{ a muse }

The importance of excluding exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Sara on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 11:19pm

As illustrated by the title of this blog, when exclamation points appear in professional writing and full-length book projects, they scream, “AMATEUR!!!!” just as much as the use of capital letters and italics (or boldface, colored text, and any other similar poisons) for emphasis.

My 55,000 word novel…

Submitted by Sara on Mon, 01/25/2010 - 1:19pm

 …IS NOT A NOVEL.

When agents read in a query letter that your intriguing book is only 55,000 words, they will all groan and dump you in the rejection pile. Why? A full-length book by industry standards is between 75,000 and 150,000 words (sometimes upwards of that) with few exceptions. Genre fiction (mystery, thriller, romance, westerns, etc.) are sometimes shorter, but certainly not shorter than 60,000 words, and that’s even a stretch. 

The Protocol of Requests

Submitted by Sara on Mon, 01/25/2010 - 1:17pm

As an aspiring author with a completed novel sending out query letters to agents, the last thing you want to do when an agent requests to read more is to immediately make them groan once they open your email with twenty attachments.
Here are a few tips to handle requests gracefully and professionally.