Q09: The Call

(This question is part of a larger subseries called Perpetual WIPs: Querying Writers. For the remaining questions, see here.)

If you got “the call” right now, what would you ask?

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I have a couple of lists of questions I found online, just in case. Overall, I’d want to know what kind of changes they’d expect me to make in the manuscript, where they plan to submit it, and then just get an overall feel for how our personalities click.

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I have a 3 page list of questions i’m prepared to ask during the call. Most of them are related to how they work, what their ideas are for the MS and just getting a feel for the agent to see if we’d work well together.

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Do you think my ms needs and major revisions? If not, do you have any publishers in mind? Are any of your clients working on something similar? Red or White?

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I have a whole list of questions actually, but these are just a few: How long have you been an agent? What do you love about it? Dislike about it? Generally, what do you expect of your clients in a given year? What do you feel makes for an ideal agent-author relationship? What are a few of your recent sales?

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I’d ask how the agent felt about me branching into other genres in my future (adult fiction, long-form nonfiction).

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Wow, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t even thought about that! After being speechless for about thirty seconds, I’d probably ask what grabbed the agent about the book (maybe). I’d want to know what would be the next steps in process…but I really don’t know! Wow. I need to research more! I’ll look forward to seeing how others answer this question!

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What is your procedure for deciding who and where to sub? How many rejections would you take before giving up?

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Any revision thoughts on current ms, who she plans to shop it to, how many editors she’d shop it to before shelving and how she’d stagger them, how and how much she’d be communicating during the process, and obviously what she thinks of other WIPs and what her input process is on developing new work to submit.

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What caught your attention ? What do you think of my work? How long can it take you to ship me my contract. ;p

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