The day an agent offers you representation is one of the most incredible moments in your publishing journey.

I’ll never forget when Catherine Drayton called me to offer representation for Jacob Wonderbar. I had doubted myself nearly every step of the way before that point, and hadn’t even told my friends and family I was working on a novel. But suddenly there was someone else who believed in my novel’s potential! A publishing professional, no less!

Since you’ll inevitably experience a rush of euphoria, it’s all the more reason to plan out your strategy for handling an offer from a literary agent ahead of time. Don’t immediately yell, “YES, DEAR LORD YES!” even if you really want to. Take your time to make sure it’s the right fit.

This is a crucial conversation. A bad agent (or a bad relationship with your agent) can do more harm to your writing career than having no agent. If an agent sends out your work to publishers, that’s your shot.

Having been on both sides of this phone call, as both an agent and as an author, here’s my advice for how to handle an offer of representation from a literary agent. These are the key steps:

• Thank the agent and set up a different time to talk
• Follow up with the other agents who have your work
• Triple-check that the agent is reputable
• Prep your list of questions
• Go with your gut

Also, I offer online classes with exclusive resources about finding and working with literary agents that you can take at your leisure. They will help you every step of the way!

And if you need personalized help, I can help edit your query letter or you can book a consultation to ask questions.

Thank the agent and set up a different time to talk

Even if your agent calls to give you the good news, sure, have a conversation with them, thank them for believing in you, but schedule another time to talk through the logistics.

You’ll probably need some time to mentally prep for the conversation, as well as to handle any necessary follow-ups with other agents who have your manuscript (more on that in a sec). Give them a time frame for the conversation that accounts for these follow-ups.

Don’t worry about putting off the full conversation. You’re not going to offend the agent. They expect that you’ll take some time to think it through and make sure it’s a good fit. (And if they’re putting pressure on you to decide, don’t necessarily run away, but be wary).

Also, don’t worry about the agent thinking you’re weird for being a blubbering, excited mess. They’ve seen it all (and they’re excited too).

Follow up with the other agents who have your work

If other agents have already requested your manuscript, it’s customary to give them a heads-up that you have received an offer of representation and give them a reasonable time frame (7-14 days) to consider your work.

Opinions vary a bit on whether to also follow up with agents who haven’t already responded to your query to request your manuscript. I don’t personally advise this, but some agents do expect it, and if you have a dream agent on that list, it’s not likely to kill your chances with the first agent if you are getting back to them in a reasonable time frame.

Regardless of what you decide, I definitely wouldn’t advise taking that offer from the agent and blasting out a million new queries to everyone else on your list. That’s not cool. Be respectful to the agent who jumped first. It’s a small industry and you’d be surprised what will get back to the first agent.

Also, follow through with outreach to other agents after an offer even if the agent who offered you representation is at the very top of your wishlist. You’ll benefit from the additional conversations even if you still go with the top agent on your list, and you’ll be more confident in your choice.

Triple-check that the agent is reputable

You should have already done this step when you researched your list of literary agents, but it couldn’t hurt to check again.

And make sure you know your rights as an author. Search for the agent in Writer Beware. Double-check the agent’s email address to make sure you’re communicating with the real person.

There are tons and tons of scams out there, and there are also schmagents who don’t even know they’re bad agents. It’s crucial to do your research and due diligence.

Prep your list of questions

It’s okay if you have a million questions. Take your time to make sure you’re comfortable.

Here are the questions I think are especially important to ask prior to accepting an offer of representation:

