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Agency Gatekeeper
A literary agent shares secrets. |
Agent in the Middle
Agent Lori Perkins blogs and tells all |
Ashley Grayson Agent Blog
From the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency |
| Association of Authors' Representatives |
Barbara Doyen's Articles Page
Agent Barbara Doyen shares her knowledge. |
Barry Goldblatt Literary
A blog from the whole agency. |
BookEnds Agent Blog
Agents from Bookends Literary blog |
Brenda Bowen
Agent Brenda Bowen's "Bunny Eat Bunny" kids writing blog. |
Cameron McClure
Cameron, with the Donald Maass Lit Agency, runs her "Book Cannibal" blog. |
Caren Johnson Literary Agency
The official CJLA blog |
Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market Blog
This blog, run by Alice Pope, is a must-read for anyone writing in the juvenile market |
Chip MacGregor's Agent Blog
A Christian agent speaks |
Chuck's conference speaking schedule
See where Chuck will be presenting and when! |
Colleen Lindsay's Agent Blog
A new agent at FinePrint Literary blogs |
DHS Literary Blog
David Hale Smith's "Literary Show and Tell" blog. |
Diana Fox's Agent Blog
A literary agent talks publishing |
| Dystel & Goderich Agent Blog |
Eddie Schneider
An agent from JABberwocky Literary blogs. |
Elaine English Literary Agency Blog
A blog from the whole agency. |
F+W Bookstore
Buy Guide to Literary Agents and a bunch of other great WD Books. |
FinePrint Literary Management Blog
A blog from the whole agency. |
Folio Literary Management's Blog
All the agents chime in on this new blog |
Fresh Books Blog
An agency blog. |
Full Circle Literary's Blog
Agents from Full Circle Literary in California blog |
Girl Meets Book
Agent Jamie Brenner of Artists & Artisans blogs. |
Greenhouse Literary Blog
Agent Sarah Davies shares her thoughts and wisdom |
Hartline Literary Blog
A blog from the whole agency. |
Janet Reid
Agent Janet Reid of FinePrint Literary gives her two cents on anything and everything |
Jennifer Jackson's Agent Blog
An agent with the Donald Maass Literary Agency blogs |
Jenny Bent's Blog
From the founder of The Bent Agency. |
Jill Corcoran
A kids agent at the Herman Agency blogs. |
Joshua Bilmes Agent Blog
JABberwocky Literary Agency |
Kelly Mortimer
Agent Kelly Mortimer's "Perils of Publishing" blog. |
Ken Atchity
The president of AEI, a script and literary management co., blogs. |
Kid Lit
A blog by kids agent Mary Kole of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency |
Kimberly Cameron & Associates
A blog from the whole agency. |
Knight Agency Blog
Exactly what it sounds like |
Laurie McLean's Agent Blog
The "Agent Savant" blog |
Lit Soup (Jenny Rappaport's Agent Blog)
An agent at the L. Perkins Agency blogs |
Lucienne Diver's Agent Blog
A blog on "Authorial, Agently and Personal Ramblings." |
Lyons Literary Agent Blog
Agent Jonathan Lyons blogs |
MFA Confidential Blog
This new WD blog features Kate Monahan and all things about getting an MFA |
Miss Snark
No longer active, but this blog by anonymous agent Miss Snark still has oodles of priceless info in its archives |
Nathan Bransford
A popular blog from an agent at Curtis Brown in San Francisco |
Nephele Tempest's Agent Blog
An agent with the Knight Agency blogs |
Poetic Asides
A poetry blog from the editor of Writer's Market |
Promptly (Prompts Blog)
WD's own blog of writing prompts, run by magazine staffer Zac Petit |
Pub Rants
Kristin Nelson's Agent Blog |
| Publishers Marketplace |
Query Shark
Janet Reid's blog where she dissects query letters |
Questions and Quandaries Blog
WD staffer Brian A. Klems answers questions of all kinds |
Rachelle Gardner
A blog by an agent who specializes in Christian Writing |
Romantic Reads
Dorchester editor Leah Hultenschmidt blogs romance. |
Sara Crowe's Blog
An agent from Harvey Klinger blogs. |
Scott Eagan's Agent Blog
The great Greyhaus agent blogs away. |
Script Notes
A WD scriptwriting blog from Chad Gervich, TV producer |
Suzie Townsend
A new assistant agent at FinePrint Literary blogs. |
Terry Burns's Blog
An agent with Hartline Literary blogs. |
Terry Whalin's Blog
"The Writing Life," as told by a former editor and agent. |
The Buried Editor
A blog dedicated to juvenile writing (YA, middle grade, picture books) run by an editor at CBAY Books and Blooming Tree Press |
The Gail Ross Literary Agency
The agency blog. |
The Inside Pitch Screenwriting Blog
A Hollywood Executive Talks About Screenwriting |
The New Literary Agents
A few new literary agents share advice. |
| The Rejecter (Anonymous Agent) |
| The Shatzkin Files |
The Sound and the Furry
WD contributor Nancy Parish talks writing. |
There Are No Rules
Jane Friedman of Writer's Digest Books, talks about publishing trends and has interviews online |
Tracy Marchini
An agent from Curtis Brown, Ltd. blogs |
| United States Copyright Office |
Upstart Crow Blog
A blog from the whole agency at Upstart Crow Literary. |
Waxman Literary Agency
A blog from the whole agency. |
Wendy Sherman Associates Blog
Multiple agents blog. |
