What to Know Before Querying BookEnds
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- Опубліковано 5 бер 2024
- Literary agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan talk about how to query agents at BookEnds Literary Agency (and many other agencies, too!)
BookEnds is dedicated to making publishing a book traditionally a more transparent process, and it starts with these videos!
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds UA-cam channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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James McGowan is a Literary Agent at BookEnds and writer for children. He began working with the agency as an intern in the summer of 2015, and basically never left. He represents a talented group of authors and illustrators working in everything from board books to middle grade graphic novels. He also works in adult nonfiction, and adult mystery and suspense projects. James is the author of GOOD NIGHT OPPY, which is available now.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
It would be nice if agents made sure that their blurb on the agency web site was right up to date as to what they are looking for. I've had the experience of finding multiple out of date listings for the same agent on different web sites... even the agency one. It seems common courtesy to update ALL of your listings if you are going to have them out there for people to access.
Don’t query a query. Love that! 😂 Reminds me of someone I knew who would always ask if they could ask a question before asking the actual question. I started telling that person yes, you can ask a question, but you only get one question so asking to ask was it.
25 years. Nice.
After rewrites to my YA fantasy, I hope one of your agents will like it. Queried Emily early February and still waiting for her response. Hope she will like it.
Huge milestone! If the rapport between you two is any indication, I’m thinking Bookends is an amazing place to work. ❤ Congratulations!
Fanfabulous on y'all's 25th! That's a big deal! Thank you for continuing to walk on eggshells while y'all provide a wealth of information about the publishing industry! You've created a win-win for everyone!🎉
Congrats on 25 years! 🎉 That’s very exciting.
I just sent one to Moe. I liked her love for comics and her high interest in contemporary YA
Congratulations. 🎉 I'm glad that I found you two! I appreciate the knowledge you are sharing with us.
Thank you for the very informative videos, and congratulations on 25 years! 🎉
Please address some houses offering a work for hire contract for first time authors.
I queried this week before I saw this 😅. Congratulations, BookEnds ❣
Congratulations on 25 years!
Congratulations! Twenty-five years is a marvelous accomplishment.
Congratulations on 25 years! (It's amazing how fast it goes by, isn't it? I was just 21 not...years ago...)
Looking forward to querying you. I've been watching your channel for a few years now (admittedly I'm behind on some videos), and just need to "finish" that last 1,000 words or so...
Congrats on 25 years! Don’t climb in thebwindow😂 I would love an agent willing to arm wrestle for me LOL
Congratulations!
Your videos are always entertaining as well as informative. Congratulations on 25 years of success!!!
Congratulations 🎉
Congratulations on 25 years! You are the first pick agency I have started my query journey with my debut novel manuscript and maybe it’ll be a dream match (It’s on my vision board to get a publishing deal this year) 🎉 Thank you for all the advice, will continue to follow along. - writing as Tavi Silk ✍️
Congratulations! ❤
Congratulations on 25 years ! Wow! 🎉
Congrats on 25 years!
Great stuff-thanks again for putting these out! ❤❤❤
Huge congrats on 25 years thats such a huge milestone yayyyyyy!
Congratulations 🎉!
🎆🎊🎈Congratulations!!!🎉🎈🎇
And, as always, many thanks for great info!!
All great advice.
Happy 25th birthday, Bookends!
Congrats. Here's to 25 more!
It looks like James was just born when Jessica started bookends
Could you kindly speak on how to balance the low word count requirements for blurbs when part of the "selling point" of a book could be beyond the basic plot - and you don't like to read about themes. ;) E.g., if you think an agent might be interested in the book because of particular representation it contains. It seems stronger to include it as action, but would you recommend putting that type of info with the technicals? And any good examples? Thanks!
What do you think about Authors equity publishing?
Question, if I was done with book 1, but want to publish book 2 as quickly ASAP since release of book 1, when should I work on book 2? Because I seen advice for starting to write book 2 during the time your agent is trying to sell book 1 to publishers. Would it even matter to publish a book 2 ASAP after book 1?
Hi! If you have an agent, you should discuss strategy with them. If you're talking about a book 2 in a series, they usually wouldn't encourage writing the second book until the first book is under contract to ensure you're not wasting efforts on a series that might not sell. But if you just mean a second (unrelated) book, yes, most agents will want to hear what your next idea is and will encourage you to write it if it seems like a good move for your desired career trajectory.
If you're at the stage of querying, we always encourage you to be working on your next project while waiting on queries!
@@BookEndsLiterarythanks
I've just finished the third draft of my book so I'm looking at querying. I'm compiling a list of agents I'd like to query when possible, but something I was wondering is whether the agent should live in the same country as me. I live in the UK and found a few agents who I think could be a good fit but live in the US. Should I query them or would that overcomplicate things?
Hi! It's very common for US agents to represent UK and other international authors! Query away!
@@BookEndsLiteraryThanks for letting me know! I'll hopefully be querying some of your agents soon!