• What did they like about your book? This is such a simple but crucial question. Hopefully the agent already communicated this when they offered you representation, but if they didn’t: ask. Why? 1) If they’re faking their enthusiasm, you’ll know it (and if they’re a scammer or bad agent they’ll probably stumble through it) and 2) Their answer will help you make sure they “get” you and your book.
• What is their communication style? This one is super important. Agents vary greatly in their approach to the information they communicate to their clients and how often they communicate it. Some agents share everything, including all rejection letters. Some check in at periodic intervals and just share a summary. Some agents get back to you in 24 hours, some take a month or two. And some give their clients discretion over what they see. Try to suss out their style and make sure it works for you.
• Is there an author/agency agreement? Most agents (though not all) have author/agency agreements that you’ll need to sign in order to become a client. Make sure that you understand and are comfortable with everything in the author/agency agreement and that there’s a reasonable termination clause if things don’t work out. Note that most agents will have the right to receive commission for deals they initiated even if you then part ways (so you can’t get a deal and then just bounce on them to avoid the commission). Please note: I’m not an attorney and don’t construe this as legal advice. Consult a publishing attorney if you have any questions.
• What incidental charges will you be responsible for? Will the agent expect you to pay for additional services?Traditionally, agents only got paid when you get paid via commissions, except for some specific incidentals like photocopying and postage. Full stop. But the American Association of Literary Agents (AALA) recently loosened its Canon of Ethics to allow agents to charge clients for services, such as editing and marketing, and to collect affiliate fees, as long as there’s transparency. So the waters have gotten murkier. Make sure you know what charges will be expected and that you’re comfortable with them. Reputable agents should minimize your outside charges and will focus on earning their commission. Schmagents may dangle representation as an excuse to charge you fees for services you may not need.
• How many books have you sold to traditional publishers in the last two years where you didn’t have a financial interest other than commission? And/or, who is your mentor? The first question comes via Jane Friedman as a way to weed out schmagents. A reputable agent should have a solid roster of commission-only clients. Otherwise, if an agent has paltry sales, that might still be okay! Everyone has to start somewhere, and young agents apprenticing at established agencies may be hungry and go the extra mile. But get a sense of who their mentor is and who they can draw upon for support.
• What’s the normal time-frame for remitting advances and royalty payments? The author/agency agreement (as well as your eventual agreement with a publisher) will likely have a provision that will direct the publisher to pay the agency, who will then subtract your commission and pay you the balance. Find out how long this turnaround usually takes.
• Are they interested in you for just this book or for others as well? How will that work? This isn’t necessarily the time to pitch the agent on the seventeen manuscripts in your drawer, but you should understand whether the agent is interested in more projects from you no matter what happens with this particular book. They may well want to focus on this first one and see what happens, but find out how and when they want to discuss future book projects.
• Do they plan to only submit to the major publishers or will they submit until the bitter end? I’m a little hyperbolic with that last part, but this is really important. Bear in mind that an agent receives a 15% commission on any advance, and small presses may well only offer in the low $1,000s of dollars. Multiply $1,500 x 15%, calculate the hours involved in submitting a project for the agent, and you’ll see they’re lucky to crack minimum wage. Some agents are still willing to go to small presses in the hopes of building up an author over the long haul, others may want to stop at the majors. Make sure you’re satisfied with the agent’s approach.
• How does the agency handle subsidiary rights like audio and film? Some agents have in-house departments to handle film rights. Some work with outside agents. But make sure you understand how it works.
• Does the manuscript need any changes or are you good to go? Some agents are hands-on and will work with an author on revisions; others only take on projects they think are ready to go. Don’t be alarmed at either answer, but if they do want changes, make sure they’re consistent with your vision for the book.
• Can you talk to some of their other clients? I’d only recommend asking to speak to other clients if you are truly on the fence and feel like you really need to. When I was an agent, I didn’t agree to facilitate these calls. Not because I had anything to hide, but because I didn’t want to put my clients in the position of taking time out of their day to speak on my behalf. So if an agent declines, it’s not necessarily a sign they’re disreputable. And bear in mind that almost by definition, any authors an agent connects you with are likely to be happy with the agent and/or will be unwilling to speak ill of them. But if you feel you badly need this, you’re free to ask.
• Anything else that is important to you. Seriously. Now’s the time.

Go with your gut

Try to be as calm as possible for this conversation, be honest and transparent with everyone throughout the process, listen to what the agent (or agents) have to say, and the answer should become clear.

Trust your instincts! If something feels off, pull the thread, ask the tough questions, seek guidance from outside experts, and be prepared to walk away if it doesn’t feel right. You’re always welcome to book time to speak with me, and I can help you sort through what is customary publishing industry weirdness and what’s a potential red flag.

Definitely be clear-eyed, be diligent, be thorough, but don’t be paranoid either. There are wonderful literary agents out there, nearly everyone who works in publishing is there for the love of books and the creative process, and it’s a great sign that someone wants to invest in you.

There’s something magical about finding an advocate who believes in your work. Your team just got much bigger.

