Paul Whybrow
Full Member
I'm still immersed in querying literary agents and am up to 60 emailed submissions. This stage is the worst part of writing for me, even worse than editing—for at least with that, I can see improvement—whereas querying is like waiting for a reply to a prayer!
It would be something if agents streamlined their submission process, agreeing on a standard format. But they won't, as there are still hundreds of individual agencies. Publishing may be dominated by the Big Five, but literary agencies, for the most part, retain their own ways of doing things.
Of the 60 submissions I've made, only 10 wanted the same package when it came to query letter, synopsis and writing sample. The rest stipulated different lengths of query, synopsis and number of chapters or words from my novel. Some want everything pasted into the body of the email, others as attachments in Word.doc. One insisted on PDF attachments.
I'm ranting to the already jaded here, but this finickiness is what disillusions authors from taking things further. I dare say, that many give up at this stage, either shoving their manuscript in a drawer or turn to self-publishing an ebook.
An increasing number of agencies are going over to an online form as a means of submission, which is more efficient and standardised in format. I prefer it, to mucking about with an email submission, laden with attachments.
Nevertheless, I was startled to see that Coombs Moylett Maclean insist on an attached jpeg image of the writer on their submission form.
About Coombs Moylett Maclean
This is a new one on me, though I dragged out an eight-year-old image of me looking like the Green Man. I've started to have suspicions that some literary agencies choose their clients by how attractive they are, as some client portfolios look like modelling agencies!
They can't legally ask how old you are, though they try to get around that by asking for details of how long you've been writing.
I appreciate that a writer is as much a part of the 'brand' that their books represent and that their portrait will be used for marketing, but this development smacks of prejudice based on looks—of appearance over content.
What do you think?
It would be something if agents streamlined their submission process, agreeing on a standard format. But they won't, as there are still hundreds of individual agencies. Publishing may be dominated by the Big Five, but literary agencies, for the most part, retain their own ways of doing things.
Of the 60 submissions I've made, only 10 wanted the same package when it came to query letter, synopsis and writing sample. The rest stipulated different lengths of query, synopsis and number of chapters or words from my novel. Some want everything pasted into the body of the email, others as attachments in Word.doc. One insisted on PDF attachments.
I'm ranting to the already jaded here, but this finickiness is what disillusions authors from taking things further. I dare say, that many give up at this stage, either shoving their manuscript in a drawer or turn to self-publishing an ebook.
An increasing number of agencies are going over to an online form as a means of submission, which is more efficient and standardised in format. I prefer it, to mucking about with an email submission, laden with attachments.
Nevertheless, I was startled to see that Coombs Moylett Maclean insist on an attached jpeg image of the writer on their submission form.
About Coombs Moylett Maclean
This is a new one on me, though I dragged out an eight-year-old image of me looking like the Green Man. I've started to have suspicions that some literary agencies choose their clients by how attractive they are, as some client portfolios look like modelling agencies!
They can't legally ask how old you are, though they try to get around that by asking for details of how long you've been writing.
I appreciate that a writer is as much a part of the 'brand' that their books represent and that their portrait will be used for marketing, but this development smacks of prejudice based on looks—of appearance over content.
What do you think?
