The Insider Scoop – Interview with Caitie Flum, ex-agent intern and proofreader (Part 3)

Welcome to The Insider Scoop, where I’ll be bringing you interviews, useful tips and tricks, and all sorts of insightful information from those deep within the children's book industry.

Today, we continue our interview with Caitie Flum, an ex- agent intern with Hachette Book Group and Writers House, and a proofreader in the medical industry.

This interview has been posted in three parts as follows:

• Part 1 – a day in the life of an agent intern (here)
• Part 2 –evaluating queries (the inner workings of a literary agency) (here)
• Part 3 – the specific things that agent interns report on when assessing queries/manuscript submissions for a literary agent, plus more about queries (today)

So, onto the final part this interview…

Question 5 - What information concerning a query/manuscript submission do you put in a report to the literary agent? [Out of curiosity, do you have a standard checklist that you compare against - if so, is this something you can share with us?]

I don't have a checklist, but I will give you an overview of the things I included.

Query:

Usually if anything beyond decision it would be underlining things I loved or a quick sentence about the book's greatness.

Rach: First impressions so do count!

Partial:

• Reaction after first 5-10 pages.
• If there was any character development in first 50. So many partials have just action, action, action and nothing to develop who the character is or their motivations. Character is so important (especially in YA and MG) and if the writer hasn’t made it a priority in the partial, it is an issue.
• Impression of main and side characters.
• Any major issues I saw.
• After 50 did I need more?
  

Rach: That’s interesting. “Need more” vs “want more” or “wouldn’t mind looking at more.” Seems a much higher test that needs to be passed!

Full:

This was always the longest because this is what the agent would see, or, more likely the foundation for my editorial letter to the author (which made me very nervous).

• I would include everything from the partial.
• Lots of time on major issues with suggestions on how to fix overall quality of writing (it is easier to fix an okay story than an okay writer).
• Analysis of market and how well it is written with market in mind.
• What I think the hook is.

Question 6 - What causes you to automatically reject a query/manuscript submission? Is there anything in particular we should avoid saying/doing when submitting a query?

• Too much voice in the query, like I said before it is usually covering up for bad writing or story.
• Sending us a query for a genre/type of book we don't do at all.
• Comparing self to blockbusters (Twilight, Harry Potter). Comparing is fine, but find something that wasn't a smash, it shows you actually know your competition.
• Trashing a book we represented. It didn't happen to me, but Jodi Reamer was upstairs and she would get queries trashing Twilight all the time. Guys...she represented it. She helped it make a ton of money. Even if you don't like it, don't bash things she worked on then claim yours is better thinking she will want yours!
• Too many errors. I forgave a typo or two, but grammatical errors or too many typos showed laziness.
• People talking about more than one project in one query. Just don't.

Rach: Great advice Caitie, thanks!

+++

Well, that wraps up this interview with Caitie Flum. Thank you so much for sharing your insights into this world with us.

A final word from Caitie… I have a book blog where I also discuss the publishing world at caitieflum.wordpress.com. If you look on that blog, you will see I am currently accepting queries/partials from writers who want a critique. I will give you what I gave the assistant.

And stay tuned next Monday, October 25, where I'll be interviewing the winner of our First Crusader Challenge (announcement of results to follow shortly).

The Insider Scoop – Interview with Caitie Flum, ex-agent intern and proofreader (Part 1)

Welcome to The Insider Scoop, where I’ll be bringing you interviews, useful tips and tricks, and all sorts of insightful information from those deep within the children's book industry.

Today, I’m pleased to introduce Caitie Flum, a past agent intern with Hachette Book Group and Writers House, and a proofreader in the medical industry. Caitie has kindly agreed to answer some questions and give us the insider scoop on a day in the life of an agent intern, how to stand out from the slush pile, and the query assessment process. Look out in particular for Caitie’s insights into the specific things that agent interns – often the first line of defense for a literary agent when dealing with unsolicited queries – keep an eye out for in a query or manuscript submission.

I’ll be posting this interview in three parts as follows:

Part 1 – a day in the life of an agent intern (today)

Part 2 –evaluating queries (the inner workings of a literary agency) (Monday 4 October 2010)

Part 3 – the specific things that agent interns report on when assessing queries/manuscript submissions for a literary agent, plus more about queries (Monday 18 October 2010)

Well, without further ado, let’s dive into Part 1 of this interview…

Question 1 - You've interned for Hachette Book Group and Writers House in the past. Are you working at an agency now?

I am actually not at another agency right now, I am working as a proofreader in the medical industry and WOW is it different! I miss books.

Rach – that would be a pretty different world I imagine!

Question 2 - Can you share with us the average day of an agent intern?

At Writers House I was always one of the first people there since I had a far commute and it was easier to come in early than stay later. I would go up to my desk outside of the assistant's office and do what everyone would expect an intern to do -- make the coffee. Sometimes, if no one was at the front desk yet, I would buzz people in. But, most of the time, my day would start with me checking the intern email that my assistant set up to see if she sent me anything the night before (I had to bring my own computer and find the Ethernet cables).

Our emails were connected, so there were a lot of times that she would have instructions attached to the email queries we got (rejection, ask for partial or the elusive ask for exclusive full). After a while, she decided that since people technically shouldn't have been sending queries to the email, I got to make the decision. I think it was also because she trusted my judgment.