For a more lighthearted take on this process, check out The Publishing Process in GIF Form!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Art: Detail of A Lady Reading a Letter by Gerard ter Borch

This week! Books!

Author Whose $2 Million Book Deal Was Derailed by AI Concerns Says He’s Innocent (gift link) – Melissa Korn, Wall Street Journal – More on the author whose $2.5 million deal was derailed after his agents pulled the book due to suspicions of A.I. usage. Jerry Falade says he only used A.I. for research, that he never consented to having his manuscript run through A.I. detectors, and he’s retained legal counsel.

Why is Anthropic destroying books? – Kathryn James, The Guardian – One highly controversial element of the Anthropic class action lawsuit is that Anthropic was only found to be pirating books by acquiring them illegally. Now they’re legally buying used books by the truckload for “destructive scanning:” dismantling print books to scan them to train A.I.

Sales Up, Profits Down at HarperCollins in Fiscal 2026 – Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly – Despite perennial doom and gloom in publishing, major publisher HarperCollins had a 15% increase in revenue in its fourth quarter, though profits were dented by wholesaler Baker & Taylor’s bankruptcy.

Brian Murray Addresses AI Authorship Issues – Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly – Meanwhile, CEO Brian Murray called on the industry to address A.I. authorship. He acknowledges detection tools are likely to work, and calls on agents, authors, and publishers to work together on best practices.

The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century – New York Times – A fun list of the best 50 thrillers of the 21st century. The consensus #1 is obvious, but I was disappointed to see that Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith didn’t make the list, which would have been in my top five.

See How Your Favorite Writers Voted in Our Thrillers Poll – New York Times – The Times also surveyed 59 writers on their top thriller picks, which reveals 1) pretty much everyone agrees Gone Girl is amazing and 2) no one can agree on what a thriller actually is.

Abolish the Top Ten Books List – Thea Lim, The Walrus – If lists aren’t your thing, you may enjoy this plea from Thea Lim to abolish book rankings already, which she argues voids books’ intrinsic worth by pitting them against each other.

There Is One Editor Behind Your Book Club’s Most Debated Titles (gift link) – Anna Silman, Wall Street Journal – What do wildly popular and controversial memoirs Strangers and The Tell have in common? Ambitious editor Whitney Frick.

‘It Ends with Us’ Sales Surpass 10 Million, Atria Says – Publishers Weekly – Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us has now sold an astonishing ten million copies.

George R.R. Martin says he’s fighting his own battle: ‘Sadness and depression’ – Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times – A good reminder that even reaching the pinnacle of authordom does not solve all your problems.

How to do Book Research – Kate McKean, Agents + Books – Researching a book can feel like a daunting part of the writing process, but agent and author Kate McKean talks to bestseller Jo Piazza to illuminate the process.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
2. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
3. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
4. Whistler by Ann Patchett
5. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
2. Biological War by Annie Jacobsen
3. Strangers by Belle Burden
4. Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About by Isabel Klee
5. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Young adult hardcover:

1. Rootbound by Margaret Owen
2. Ruinous Ends by I.V. Marie
3. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
4. Release Me by Tahereh Mafi
5. If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate
3. Refugee by Alan Gratz
4. Growing Home by Beth Ferry
5. The Court of the Dead by Rick Riordan

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• It’s more important than ever for writers to look at literary agents with clear eyes

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Threads, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter

And finally:

This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature – Carl Zimmer, New York Times – If only there were a relevant story about hubristic scientists creating living things they absolutely shouldn’t…

Have a great weekend!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Photo: The Huntington, San Marino, CA. Follow me on Instagram!

A few recent developments have really opened my eyes to the changing landscape for authors and literary agents:

• A little over a week ago, I moderated the 10th edition of a book-to-film industry panel at Comic-Con, where I led a discussion with very successful publishing and film industry professionals about their work, how they’re finding clients, and what they’re finding challenging.
  
• Also in the past few weeks, the American Association of Literary Agents (AALA) updated their Canon of Ethics, loosening rules around the services literary agents may provide clients and prospective clients, and what they can charge for, such as editorial assessments and marketing services.
  
• Meanwhile, my own literary agent is sending my new middle grade fantasy novel out to publishers at a time when middle grade is experiencing significant headwinds.

