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Arthur McNamee's avatar

This was a great read and very informative. When I'm done with my draft I will contact you about your query letter review services. Thanks for the information.

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Andrei Atanasov's avatar

This is so informative. I’m writing (and planning to publish) a novella in Romanian, and here we have a simpler system. We send the full manuscripts directly to presses, and if we hear back, it’s usually a “yes”. Still, the process of getting our work to presses is very similar to pitching to agents in English-speaking markets. I hope to someday publish a novel in English, and it seems that publishing a few books in my native tongue would not only be slightly easier, but improve my chances of finding an agent since I’ll already know how to recognize a good manuscript. Thanks a lot for this awesome post!

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Parker Peevyhouse's avatar

It’s great that you can submit directly to publishers in Romania. That does sound easier! I wonder what it’s like negotiating a contract with Romanian publishers. I wouldn’t want to sign a US publishing contract without representation, because all the US publishers’ boilerplate contracts are terrible.

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Andrei Atanasov's avatar

Ah, yeah, I’m really curious about that too. I don’t even think literary agents are a real career path here. I know here are theater agencies, but am unfamiliar with how the system works. I’ll have to do some research when the time comes.

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RosTy's avatar

Thank you! This is a helpful breakdown.

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Jack Fitzgerald's avatar

This is amazing! Thank you.

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James McLoughlin's avatar

They actually reject my work because they hate me. It's a personal vendetta.

On a serious note though, I really appreciate this post, the insight, and the resources you've linked to. It will be very helpful to me going forward! Thanks :)

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Parker Peevyhouse's avatar

Sometimes we wonder…

So glad this was helpful for you! Best of luck.

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Ian Patterson's avatar

Thanks for this! It was insightful and helps me understand what to expect and gauge reactions. I've decided to keep self-publishing my genre fiction for now, but I'm querying out a different spec/lit fic novel. I'm hoping that having a self-published stream gives me a bit more patience this time 🫠.

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Parker Peevyhouse's avatar

That sounds like a great strategy.

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JTR Brown's avatar

Thank you so much for writing this. I found it really helpful. I had a few full manuscript requests on my dark fantasy novel in 2018 but got so discouraged when I didn’t land an agent I self-published and now it is just one of millions in that flooded market. I’m working on a weird western now but promised myself to engage with querying with a different mindset this time. This helps tremendously in cultivating a different approach. Thank you for taking the time to articulate this so thoughtfully and systematically!

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Parker Peevyhouse's avatar

A full request is a good sign. I hope something is right around the corner for you.

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