Reopening

To Queries

Hi friends,

Sorry in advance to those of you who are not here for query talk, but after almost a year of being closed to queries, I’m reopening today, Tuesday, April 28th. Why now? Maybe I need some new and exciting things in my inbox. I don’t know. It just feels like the right time for me.

Here’s why I closed, in case you missed it.

Here’s how to write a query letter. It’s a 4 part series, so look for them all.

Here’s an incomplete list of what I AM and AM NOT looking for. This is subject to change:

Fiction, adult:

• Contemporary fiction, “book club” fiction, Women’s fiction, Women’s Upmarket fiction: think Jasmine Guillory and Emma Straub.

• Literary Fiction: think Brit Bennett, Lydia Kiesling, Kevin Nyguyen, Rumaan Alam, Emily Gould, Alexander Chee, Rufi Thorpe.

• Historical Fiction: specifically set post 1900, and not completely centered around a war. Think Whitney Scharer, Fiona Davis, Rona Jaffe, Mary McCarthy. I REALLY REALLY REALLY like historical fiction about women in the workplace.

• Science Fiction and Fantasy: I like both when they’re shorter than 120k words. I’m personally Star Trek > Star Wars. Gimme Arrival, Gravity, Colossal. I like lots of plot. Not a fan of dragons, less hot on Epic in general. Horror is 👍. Open to most other flavors.

Fiction, kids:

• YA, MG, chapter and picture books.

• YA: contemporary mostly, but I like SF/F, too. Definitely in the mood for some romance/fun. Pretty open elsewise. Less interested in school shooting stories, sick-kid/hospitalization stories. Not hot on “historical” YA set in the 80s and 90s.

• MG: no gross-out, zany, wacky, goofy stories. Nothing like the Snot Aliens from Planet Zorp. Literary, contemporary preferred. Think Rebecca Stead, Alex Gino.

• PB: very selective here. Open to all types, but focusing much more on language and read-aloud quality than concept. Art not required. Less interested in something focused on teaching a “lesson.”

• Chapter books: open across topics, but it must have enough ooomph to sustain at least 4 books in the series.

• LGBTQ and POC #ownvoices particularly welcome across the board

Non-fiction, adult:

• Memoir, sports, creativity, food writing, pop-culture, essays.

• 9 times out of 10, you have to have a platform in these areas. Read this first.

Non-fiction, kids:

• LOTS. Send it.

Graphic novels and memoir and non-fiction for ALL AGES!

• Send it. I want it.

THINGS I DO NOT WANT:

• Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, or Dante’s Inferno retellings. I don’t know why these three end up in my inbox so much, but they do. I am tired of these stories. Do something new.

• Thrillers, mysteries, suspense for adults. I don’t read them for fun or profit.

• I don’t love things starring lawyers, PIs, cops, FBI agents, or procedurals of any kind. I don’t watch Law & Order so nothing like that.

• I don’t do a lot of category Romances, so no Regencies, or Sweet, or Inspirational ones. If you know, then you know.

• I can’t sell the second book in your series if you self-pub’d the first.

• I can’t sell the greatest hits of your blog or column, collected all in one volume, without a significant amount of new material and a significant platform behind your work.

• Absolutely zero about Trump. Not even satire. Nothing. Period. I won’t even read it. ZERO.

• I don’t want your self-help that aims to tell people how to REALLY live, because you figured it all out.

• No screenplays, poetry, or novellas.

• No unfinished novels. You gotta write the whole thing. (Non-fiction needs a book proposal.)

I’m going to be pretty ruthless about these queries, friends. That doesn’t mean I’m going to respond with 10 reasons why your book sucks, which OF COURSE I WOULD NOT, but because my client list is pretty full, so I’m only able to take on very select projects. Most often, if you get a rejection from me, it’s just as likely to be not right for the few spots I have on my list as it is to be “bad” or whatever you want to extrapolate from my form rejection. Most people will get a form rejection because otherwise, I would have zero time to do anything else but write personalized rejections. Again, a form rejection does not equal “you suck.” It is a professional necessity due to the volume of queries I’m going to send. Would you rather me send nothing at all? I’m going to try to avoid being a “no response means no” agent, but if it gets bonkers in the inbox, I may have to. (Promise me, you’ll know if that happens.)

This isn’t everything! These are the high points. You’re welcome to query me if you think it’s right for me. Maybe you’re right! Check out a lot of my other books on my website. Don’t get huffy if you get rejected. DO NOT RESPOND TO A REJECTION. You don’t even have to say thank you. I swear.

Good luck, friends. See you in the inbox.

OXOX,

Kate