Stick with me here because I’m going to weave these different threads together to show you why it’s increasingly crucial for authors to see what prospective literary agents can offer very, very clearly, and to begin to think toward a more holistic approach to their publishing paths, rather than looking at their journey as solely traditional publishing or bust.

There are more agents than ever, offering more services than ever

Here are two facts that might seem paradoxical:

1. In all my time connected to traditional publishing throughout the last (nearly) twenty-five years, due to a combination of industry consolidation, more distracted readers, and risk-averse publishers, it’s never been harder for a new book to break through the noise.
   
2. There are more literary agents than ever.

How could this possibly be? If it’s harder than ever for new authors, and thus new agents, to break out when more and more sales are going to the backlist and pre-existing bestsellers, which are typically managed by experienced agents and legacy agencies, why would there be more agents, rather than fewer?

Before I dig into this, I would strongly encourage you to stop what you’re doing right now and read publishing industry expert Jane Friedman’s summary of the recent AALA changes and how they shift the landscape.

Read Jane’s post in full, because I agree with literally everything she says:

• Agent Business Models May Be Shifting: What I Fear Will Happen – Jane Friedman

The key recent developments:

• It’s easier than ever for people to simply hang out an online shingle and call themselves an agent. There is no established accreditation process to become a literary agent. The AALA used to have a pretty stringent process to qualify for membership, but they’ve since loosened their requirements. And historically, not all reputable agents were members of the AALA (formerly the AAR). It’s very hard for an author to establish an agent’s actual bona fides.
  
• More agents are submitting more projects to increasingly besieged editors. Even as quite a few imprints have shut down in the past few years, reducing the number of places agents can submit to, there are more projects than ever chasing fewer slots. Now, even very experienced agents are having trouble getting editors to respond to their submissions, as “no response means no” takes hold at publishers.
  
• It has always been difficult for fledgling agents to make a living. Entry-level pay at literary agencies has long been famously abysmal. Assistants apprenticing at agencies (the traditional path for becoming an agent), particularly in New York City, typically either needed some combination of exceptional thriftiness, family help, and/or a second job in order to survive. Given that reality, the loosening of AALA rules around charging for editing allows agents to make some side money in their chosen field rather than needing to moonlight at a retail job.
  
• Publishing paths are becoming complicated. More and more authors have hybrid careers, meaning some books that are traditional, some self-published. Some agencies have experimented with facilitating their clients’ self-publishing. Loosening the rules could allow agents to become service providers that better reflect the needs of authors in a shifting landscape, and charge for their valuable time. But the new rules also allow agents to make money for referrals to third-party services, as long as the relationship is disclosed.

Here’s where the potential problems come in:

So many authors just want a shot at traditional publishing. If a literary agent with questionable credentials offers an author a shot at going on submission to editors, the power imbalance is powerful. Authors may well feel at their prospective agent’s mercy and look past their lack of experience.

That was already a risk. But now the agent offers a range of services to the author for a fee, or perhaps refers the author to a third-party service provider for a referral payment. Sure, representation isn’t supposed to be contingent on paying for services according to the new Canon of Ethics, but will the author really be in a position where they feel like they can say no?

The rise of the “schmagent”

The term “schmagent” is a moniker that came to prominence in the 2010s to refer to agents who don’t have the necessary experience to be a good literary agent and just decide to hang out their shingle. Not necessarily an outright scammer, maybe even with good intentions, but a rube who can do real damage to an author’s career without even knowing it.

In order to be a good literary agent, you need to…

• Have a sense of what’s customary for authors to receive from publishers. Established agencies have spent years negotiating “boilerplate” agreements with major publishers that contain hard-won terms that are far, far better than what publishers would offer an author without an agent. A schmagent may not have ever even seen what a good publishing agreement looks like.
  
• Be able to draw upon experienced mentorship. Publishing is a very strange industry with arcane customs, and you’re dealing with extremely complicated contracts. You must have experienced hands to turn to when things get dicey.
  
• Build a robust rolodex. As a young literary agent assistant in my early twenties, when I wasn’t working I was out socializing with fellow young publishing employees. Those connections are crucial for getting your projects considered when you start taking on clients.
  
