About Words Agency - Literary agency

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES | AGENT PROFILES | ABOUT US | EMAIL QUERIES | NEWS

Email Queries For Books Only
(no poetry, screenplays, true crime, or religious please)

To send your submission electronically, send an email to query at aboutwords dot org
with the subject: Query - [title of your book]

We are now only accepting email queries, and have hired an in-house reader to respond to most email queries with a one-page personalized evaluation, no-obligation and free of charge as always. Your evaluation will point out general areas in need of editing or expanding, using an AWA query reply form created by Susan Graham, owner and founder of About Words Agency.

http://writers.aboutwords.org/queryreply.html
http://writers.aboutwords.org/tipsqueryreply.html

Susan and her readers have given free no-obligation evaluations to over 70,000 queries since 1994. There never has been nor will there ever be a reading fee.

It is our firm policy to NOT ACCEPT ATTACHMENTS, unless specifically requested by us. This avoids problems with viruses.

If you haven't already done so, we highly recommend that you read and use Stein On Writing, by Sol Stein (great all-around writing book) and Getting The Words Right, by Theodore Cheney (best book on editing).

EMAIL QUERY GUIDELINES:

FOR FICTION QUERIES OR MEMOIRS:

Two separate items in addition to a short query letter with author name, title of book, and word count (not page count) should be inside one email, pasted in as text, not as an attachment:

* Short, one-page synopsis, with all plot points including the ending (ONE PAGE ONLY, copy/pasted from a Word document that is in Times New Roman 12-point font, with a title, author byline, single spacing, and a blank line between paragraphs)
http://writers.aboutwords.org/tipssynopsis.html

* First chapter plus prologue, if there is one (THE FIRST 1000 WORDS ONLY OF THE BOOK, starting with the prologue, if any, and continuing (or starting, if no prologue) with the first chapter, until a total of about 1000 words of the book is included)

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Tip: Narrative nonfiction (such as biography and memoir) is a special case of nonfiction. Send the synopsis/overview and the first chapter inside the email as with fiction. However, if you can also include competing books and book promotion, that would be helpful in evaluating the submission. An excellent writing reference book for memoirs and other narrative nonfiction is Writing Creative Nonfiction, by Theodore Cheney.

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FOR NONFICTION (NOT MEMOIR):

A full book proposal in addition to a short query letter with author name, title of book, and word count (not page count) should be inside one email, pasted in as text, not as an attachment:

http://writers.aboutwords.org/tipsproposal.html

Overview
About The Author
Book Promotion
Competing Books
Table of Contents
Chapter Summaries
Sample Chapter

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FOR SHORT STORIES OR NOVELLAS:

We don't represent short stories or novellas. Like all other literary agents, we represent book-length works, generally between 80,000 to 120,000 words long. We wish you luck in your literary endeavors.

If you wish to expand and edit your book, we encourage you to use the following books, among others:

Stein On Writing, by Sol Stein (great all-around writing book)
Getting The Words Right, by Theodore Cheney (the best book on general editing)
Writing The Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass (how to write a best selling novel)

Other books and explanation of the query reply form are here:
http://writers.aboutwords.org/tipsqueryreply.html

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If you are a PUBLISHED AUTHOR with one or more books traditionally published, not self-published (unless you have sold 8,000 or more copies of your book), please send the two best examples of the kind of writing you wish us to represent, and explain your future writing career plans. If you have had an agent in the past, please explain why you are looking for a new agent. We are actively looking for published authors who have been earning out their advances, but want to take their writing to the next level in the same area they have been publishing.

If the email bounces back, you can use aboutwords at gmail dot com as a backup. Please do NOT send the email query to both email addresses at the same time.

Thank you again for your submission, and good luck with it!

About Words Agency
http://agency.aboutwords.org
We are a non-fee-charging agency.