How an Agent Picks a Client: From Query to Career OnDemand Webinar
Description
Many factors go into an agent's decision of whether or not to sign a new client. It starts with the initial query, which must be dazzling, and it proceeds onto the quality and marketability of the material and the author's awareness of the market. This ondemand webinar will give you an inside look at exactly what goes through an agent's mind through each step of the submission process when making this all-important decision. And with this peek inside an agent's mind, writers will see what makes a query letter stand out, what makes an agent request sample pages or a book proposal, and how agents evaluate single titles vs. a book series.
What you'll learn:
Here are some of the questions an agent asks when evaluating a project at its various stages:
Speaker:
Irene Goodman (irenegoodman.com) has been agenting for more than 30 years and is one of the leaders in this business. She has represented many New York Times bestsellers and knows how to find nuggets in the slush and turn them into gold. She will share some gut level secrets that will open some of those elusive doors. She is seeking: memoir, narrative history, music, social issues and commentary, animals, parenting, food, Judaica, Anglophilia, Francophilia, crafts, and lifestyle. Her fiction list includes historical fiction, women's fiction, thrillers, literary fiction, and mysteries.
OnDemand webinars do not include a critique.
Many factors go into an agent's decision of whether or not to sign a new client. It starts with the initial query, which must be dazzling, and it proceeds onto the quality and marketability of the material and the author's awareness of the market. This ondemand webinar will give you an inside look at exactly what goes through an agent's mind through each step of the submission process when making this all-important decision. And with this peek inside an agent's mind, writers will see what makes a query letter stand out, what makes an agent request sample pages or a book proposal, and how agents evaluate single titles vs. a book series.
What you'll learn:
Here are some of the questions an agent asks when evaluating a project at its various stages:
- First and foremost,Can I sell this?
- Do I clearly understand what the book is about, and can I explain this concept to editors? How can the pitch, whether fiction or nonfiction, be clearer and streamlined?
- Does it fit a market? Where would it be shelved at B&N?
- Does this author have a future as a career client with multiple books/series, or this a onebook wonder?
- What hook or handle does this book have? How can the hook of the book be improved? What can make it even more saleable?
- If the project is nonfiction, how can the author's platform be improved to make the project more attractive to editors? What steps can the author take?
- How much is it worth?
Speaker:
Irene Goodman (irenegoodman.com) has been agenting for more than 30 years and is one of the leaders in this business. She has represented many New York Times bestsellers and knows how to find nuggets in the slush and turn them into gold. She will share some gut level secrets that will open some of those elusive doors. She is seeking: memoir, narrative history, music, social issues and commentary, animals, parenting, food, Judaica, Anglophilia, Francophilia, crafts, and lifestyle. Her fiction list includes historical fiction, women's fiction, thrillers, literary fiction, and mysteries.
OnDemand webinars do not include a critique.