• Understand the art of negotiating deals. Even when an agent gets a project all the way to an offer, they then need to do a good job negotiating it. At Curtis Brown, I cut my teeth negotiating audio deals before I was allowed to start taking on my own clients.

If you just create a website and say you’re an agent, you don’t have the tools to be a good one.

While I understand the AALA wants to be more inclusive of a range of agents, particularly in an industry where low starting pay contributed to a disproportionately wealthy and white workforce, I share Jane Friedman’s concern that the new ethics changes risk incentivizing more schmagents because dangling potential access to editors is a heck of a way to boost your service offerings:

“If agents can’t make sufficient money selling books and want to get into author services, why not leave agenting and become a service business? While this may be too cynical on my part, I can’t help but observe that one of the easiest ways to attract attention to your offerings—or get conference invites—is to put out your shingle as an agent. This latest revision to the Canon of Ethics may encourage more such prospecting.” – Jane Friedman

The AALA rule changes risk further blurring the line between well-meaning but incompetent and more actively predatory.

It’s absolutely crucial that you approach your agent search with clear eyes and a healthy dose of skepticism:

• Understand what real credentials look like. As you search for an agent, look for agents with an extensive track record of recent sales to major publishers and young agents at established agencies.
  
• Think twice before blurring lines with an agent. There are plenty of freelance professionals out there who offer the kinds of services agents are now allowed to provide. Think long and hard about whether you want to blur an agent’s traditional incentive structure, which historically was only to make money when you make money.
  
• Don’t outsource your search. There are tons of outright scammers out there, schmagents who don’t even know they’re bad, and, yes, some true professionals. There’s no substitute for doing your own research.
  
• Don’t put agents on a pedestal. If someone offers you representation, take a beat and ask them good questions. Make sure you’re absolutely sure before you move forward. A bad agent is worse than no agent.

Turn your search around and focus on whether you like the agent, not on whether the agent may like you. Confirm bona fides, and confirm them again.

But guess what… This is the easy part!

That’s because even if you have a terrific literary agent, it’s still extremely tough out there.

Even real agents are having a hard time

On the panel, I was struck by the range of ways the publishing and film professionals sourced new clients. Literary agent Kathleen Ortiz, who specializes in visual artists and licensing, trawls for clients on Instagram. Entertainment lawyer Matt Sugarman, who works with the likes of Rebecca Yarros, Christina Lauren, and Matt Dinniman, hunts for excited fandoms on Facebook.

Now, I want to be clear that the traditional path from query letter to publishing deal still exists. If you have a hot property in a hot genre (right now: rom-coms and romantasy), literary agents can do wonders.

But what, I asked, are authors who aren’t writing in a hot genre supposed to do?

“It’s hard,” literary agent Holly Root said succinctly.

Again, there are books that still find agents. Debuts still sell in every genre and category. Just look at Publishers Marketplace. It does happen.

But it’s hard, and there are more genuine paths than ever. It’s a sign of the times that even as quite a few imprints have shuttered, venerable paperback imprint Pocket Books at Simon & Schuster has rebranded to orient toward previously self-published books that traditional publishers will repackage and distribute.

The consensus on the panel is that authors need to think of their careers holistically, beyond the traditional path. If you strike out with traditional publishing, or if you get lost in a publishing cul-de-sac, you may need to be ready to pivot.

I haven’t seen this trend quantified with clear statistics, but to my eye the self-published-to-bestseller pipeline is growing and widening to new genres and categories, with everything from Theo of Golden by Allen Levi to Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman catching fire.

The important thing? Finding and cultivating your readers, wherever they may be.

That’s easier said than done, of course, particularly if you don’t have the time, energy, and funds to invest in producing your own book and promoting it well. But there are authors out there (and their nieces) who are successfully speed-running the gauntlet with guile, gumption, and creativity.

Take agents off the pedestal

I’ve been a literary agent at literary conferences. It honestly feels like you’re a walking T-bone steak surrounded by starving hordes of writers.

Even then it was a little much. But now more than ever it’s important for writers to flip the script and to think very clearly about what an agent can and can’t do for you.

If you want to find your readers, it’s important to recognize that traditional paths are narrowing. Platform and the ability to summon eyeballs matter more for fiction than they ever have.

Meanwhile, I’m living all of this myself. Middle grade is having a brutal moment. My previous series sold well, but not enough to be an instant slam dunk for a new middle grade deal.

