A Helpful Agent and Her Blog

A fellow writer recently put me on to an agent's blog that offers sound advice and reflects an understanding of a free-lancer's life. Mary Kole reflects on the wisdom of following up on a ms rejection by asking an agent for a referral to another agent. I found her latest post on exclusive submissions very helpful. The question of whether to submit to one agent/editor at a time has long been debated in the writing circles I hang out in. I've vacillated over the years between sending out one at a time as an exclusive; mailing mss wholesale as simultaneous submissions; or some combination of the two. Mary's advice makes it clear that the choice is the writer's; but she points out that, if you've chosen ten targets to send out your work on an exclusive basis, you're running the risk of losing several months or years waiting for an acceptance.

Mary's running a contest this month for MG/YA mss. She'll look at your first 500 pages. Check out this link for more information:

http://kidlit.com/kidlit-contest/.