The Insider Scoop – Interview with Caitie Flum, ex-agent intern and proofreader (Part 2)

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.

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

• Part 1 – a day in the life of an agent intern, how to stand out from the slush pile, and thequery assessment process (here)
• Part 2 –evaluating queries (the inner workings of a literary agency) (today)
• Part 3 – the specific things that agent interns report on when assessing queries/manuscript submissions for a literary agent (Monday 18 October 2010)

Onwards with Part 2 of this interview…

Question 3 - Is there anything in particular in an unsolicited query/manuscript submission that makes you think, "This might be the one?"

A spectacular hook. The couple of times we requested a full right away we were hooked to the idea in the first sentence. Also, queries that show, not just tell, why the book is so special make a huge impact. And, of course, if it was really well-written.

Rach: Hmm, a first sentence hook. Am onto it!

Follow-on question: What can we do as writers to capture your attention and stand out from the slush pile?

First, don't be gimmicky. That will get our attention but we will automatically think that the gimmick is a disguise for a bad story or bad writing. If you want to stand out find out what the agent likes and make sure you are querying a project they would be interested in. And don't just say you are "like their client x", just do it in an easy way like saying your book will appeal to the same market as client x.

And just write really really well. Be concise but descriptive. Tell us what happens, but make sure it isn't too plot centric (ex. make sure your strong characters manage to stand out). I know it is hard, but that is what stands out more than anything else.

Some of it is luck. Both the assistant and I loved Buffy, Lost, the Dark Tower, etc, so if something sounded like any of these things or if it was inspired by them, we would get excited about it. That is complete luck, but it isn't a bad idea to mention something in pop culture, as long as it fits.

Stating your chosen market helps you stand out also. Showing that you know who your market is shows that you have written for that market.

Rach: What fantastic advice. I love the suggestion that we make sure our character stands out in our query as much, if not more, than the plot itself.

Question 4 - Do interns/assistants/agents automatically read all materials submitted with a query letter (eg, the first 10 pages). Or does the query letter have to generate enough interest to make you turn to those pages in the first place?

That completely depends on the person. If the query was complete garbage, I would never bother reading pages. However, if I had any interest in it at all for my agent, I would read the sample pages. Having 5-10 pages will not hurt, it can turn a N into a M and a M into a Y.

Rach: I’ve been wanting to find out the answer to this question for ages now. I guess it shows just how important the query actually is, even if the agent does accept a partial submission at the same time…

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Thanks so much for your time today, Caitie. Stay tuned for Part 3 of this interview…

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.

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!

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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…

Evaluating Full Manuscripts - Mary Kole

Did everyone see Mary Kole's recent Kidlit post describing how she evaluates a full manuscript? For me, it is such a useful insight into how this mysterious process works. For example, I had no idea that agents have their own readers to help give opinions on manuscripts...

It must be an interesting dilemma for agents - do you wait to take only the strongest manuscripts (which will probably involve competing against other agents for representation of an author), or do you hunt out those with potential and work to make them stronger?

Definitely worth a read.