Writer Beware
A site dedicated to protecting writers from scams of all kinds - including unscrupulous agents |
Writer Unboxed
Primarily devoted to genre fiction, this site features plenty of interviews with industry pros |
Writer's Digest magazine
This big hub has tons of online articles from past issues of WD. Check out the revamped new site! |
Writer's Market
This pay site is our online database of listings (magazines, book publishers, agents, and everything else). It has more than 6,000 listings. |
Writers Online Workshops
Online writing courses are taught by WD staffers and contributors |
| Wylie Merrick Agency's Blog |
Zack Company Blog
Agent Andrew Zack blogs. |
|
 Friday, November 13, 2009
Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript (My New Book!) is Out!
Posted by Chuck
This is so cool. Very soon after holding a copy of the new 2010 Guide to Literary Agents in my hand thsi summer, I got some more good news: my other new book, Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript, 3rd Ed. is out and available now. Awesomeness.
When asked if I would helm the third edition of Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript, 3rd Ed., I said yes immediately. After all, I kept the second edition right next to my desk at work and consulted it all the time – it would be an honor to update it. My only worry was: How can I make this good book better?
My solution: New query examples and new article examples – and lots of ‘em, baby. (See a review of Formatting & Submitting on The Writing Bug website.)

There’s a reason that this book warranted a third edition. It has more than 100 examples of queries and articles and everything else writing-related. It doesn’t just tell you how to format something, it shows you – with sample queries and submissions that are well constructed, while also showing what to do and what not to do when contacting publishing professionals.
Making submissions look pristine is not an easy task, no matter what you’re writing. Are you confused as to how to format a magazine query or sidebar? I'll show you how to do it. What about formatting a screenplay or a film treatment? I've got examples of those, too. Or what about stage plays, picture books, graphic novels, fiction, book proposals and everything else? Yep – it’s all in here. On top of the examples, this book has hundreds of pages of general submissions tips and info – the dos and don’ts when sending your work to editors and agents.
It all adds up to giving writers the best shot of getting their work read and published – whether you want to call it getting ahead of the curve, to the head of the class, or just to the front of line.
Maybe you’re ready to submit but want to make your work perfect, or maybe you’re just starting out and don’t know whether that idea is a novel or a screenplay. Either way, this is a book that can truly assist you in your writing journey. What's so cool about this book is that no matter what you’re composing, Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript, 3rd Ed. can help you do it right. After all, it helped me; why not you, too?
Want more on this subject?
Excerpts | Formatting | My Writing Life
Friday, November 13, 2009 5:38:41 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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 Tuesday, November 03, 2009
I Caved and Joined Twitter
Posted by Chuck
So, yeah, it was bound to happen one day or another. I caved and joined. Follow me if you dare (@ChuckSambuchino), mwahahahaha.
I predict I will either quit within a month or become pretty good at Tweeting.
My Writing Life | Social Networking and the Internet
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 9:24:51 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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 Thursday, September 17, 2009
How Many Agents Should You Query? Is There a ''Right'' Number?
Posted by Chuck
How many agents should you query? This is a question I myself am facing right now, as I search for Agent #2 for my middle grade novel. This is a complicated matter, and there is no "correct" answer; however, let me tell what I'm doing right now and why—and I hope that will help you on your journey.
When I first started to query kids agents a month ago, my plan was to target very few reps—people I had met in my travels, who were awesome reps to handle the book. So that's what I did. All was well. Then three things all happened quickly that made me rethink my strategy:
1. I got my first rejection. The rejection listed a few compliments about the book but ended with "I didn't connect with your main character as I hoped as I would." 2. A recent guest column on this blog quoted an agent saying that securing a rep is a "numbers game." This is something that Janet Reid has said before, too. 3. Agent Nathan Bransford announced his book sale. In his column, Nathan details the process he went through to publication. He says he had to contact 10 agents before one agreed to take him on as a writer.
