Riya Sharma asked 7 years ago
1.) I’ve read submissions guidelines on your website where you’ve said to put agent’s name in subject line. “Query: Polly Nolan” – Is this the correct way to write? I’m asking this question as I don’t want my query to get lost in cyberspace.
2.) I’ve read many query letters on writer’s digest website (successful query letters) where authors first write hook (One para), synopsis (One para- brief explanation on what will happen in story) and after that Word count, title, genre and age group, and the last bio details. Can I write the above way? Or will I have to write word count, title, genre and age group first?
3.) Do you accept young adult novels complete at 65,000 words?
4.) Last month I read about Catherine’s Nicholas on how she used a male name to query agents and that resulted in multiple requests for full. Can I query with my pen name? When you’ll see my query in slush pile, you’ll first read my pen name Robert Esmond. When you’ll read my query, you’ll get to know my real name in the end.
For eg,
Sincerely,
Riya Sharma
writing as Robert Esmond
Will you accept my query if I follow above idea?
Chelsea Eberly Staff answered 7 years ago
Thanks for your question, Riya. That is certainly a long one! All of the answers you need are actually under the ‘Submissions’ tab right on this website, but I’ll endeavour to answer your questions one by one here: Yes. Yes, you can query as you like. The order of the information doesn’t matter. Ensuring you tell us what we’ve asked for on our ‘submissions’ page is the key thing. Please note too that each agency has different submission requests, so a one-size-fits-all approach may not be the best way to tackle querying. Yes. That’s a new one to me. Name/sex of an author doesn’t influence me a jot, and I find it hard to belive it influences any agent, to be honest. Feel free to submit your work to Greenhouse under your own name or under a pseudonym (though perhaps flag that it’s a pseudonym), whatever makes you feel most comfortable. Good luck, and thank you for your interest.