My goal is to make this process as painless as possible for you, and the following guidelines will make us better able to respond to you in a timely manner.
-Do send your query letter via email, and include the full query in the body of the email, not as an attachment.
-Do include a writing sample of the first 25 pages of your manuscript (fiction) or your proposal with sample chapter (nonfiction) in the body of the email below your query letter.
-Do proofread carefully and double-space your materials if possible.
-Do be sure to query only one agent at this agency. We will not review queries sent to more than one of us.
-Do resend your query email if you haven’t heard from us in 8 weeks, noting the date previously sent. Our goal is to read and respond to every query in that time frame.
-Don’t send attachments with a blank email or an incomplete query – we will not open them.
-Don’t send materials as a shared file or download link (such as Dropbox or Google Docs). We will not open these files.
-Don’t submit to more than one of us at once, whether in the same query or separate queries, or requery another agent here after getting a pass. We share queries with each other frequently, so a no from one is a no from all.
-Don't query more than one project at a time.
-Don’t send a query for a novel until the manuscript is complete, polished and ready for review. We do not accept partial manuscripts for novels. Nonfiction can be queried with a proposal.
-Don’t pitch projects or follow up on queries over the phone or via social media. Pitches made via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, will not be considered except as part of a planned pitch event.
Query Tips
We like our unsolicited queries to be concise, well-written, and well-proofed, and as devoid of gimmicks as possible. Here’s what to include:
A professional, personalized greeting.
A mention in the first paragraph of why you’re querying us: you admire a client’s work, you met us at a conference, you read a great interview, etc. Be brief and specific!
Key stats for your project: title, genre, word count, and comp titles or authors.
Your pitch: a paragraph or two summarizing your novel or nonfiction project that will hook us on your work. For fiction, please include genre, word count, and comp titles.
Your bio or credentials: your expertise in the topic, your previous publication credits, your social media platform.
Nonfiction Proposal Guidelines
We work very hard with our clients to help them create their proposals and because we think this part of the publishing process is so very important, we wanted to share our basic formula for putting together a non-fiction proposal. The proposal is broken down into several parts.
Overview
This begins with a brief dramatic anecdote which is meant to get the reader, in this case the editor at the publishing company, interested in the material. Immediately after this anecdote, you should describe in two or three sentences—no more—what the book will be about. This is followed by another brief paragraph on why it is being written and then another on why you are qualified to write it.
After this, you need to describe your audience who will buy your book—both demographically and statistically. The more numbers you have here the better.
Alongside your audience, describe your platform and marketing advantages: who you are, your qualifications, your media experience (or media coverage of your project/podcast/organization), your social media reach (not just numbers but growth and engagement), outlets where you regularly speak or publish pieces, any other media where you have a strong connection. And anything else you bring to the table to support your book.
The final element of the overview is a comparative section where you compare your book to others that would be found in the same place in the bookstore. In each case, you must provide the author, the title, the publisher, and the year of initial publication and, book by book, tell us how your proposed book will be as successful as those or more so.
Annotated Table of Contents
This consists of chapter heads and no more than a couple of sentences on what each chapter will contain.
Sample Material
If you’re writing a general nonfiction book, we need at least one sample chapter that matches a chapter described in your annotated table of contents. The sample chapter is meant to do two things: show off the writing and tell us things we don’t already know.
If you’re writing a cookbook, there should be a section of sample recipes, which can be labeled as such. There should be 10-12 recipes from all parts of the book (i.e., one or more from the appetizer section, one or more from the soups and salads section, one or more from the entrees section, etc.). Each of these recipes should be accompanied by headnotes (about a paragraph of text introducing the recipe). Each recipe should be in standard cookbook format and should clearly state the number of people it will serve. In addition to the sample recipes, you’ll need to include introductory text from one or two different sections of the book so that editors get a sense of your narrative writing style.
Author Biography
Finally, there should be a more formal narrative of the author.
This is followed by links that serve as Support Material—reviews of previous books, recent articles by and about you from national publications, a schedule of speaking appearances, any national media appearances, etc.