What does it all mean? It means that if you're writing fiction, someone has to really fall in love with the story to take it on. Especially now in a recession, they really have to love it. I mean—come on—super-blogger Nathan Bransford with his awesome platform has to go through TEN agents to find one who will rep his middle grade book, a supposedly growing category of books? Insane.
All this made me rethink my strategy. I couldn't just contact two or three agents. So I contacted several more, but not a lot by any means. I've always said that the fewer agents you query, the more that you have done your research. Secretly, I was an advocate for contacting only a few, targeted agents. But no more. If you're writing fiction, you have to cast a medium net at least, and whether you query all at once or over several "rounds" is up to you. You have to find someone who falls in love with your story—and that ain't easy.
Want more on this subject?
My Writing Life | Queries and Synopses and Proposals
Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:01:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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 Saturday, August 15, 2009
My Writing Life: Middle Grade Novel Almost Finished; Search For Second Agent to Commence
Posted by Chuck
As I wrote about before, my agent is Sorche Fairbank of Fairbank Literary. Sorche and I are working together on three nonfiction writing projects right now, and she is shopping around two proposals, which is very exciting. One of our projects was just sent out to publishing houses, and it would awesome to share some good news in the coming months.
As cool as all that is, I am on to Big Challenge No. 2: Finding a second literary agent. See, Sorche doesn't handle kids stuff, and I am starting to write my first fiction since penning a bunch of plays back in the day. I just finished my first middle grade novel (ages 8-12), which is a boy-centric adventure/multicultural book, and I am very close to polishing this last draft. (And, let me just say, I tip my hat to all you novel writers out there. I mean - newspaper articles, magazine articles, plays, book proposals - nothing comes close to novels. They're exhausting and so time-consuming.) Sorche has encouraged me to find a rep for my juvenile stuff and I will be on the hunt here pretty soon. Kinda scary prospect!
I've joined SCBWI, gone to some local meetings, seen that guys in the group are a myth - all that stuff. Now it's on to see if my fiction does or does not suck. We shall see. Wish me luck.

The most recent MG book I read was Wanting Mor, a multicultural book about an abandoned Afghani girl. Very good. My Writing Life
Saturday, August 15, 2009 1:00:12 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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 Friday, August 17, 2007
Interview with Writer Unboxed!
Posted by Chuck

Want more on this topic?
Agent Advice (Agent Interviews) | My Writing Life
Friday, August 17, 2007 9:18:28 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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 Monday, July 02, 2007
Book Proposals: One More Down
Posted by Chuck
Finally...
I finally completed my latest nonfiction book proposal last week and sent it out to a literary agent. And let me tell you—composing it was no easy task in the least. Now all I need to do is sit back, relax, and wait for the sweet contract polite rejection letter.
After I drafted a rough version of the original proposal, an agent looked it over and gave her immediate thoughts on what needed improvement. Long story short, her feedback meant I had to go back and give the proposal a complete overhaul. With that in mind, let me pass on some things I learned this time around so I can spare you the "complete overhaul" step later.
- First of all, be sure to read more than one book on book proposals. You can find several in any bookstore and many on Amazon.com. Two Writer's Digest Books titles addressing this are How to Write a Book Proposal and Bulletproof Book Proposals. Both have sample proposals for writers to review.
- Stress timing, if you can. For example, if your book has to do with environmental issues or conservation, talk about how you will effectively market the book during days/months of the year devoted to celebrating conservation and Mother Earth. Has it been 25 years since a famous conservation plan was first released? Stress that. Has it been 20 years since a horrific oil spill? Say so. Know why your book will be attractive to the media when it comes out.
- Write a thorough marketing plan. I can't say how important this is. Unless your book looks like a bestseller, you are the publicity department, so spend lots of time talking about all your marketing ideas for print media, TV & radio, as well as the Internet.
- If you're proposing a book with a large visual component (lots of photos or illustrations), make sure you discuss the art qualities of similar/competitive books in the marketplace when listing them.
- Of course, you'll want to stress your platform. Discuss, in detail, all the ways that you are an aficionado on the subject and have the means to reach people who will buy your book. But more than that, lay out plans that show how you will further enhance your platform and reach new groups of potential buyers.
Best of luck! I will keep you posted on how this proposal goes concerning its adventure into the world of agents. My Writing Life | Queries and Synopses and Proposals
Monday, July 02, 2007 2:04:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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