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Welcome to our fourth Get Published Weekly Roundup! This week we highlight new agent hires and promotions, notices of approaching writing and submission deadlines, highlights from the past week’s Manuscript Wishlist, and a couple of helpful articles at the end.
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think in the comments and if there are certain types of information you would like to see in the Roundup. Also feel free to tweet at us (@freelancingrads) with any ideas or questions. Have a great writing week!
Agents: New Hires & Promotions
Sarah Landis & Elizabeth Bewley, Agents at Sterling Lord Literistic
Sarah Landis & Elizabeth Bewley will begin at Sterling Lord Literistic as agents in July. They both will represent:
Children’s: young adult and middle-grade fiction and nonfiction
Check back on Sterling Lord Literisic’s website for their bios (click here) and submission guidelines (click here). For now, you can follow Elizabeth on Twitter @ElizBewley.
Ryleigh Walsh, Agency Assistant at The Rights Factory *now accepting queries*
Ryleigh Walsh is now accepting queries at The Rights Factory. She is seeking:
Fiction: Commercial, Contemporary, Fantasy, General Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Offbeat/Quirky, Upmarket, Women’s Fiction
Non-Fiction: Biography, Cultural/Social Issues, General Non-Fiction, Memoirs
To Submit: Ryleigh accepts queries via online form (click here). At the bottom of the form choose “Send To: Specific Agent” and then choose Ryleigh Walsh from the dropdown menu.
Adriana Stimola, Agent at Stimola Literary Studio
Adriana Stimola is now accepting queries as an agent at the Stimola Literary Studio. She is seeking:
Fiction: Historical, Middle Grade, Young Adult
Non-Fiction: N/A
“While i do enjoy working with all formats, age groups and genres, right now, i am most interested in author/illustrator picture books, middle grade fiction with series potential, and YA mystery/thrillers.”
To Submit: Adriana accepts queries via online form (click here). Click here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.
Follow Adriana on Twitter @adrianastimola .
Submission Deadlines
Writers, you have until next week:
Briar Patch Magazine: Labour Issue Submissions — Submissions due TODAY Monday, July 3rd (Payment: $50-$150, Magazine Article)
What: Queries for the labour issue are due July 3rd. If your query is accepted you have until August 8th to turn in a first draft. They are looking for articles, investigative reporting, historical analysis, photo essays, timelines, personal essays, reviews, profiles, recommendations, lists, humour, comics, and art on the topic of labour (for suggested topics, click here). For more information, including payment rates, click here.
To Submit: Your query should outline what ground your contribution will cover, give an estimated word count, and indicate your relevant experience or background in writing about the issue. If you haven’t written for Briarpatch before, they are asking that you provide a brief writing sample. Send queries to pitch@briarpatchmagazine.com. Please review their submission guidelines before submitting, and be sure to check out their guide to better pitching.
Pirates & Ghosts and Agents & Spies: Two New Anthologies — Submissions due Friday, July 7th (Payment: 6 cents per word, Short Stories)
What: Short stories (~2,000-4,000 words) for the two following anthologies:
Pirates & Ghosts: Adventures and hauntings at sea, shipwrecks and buried treasure, treacherous waters, sea spirits, ghostly galleons, giant squid, kraken and a myriad of deadly sea monsters, sailors gone mad, revenge and madness, romance and the ancient skulls of desperate mariners…
Agents & Spies: From Machiavelli to James Bond, the intrigue of the Tudor court, the avarice of the Medicis, the poisons, the secret letters, the betrayal of lovers and governments, the smuggling of plans and formula for new weapons and inventions: this is the murky world of the official saboteur, plausible deniability and quiet knife in the back.
To Submit: Submit by email to 2017@flametreepublishing.com. For more information and terms click here.
“…we’re looking for around twenty to thirty short stories by contemporary writers to complement a selection of classic tales in two new anthologies. We are keen to encourage new writers, without prejudice to age, background or previous publication history. It’s the story that matters, and the quality of writing.”