After going through the emails, I would go back downstairs and check for mail...and we got a LOT of mail. WH prefers snail mail submissions so that meant a lot of sorting. After that I would take the mail up for my two agents and go through it. Queries would all go in a pile, then I would pass the contracts and statements to the assistant and personal mail to the agent.

Then the query process would start. I would read through all the queries and usually just marked one letter at the top Y, M, or N. A lot of times I put an explanation just so she could see why I was giving opinions, or more likely, when I was trying to get the assistant to request something. In the second half of the internship, she trusted my judgment on these too and started only asking to see the ones I said Y or M to (since in my first 3 months there I had never said N to something she would have said Y to).

Usually I finished in time to go grab a quick lunch. My afternoons were mostly spent reading through partials. The assistant would email me the writers email with the attachment and I would be able to read them on my computer. I would also have their original query so I could remember why we wanted it in the first place, and so I could write my comments on the back. It was the same kind of thing - a Y, M, or N with a much more detailed reasoning. I always put those in her box so she could look and anything that I would start pushing her to read the ones that I loved (which was a HUGE part of my internship. Assistants hate slush.). At this point, if I had said M to the query and it was not absolutely fantastic, I would just reject it.

I would usually do those all afternoon along with other tasks with contracts, royalty statements etc.

Rach – Wow, That’s fantastic insight, Caitie. We always hear about the dreaded slush pile, but it’s fascinating to hear how our query or partial is reviewed. It’s comforting to know that our work at least gets looked at, but more than a little intimidating to see just how the process works!

+++

A final word from Caitie:

I have a book blog where I also discuss the publishing world at caitieflum.wordpress.com. If you look on that blog, you will see I am currently accepting queries/partials from writers who want a critique. I will give you what I gave the assistant.

Thanks so much for your time today, Caitie. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this interview…

Stay Tuned...

Stay tuned, cause there's a busy few weeks to come on Rach Writes...

I'll be interviewing Caitie Flum, ex-agent intern and proofreader, for The Insider Scoop (and let me tell you, some or the dirt she dishes on the role of an agent intern and what literary agents are looking for is incredible stuff!).

I'm taking part in Elana Johnson's The Great Blogging Experiment, and will be posting a piece on "Writing Compelling Characters" on Friday, September 24.

The fantastic Jody Hedlund, author of The Preacher's Bride (due out in October 2010), will be answering some questions for The Insider Scoop.  She'll be giving a debut author's perspective on writing and getting published and I can't wait to hear her thoughts...

AND, in the spirit of my earlier post about a writer's public profile and building a platform, I'm going to kick off my inaugural Writers' Platform-Building Crusade, a way for aspiring writers and start-up industry bloggers to link together and start to build a network amongst themselves (following along with sites, commenting regularly, re-tweeting, linking between sites, etc etc).  I'd love to see you take part and will be posting more about this shortly!

Exciting stuff, and I can't wait to share it all with you!!!

The Insider Scoop - Interview with C.A. Marshall, Literary Agency Intern

Welcome to The Insider Scoop, where I will bring you interviews, useful tips and tricks, and all sorts of insightful information from those deep within the children's book industry.

Today, I am pleased to introduce C.A. Marshall, a freelance editor, literary agency intern, and YA writer, who has kindly agreed to answer some questions and give us the insider scoop on writing ability, queries, the slushpile, and how you can distinguish your manuscript from the crowd.

So, let's dive straight in...

Question 1: What do you think is the most important quality a writer can have?

Patience. Don't rush through a draft and rush into queries/publication. Take the time to edit and revise and polish. It'll be worth it, I promise!

Question 2: What insights have you picked up during your time as an agent intern that may help other aspiring writers?

Never ignore standards. Trying to be gimmicky or an exception to the rules is not only annoying, but it's disrespectful sometimes too. Follow submissions guidelines and always be friendly and professional.

Question 3: What are the most common mistakes you see in the query slushpile, and what can queriers learn from these?

The most common mistake is following trends. Stories about boy wizards and vampires/werewolves and angels/demons and greek demigods have been done before. Interns can tell in an instant that you're writing to a trend. We don't want to see the next Rowling, Meyer, Stiefivater, or Riordan. We want to see the next YOU!

Question 4: Is the voice of the main characters, the author's writing ability, or the plotline the most important consideration for agents when reviewing a manuscript submission?

I think it's the writing ability. Those other certainly don't hurt, though. You could have an amazing character and plot, but if your writing is sloppy or boring or flat, you'll fail to capture the attention of the reader.

Follow-on question: In your opinion, how does a writer distinguish himself/herself from the slushpile crowd?

Make your book the best that you can possible make it. Use freelance editors and/or critique partners. It's a harsh publishing world out there and you'll want to give your book the best chances that you can.

Great advice! Thank you so much Cassandra for your insights.

If you haven’t already checked it out, C.A Marshall is giving away a fantastic prize – a free substantial edit (plot, pacing, character development etc) of a 100K word manuscript – to one lucky reader of her blog. The contest is open to English-speaking entrants worldwide, and closes on Monday September 20, 2010. Even better, Cassandra is willing to wait for up to a month after you win for you to finish your manuscript – time for a final polish, perhaps.

C.A. Marshall is a freelance editor, lit agent intern, YA writer, and loves to play with her dog Mollie. She dreams of one day owning a small house near the water, preferably in England, with a shelf full of books she has written and has helped others to write. She can be found in Emmett, MI and at camarshall.com