Query Like a Pro: What Literary Agents Actually Look For
Books & Such Literary Management The Podcast
Release Date: 06/04/2025
Books & Such Literary Management The Podcast
Do you ever wonder what it really takes to become the writer you’re meant to be? In this insightful episode of the Books & Such Literary Management Podcast, host Jen Babakhan is joined by fellow agents and writers Debbie Alsdorf, Cynthia Ruchti, Barb Roose, and others to explore the real tools that move your writing forward—and the ones that might just waste your time. Together, the team shares hard-won wisdom, personal stories, honest trade-offs, and a powerful new opportunity that blends the best of all three options: the Books & Such Writing Intensive. In This Episode, You’ll...
info_outlineBooks & Such Literary Management The Podcast
Welcome to our Books & Such podcast! We're so glad that you're here with us. According to literaryagent.com, the average literary agent can read 11,000 queries before finding a project that stands out for representation. Far too many hopeful authors are writing ineffective query letters. We want to help you avoid that! How can you write a query that grabs our attention? In this first episode, we discuss the factors that compel us to dig into your query letters. How important is your title? How long should your query letter be? What should you include in your query? ...
info_outlineBooks & Such Literary Management The Podcast
Welcome to the Books & Such Podcast! This mini welcome episode gives you the inside scoop on what our new podcast is all about. You'll hear our podcast intro featuring our four hosts as well as an overview of how we want to help you in your publishing journey. What's our podcast about? We’re helping you read between the lines of publishing. Our experienced literary agents invite you into their world for a discussion that pulls back the curtain on how agents think and what we’re looking for. Each episode, we’ll discuss a hot topic you’ve always wondered about. If you’re pursuing...
info_outlineWelcome to our Books & Such podcast! We're so glad that you're here with us.
According to literaryagent.com, the average literary agent can read 11,000 queries before finding a project that stands out for representation. Far too many hopeful authors are writing ineffective query letters. We want to help you avoid that! How can you write a query that grabs our attention?
In this first episode, we discuss the factors that compel us to dig into your query letters.
- How important is your title?
- How long should your query letter be?
- What should you include in your query?
Our goal is give you valuable insights as well as practical guidance to help you write high quality, attention-grabbing queries. We also tell you what to avoid and much more!
Don't miss an episode! Subscribe to our Books & Such podcast on iTunes so you'll be notified when new epsidoes are released.
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