wells, both of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency. You'll notice I only have five things to share from the hour long presentation. Both agents were energetic and interesting speakers but in this workshop, they spent all their time talking and allowed little time for questions.

Here is what they shared about their particular agency.

1. Make sure you know what the agent wants to represent. I think we'll all heard this before. Do your research before submitting.

2. On the other hand, at their particular agency if they receive something they think another agent in their company would like, they will pass it around the office.

3. Speaking as if it was a pet peeve, both agents warned writers to make sure you use professional salutations on all correspondence including email.

4. They do expect you to have a social media presence before you contact them. They shared that if they were considering two different projects of equal appeal, they would chose to represent the writer who had an established online profile.

5. Another recommendation from the agents was for a writers to educate themselves on the entire process of a book going from submission to publication. This would help the writer be patient during the sometimes lengthy times between contract and actual book release.

Not a lot of WOW information to be shared here. I think there might have been if there had been a chance for more questions.

Do you write emails with the same professional manner as a snail mail letter? What question might you have asked these agents if given the opportunity? Would you have found this presentation interesting or would you have been on Twitter like I was during some of it?