Hallie Ephron in How I Got Published
- Do not send your work out before it’s ready for prime time. Over and over, new writers query agents too early.
- Do not query 24 agents at once unless you want to mortgage your child’s college tuition to Kinko’s and UPS. If you send out 24 queries, what happens if even a third of those want the manuscript? Do the math: 300 page manuscript times eight cents a page plus shipping times eight. Ouch.
- Just because an editor says you should change the gender of your protagonist doesn’t mean you should do it. Finding an agent is painful; finding a publisher can be sheer torture because of the strange and conflicting advice you receive.
- Success may be around the corner; if you give up, you’ll never know.
- Don’t quit your day job. Your celebratory dinner, once you have a book deal, may equal half your advance.