Operation Awesome’s #PassOrPages Query Contest, July Focus: Contemporary Adult Romance Novels — Submission window Monday through Wednesday, July 10-12 (Feedback for submissions material, Random selection)
Who: Writers looking for help with their submissions material
What: Polished query letter & first 250 words of your manuscript (Contemporary Adult Romance genre only this round). “Please don’t ‘personalize’ the query for the agents or include your bio paragraph, but other than that, treat it as you would a normal query letter. Include your manuscript’s word count and title in your query. Comp titles are welcome if you were planning on using them in your regular query letter. The winning entries with agent commentary will be posted on Operation Awesome. If you aren’t comfortable with having your entry (which will be anonymous) shared on the blog, please don’t enter Pass or Pages!”
Entry fee: $0
To Submit: Submission via online form (check here between July 10-12). For more information and rules, click here, and here. Writers that have been chosen to receive feedback on their query letter will be announced July 24-28.
“We hope to get many types of romance entries, with main characters of different nationalities, sexual orientations, and from any underrepresented groups.”
Campus Diaries Writing Competition — Submissions due Monday, July 10th (₹₹ Prize)
Who: Writers with stories about college
What: Stories set in school or college days, fiction or non-fiction, roughly 500 words. “Story trumps grammar and complicated words – for sure. But do pay some heed to the language. You can make more than 1 entry. The entries will be judged on two criteria: 1) Popularity among your peers – Get your friends to “Like” your entry (40% weightage) and 2) Judging Panel – a panel of expert judges will deliberate and decide the winner (60% weightage).” For more information, important dates, and prize amounts click here.
Entry fee: $0 (must sign in to Fourth Ambit)
To Submit: Submission via online form (click here)
“What happens when friends – both old and new – hang out together? Why is every “gupshup” session filled with stories that start with “Do you remember when..?” There is something really special about stories borne out of nostalgia. Stories that make you smile, laugh out loud, cry, perhaps even shudder at the narrow escapes. Here is a chance to showcase such stories & WIN exciting prizes!!”
What Agents Want
This Week on Manuscript Wishlist #MSWL…
P.S. Literary’s #MSWL Twitter Feed
P.S. Literary tweets daily about their agents’ manuscript wishlists. Click here to check out their feed.
Here are a few highlights from this week:
The Bent Agency’s Monthly TBA Wishlist
The Bent Agency’s blog “Bent on Books” puts out a monthly wishlist that includes “the project that each TBA agent would love to see in their submission inbox.” Click here to check out what their agents are seeking this month.
Alec Shane, Agent at Writers House
Alec Shane tweeted that he was “happy to say that I read a manuscript last night that, for the first time in a long time, legit gave me a nightmare. More horror please!” (Source Tweet).
Seeking in the following genres/categories:
Fiction: Mystery, Thrillers, Historical Fiction (The Vietnam War, the Maccabees, and The American Revolution fascinate me in particular), Adventure, Horror, Middle Grade: adventure series, ghost story, or anything else geared toward younger male readers
Nonfiction: History (odd/quirky, military), Biography (of unknown, but important people), “Guy” Reads, Humor, Narrative Nonfiction (under-the-radar events and lifestyles), Sports, Supernatural
“I haven’t been scared to turn off the light in far too long and something needs to be done about it… I’m also currently up in the air as to whether or not I believe in ghosts, hauntings, and the supernatural, so if you have something that can convince me one way or the other, I’d love to see it.”
How to submit: Alec is accepting queries via email to ashane@writershouse.com. Click here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.
Follow Alec on Twitter @alecdshane.
Ejusdem Generis
- For some insight into rejection, here a few popular posts from agents and experts in the publishing industry that delve into why some queries and manuscripts get rejected:
- “Why Did I Get a ‘No’? – The Do’s and Don’ts of Query Letter Writing” by Mark Gottlieb, Agent at Trident Media Group (click here)
- “The Top Five Reasons I Stop Reading a Manuscript” by Christine Lynn Herman, Literary Agent Assistant in New York City (click here)
- “Why Your Memoir Won’t Sell” by Jane Friedman, publishing industry expert and Editor of @HotSheetPub, a newsletter for professional authors (click here)
- On the other hand, in support of the quest to land the perfect agent, here are a couple places you can find examples of successful queries:
- “Quite the Query” (click here)
- Posts at Writer’s Digest that are tagged “successful queries” (click here)
- Do you love fonts? Check out this totally geeky video. It rocks!