My agent may well call me tomorrow to tell me we have an offer. But probably not. And if my novel doesn’t sell? I’m going to have to figure out how best to share it with whoever might want to read it. I’ll have to chart my own unique publishing path.

Literary agents are by and large wonderful people who care about books. But they don’t have magic wands. And some don’t have the magic without even knowing it.

But the times we’re in call for even more time researching the business to develop expertise, even more vigilance as you evaluate agents, and thinking how you might reach readers.

The good news is that there are more ways to reach readers than ever. Catching fire still happens! You may just need to find your own path to get there.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Art: Karen Marie Reading Her Bible by Gustav Vermehren

This week! Books!

Seven-Figure Book Deal Cancelled Over AI Suspicions Raises Questions About AI Guardrails – Erin Somers, Publishers Lunch – So I guess we’re still doing this… According to Publishers Lunch, a $2.5 million two-book deal won at auction by Minotaur has been scuppered by the agents because they are “no longer able to authenticate” that the book was written without A.I. Questions continue to swirl around what happened here at press time. (And by press time I mean when I press the publish button on this post).

Is This What Comes After AI Slop? – Will Oremus, The Atlantic – Meanwhile, in an article I found deeply irresponsible, Will Oremus relied on often-faulty A.I. detection tools, a non-peer-reviewed study, and a few boilerplate sentences to insinuate romance author H.M. Wolfe used A.I. to write her bestseller Daggermouth. Pretty telling who gets the benefit of the doubt here…

How A.I. Books Sneak Their Way Into Stores – Alexandra Alter, New York Times – That said, while I don’t support unsubstantiated witch hunts against individual authors, in aggregate it’s hard to deny the conclusion that A.I.-assisted books are becoming rampant on Amazon and other online booksellers, including in fiction. Human authors are worried about getting crowded out.

Major AALA Ethics Update Allows Agents to Offer Paid Editorial, Publicity Services – Sam Spratford, Publishers Weekly – The Association of American Literary Agents updated its ethics policy to allow agents to offer many more paid services to their clients, including marketing and web design, though they still cannot charge for editorial work in preparing books for submisison.

Agent Business Models May Be Shifting: What I Fear Will Happen – Jane Friedman – Industry expert Jane Friedman has an absolute must-read on the potential for these AALA ethics changes to alter agents’ business models, particularly at a time when there are more agents than ever, of drastically varying quality and professionalism. I will also have more to say on this soon.

An Uncomplicated Man – Emily Wilson, London Review of Books – The translator of a popular edition of The Odyssey was not exactly a fan of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation. I personally enjoyed both the movie and the review. I don’t think the film would have been better if Nolan had followed Wilson’s prescriptions, but her review was a good reminder of what was lost in the translation from poem to film.

Sometimes the Best Thing You Can Do is Nothing – Kate McKean, Agents + Books – From the vantage point of a literary agent, sometimes it’s just better if authors just don’t tinker with their manuscripts when they’re on submission.

Boomers Can’t Stop Gifting Their Grandkids AI-Generated Slop Books – Miles Klee, Wired – Just… don’t do this.

Authors Weigh In on Wilder’s ‘Little House’—Then and Now – Sally Lodge, Publishers Weekly – A new adaptation of the Laura Ingalls Wilder classic is coming to Netflix, and children’s book authors Angeline Boulley, Linda Sue Park, and Cynthia Leitich Smith reflect on the legacy of the Little House books and their incomplete (at best) picture of the historical landscape.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. Ransom by Daniel Silva
2. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
3. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
4. Whistler by Ann Patchett
5. Project Hail Mary by Andrew Weir

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
2. Strangers by Belle Burden
3. This is the Plan by Ben Wikler
4. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
5. A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

Young adult hardcover:

1. Ruinous Ends by I.V. Marie
2. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
3. Us Deadly Few by Alexis Patton
4. Us Dark Few by Alexis Patton
5. The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate
3. War Games by Alan Gratz
4. Pocket Games by Katherine Applegate
5. Refugee by Alan Gratz

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• Why you must know your book’s genre

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Threads, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter

And finally:

What Is It Like to Be a Cucumber? – Elizabeth Weil, Intelligencer – Biologist Michael Levin has some seriously out-there ideas about the nature of consciousness and intelligence. What if he’s right?

