Submissions & Proposals

Literary agents receive thousands of solicited and unsolicited novel submissions in their respective query inboxes. As a writer, follow these 10 tips give yourself (and your book) the best chance of standing out in the slush pile.

After facing rejection, here's how one writer found a path forward with her work. Also, she shares three examples of how hearing “no” can lead you to a “yes.”

Learn common pet peeves of literary agents in this post featuring 34 submission no-no's for writers to avoid before querying for their books.

Here are 28 great tips from literary agents for writers on what to know before you submit your writing to agents and editors.

When agents ask for sample chapters, which chapters should you include? If your strongest chapters fall in the middle, is it OK if I send those? The answer is different for fiction and nonfiction.

Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and novels and memoirs and children's novels and picture books. This is especially useful for debut and early career authors.

Think there’s nothing you can do to help your submission’s chances? Think again.

Here are 5 great takeaways from our Writer's Market Podcast with literary agent Carly Watters. (Plus a link to listen to all the other great tips she has to offer writers.)

If a literary agent asks for a six-week exclusive window to look at your manuscript, should you grant it? Here's what you should consider.

I am hoping that 2016 brings me that pulse pounding plot without using words like CIA, Hezbollah or North Korea. I am craaaaving a more … hmm, personal plot? Here's what I'm looking for.

Writer's Digest editor Jessica Strawser lands an agent and a two-book deal. Here's a sneak peek at how she did it (and what it means for the Writer's Digest staff).

The process of finding a literary agent or publisher is grueling and filled with rejection land mines. And, once published, there is no guarantee a book will be successful or that an author will sell a second book. A writer must be prepared for rejection every step of the way.

The story of meeting my agent, Barbara Poelle, takes place over an afternoon webinar -- and it changed my life forever. Here's how a webinar helped me land my agents (and, eventually, a book deal).

I was forty-three when I wrote my first novel and realized I’d found my passion. Several years and four novels later, I finally decided to land an agent and get published. Here's how I found success.

On a chilly winter’s eve back in 2013, my forlorn, un-agented self was perusing Janet Reid’s blog. I kept noticing the Query Shark speak in a teasingly scathing tone of another agent. An agent who had been driving her mad of late, yanking riches out from under her well-primed nose. That agent’s name was Barbara Poelle.

Sometimes one has to step out of their writer’s ten-by-twelve square bubble to find life’s answers.

Here are 7 important elements that you need to address (and fix) in your novel before sending out to literary agents and publishers.

Progressive literary agencies are redefining the traditional role of the agent—and finding new ways to support authors in the digital era. Here’s what savvy writers—beginning and experienced alike—should know.