Unsolicited Advice for Authors, Agents, and Editors
It’s MARLEY with an E.
American style is single quotation marks used ONLY within double quotation marks. Rarely elsewhere.
Don’t quote other agents, especially not their rejections, in the query letter.
Query is spelled q-u-e-r-y. Not querie or querry or quarry.
Snail mail queries without SASEs only get a response if there is interest.
Don’t paste an entire proposal (or manuscript) into the body of a query letter.
Add email addresses to your spam filter before querying. An agent won’t register as an “approved sender.”
It’s okay to query multiple agencies, but not in the same email.
Queries for memoirs should not be written in the third person.
Writers shouldn’t send a query until they’re ready to send the material.
