Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I have two questions. Question One: Word count in a query. Should it be the actual word count (rounded to the nearest thousand), or some sort of calculation, like 250 words per ms page? Actual word count. Question Two: This one is in the FAQs, but the answer is two years old so I wonder if the answ...

Valeriah hurdled vaulted over the locked gate and raced on down the path. The cliff-top trail was closed at night for good reason; one misstep could end in a fatal fall to the jagged brown rocks and crashing waves below. Valeriah could see in the dark better than most, thanks to her werewolf blood....

I've just been through a revision, mostly of the first chapters of this. Here's the first page and a half, or so: Chapter 1: A Death in the Family Valeriah hurdled the locked gate and raced on down the path. The cliff-top trail was closed at night for good reason; one misstep could end in a fatal fa...

I have two questions. Question One: Word count in a query. Should it be the actual word count (rounded to the nearest thousand), or some sort of calculation, like 250 words per ms page? Question Two: This one is in the FAQs, but the answer is two years old so I wonder if the answer is still the same...

Hi all, I've been gone from the Forums for a while, since I threw out my old manuscript and started the story again, from scratch. But now I'm back and hopefully close to querying. Any comments are much appreciated, thanks! ------ Dear [Agent]: Seventeen-year old Helene Jacobsen has never questione...

Thanks everyone. Here's the latest version. Undecided at the moment about where to put the blog info. I have a little time to decide. The novel is down for a quick brush up after a bit of actual feedback from the one agent that asked for a partial. (The feedback did come with a rejection, though.) V...

Forgot to mention: If all I saw in the bookstore was the spine of your book, with that title, I'd be absolutely convinced it belonged in the Romance section.

Hi all, first draft of the query letter for our WIP. In the interests of not wasting time/space, the agent-specific stuff and the wordcount info have been cut. Thanks in advance for all feedback! *** Winter, 1745. Scotland is losing a war for independence. The approaching British army has orders to...

Well, the genre is alternate history fantasy, but I agree it doesn't hurt to have that one or two lines here. My main comments: There are a couple of typos/missed words. They query has to be as perfect as you can make it. And everything in one big block is probably not good. If you could break it up...

As I have had mostly rejections from batch 1, I have revised my query. Would love any feedback before I send to Batch 2. After some feedback from this site on my synopsis, I have added much more detail here and removed it from my query as I didn't want to repeat myself. I'm not sure if I should lea...

Merci beaucoup Quill. At least I had a good start ;). I have " blah blah blah ," because I'm still editing/rewriting my story. But I'm aiming for 100,000-120,000 words. I believe that's a good range.. Rolling out #8 Dear [ Agent’s name ]: Rachel McSwain’s always running. From her abusive ...

Hi there I'm still interested in why Crystal's life was threatened, how, and by who? Is she half werewolf too, or something else? I know its hard to keep the query short but I think an extra line about this would be an extra hook. E.g. Valeriah's human cousin, Crystal, is attacked by a pack of evil...

Better! Things make much more sense now. Thank you Quill and Mfreivald for your in-depth critiques and thorough explanations. I'm sure you know how much it helps. Here's version #4 Dear [ Agent’s name ]: Seventeen year old Rachel McSwain is serving a life sentence for murder and identity theft when ...

Either way, it sounds like they were sufficiently interested to ask for the pages, whatever you call it. So, congratulations.

Hello, all. My earlier versions, which weren't evaluated here, might have been too vague, and I didn't get a single request for pages from them. I hope to remedy that. Thanks for any and all assistance. Dear <Agent Name>, The sacred Vine, the wellspring of power that binds all life, can tempt the u...