Category: Editors & Agents

My buddy Tina Ferraro passed this on:

The ability to write an amazing first chapter is a much more important skill, as a novelist, than the ability to write a good query letter. So why even bother with a query?

That’s why we’re announcing the first annual FIREBRAND QUERY HOLIDAY—to support authors who want to spend their time and energy perfecting their manuscripts and not just polishing their sales skills.

We want to read your first chapter.

Our usual, query-based submission system will be closed for a short period starting on the 15th of December (don’t worry, any query that was already in our system will be answered even while the system is “down”). And then—beginning on December 15 and ending on January 15—we will be accepting sample chapters via a unique email address: [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We pledge to review all samples by the end of January, and will respond to those that we are interested in no later than Feburary 1.

For more information, please visit the Firebrand website.

P.S. If you don’t have JavaScript enabled, apparently you won’t be able to see the email address listed in the block quote—a spam-prevention measure on the part of Firebrand.

Good luck!

A few weeks ago I heard that Silhouette Desire editor Melissa Jeglinski was leaving Harlequin/Silhouette to join The Knight Agency in Madison, Georgia. As of last week, The Knight Agency blog confirms the move (for some reason, I can’t get the link on the specific blog post to work, so just visit the TKA blog and scroll down to Wednesday, September 3rd). As of this typing, Melissa’s bio isn’t listed on The Knight Agency website, however the blog post reports that she will serve as an associate agent/submissions coordinator. Up ’til now, Elaine Spencer has filled the subs coordinator role. Are Melissa and Elaine now sharing the role, or is Melissa taking over while Elaine assumes other duties (like a growing client list)? I ain’t got a clue. 🙂 I also ain’t got a clue what Melissa is looking for as she builds her own roster, but if you visit the TKA website/blog often, sooner or later you’ll find out.

Melissa comes to TKA with seventeen years of publishing experience. Yowzer. She’s not the first editor I’ve heard of to move to agenting. A few years ago, Gail Fortune did the same, and Kim Lionetti, Jessica Faust, and Jacky Sach of BookEnds as well as Amy Moore-Benson of AMB Literary Management all have editorial backgrounds. I don’t know about you, but I consider this a positive. I guess it depends on how much you want your agent fiddling with your prose. Is the editing habit difficult to kick? (Or a relief to stop doing?). What do you think? Would you prefer an agent with an editing background, or does it not matter? Or do a multiple of factors come into play? (For me, it’s the latter).

Now that I’m thinking about it, though, while moving from editor to agent seems decently popular, I don’t think I’ve heard of a single agent who has moved into an editorial role. Is my brain dead? Has anyone heard of an agent turning to editing? Turning to writing, yes. Several authors in romance and other genres began their careers as either agents or editors.

Someone educate me. If you can think of a name, toss it my way. Just don’t toss no tomatoes.

Writer Kwana Jackson has an excellent weekly column appearing on her blog: Ask the Agent featuring Kwana’s agent, Elaine Spencer of The Knight Agency. Each Friday Elaine posts another response or two to questions that have been left in the Comments trails of previous blog posts. The trick to keeping Elaine answering questions every week is to ask them. This is an excellent opportunity to pick Elaine’s brain, so don’t pass it up.

I’ve interviewed Elaine myself, if you want to check it out. The information in the interview is over a year old now, though, so the best place to get new information is—you guessed it—on Kwana’s blog! And tell her I sent you.