Have a great weekend!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Photo: The Huntington, San Marino, CA. Follow me on Instagram!

It often pains authors to have to shoehorn themselves into a category or genre. It seems like an unfair constraint cooked up in some foreboding tower by a cackling publisher, who maniacally decreed one day that authors everywhere must sort themselves into groups before being allowed to enter the gates.

And sure, if you’ve let an original idea guide you rather than setting out to write in a particular genre, you may end up with a book that combines a little of this and a little of that until you find yourself with a vampiric unicorn novel set in a technologically advanced future, leaving you with absolutely no idea whether it’s fantasy, paranormal, science fiction, or horror. I saw many projects when I was an agent that felt like genre alphabet soup.

But it’s crucial to know where either a novel or a nonfiction book will sit on the shelf (or virtual shelf) before seeking either traditional or self-publication, and it’s helpful to figure this out relatively early in the process.

In this post I’m going to cover:

• What are categories and genres?
• Why you need to know your genre
• The bookstore test
• It’s important to understand the expectations of your genre
• How to find your genre
• Even if you mix genres, be firmly planted in one

What are categories and genres?

Three important words for your book publishing glossary: category, genre, and sub-genre. These overlap, but refer to slightly different concepts.

Categories are top-level buckets that determine where a book gets shelved at the bookstore. Think: Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Picture Books, etc. If you’re talking about where your book will sit on a bookstore shelf, you’re probably talking about category.

Genres are a sub-classification within a category that gets more specific about the style and flavor of the book. Think: Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Self-Help, etc.

There are also sub-genres that get even more narrow, like Cozy Mysteries as a subset of Mystery/Crime; genre-agnostic stylistic sub-genres like Dark Academia, which can be applied to Literary Fiction, Mysteries, and Science Fiction; and market-oriented sub-genres like Upmarket, which connotes a degree of literary merit and a particular audience, but can be applied across different genres.

You must know your genre above all. If you simply say your book is a “Coming of Age” story, that’s not helpful to an agent because that could mean categories ranging from Middle Grade to YA to Adult and any number of genres from Historical Fiction to Science Fiction and everything in between.

Yes, of course, not all books slot neatly and tidily into a specific genre, and it’s okay to straddle genres to a point (more on this in a bit). But you still must know where your book falls on the book publishing rainbow.

Here’s why.

Why you need to know your genre

If you pursue traditional publishing, you need to know your genre for several important reasons:

• Literary agents and publishers specialize. In order to find a suitable literary agent (and later on a suitable publisher), you need to approach an agent who will accept projects like yours. When you are researching literary agents, knowing your genre will help narrow down the agents who might be a fit. As you move through the publishing process, agents will then target editors at particular publishing houses, who in turn have sales and marketing teams that are all oriented around knowing their area of specialty. And those tend to be highly calibrated to particular genres.
  
• Agents expect you to treat the publishing process like the business it is. One of the most crucial ways of conveying professionalism is knowing where your book fits into the marketplace. You should know (and ideally have read) your competition and know who your potential readers will be, knowledge that’s crucial when it comes time to market your book.

You must list your genre in your query letter. Full stop.

But that’s not all.

The bookstore test

It’s not just agents and publishers who care about genre, and this matters for self-publishing too. Because you know who else cares?

Readers.

Walk into a bookstore. You’ll see that sections are arranged by category, and some genres as well. Go to Amazon or BN.com. The sections are arranged by categories, and there are search mechanisms for genres and sub-genres. If you self-publish, you’re going to need to name your BISAC categories and have correct metadata.

These sections don’t exist as a means to torture authors. They exist because readers often know what they are looking for ahead of time and are browsing for something in particular. They are looking for genres.

Whether you go the traditional route or self-publish, your book will be very specifically categorized. And it’s best to know this in advance.

It’s important to understand the expectations of your genre

Readers have expectations, particularly ones who focus on a favorite genre. For instance, there are optimal word count bands for different genres.

These word count rules aren’t ironclad, and it’s okay if a book is long or short (to a point), but if you write in a genre with more particular standards for length and plot contrivances (such as Science Fiction or Romance), it is rather helpful to know these ahead of time. Romance in particular has a whole slew of subcategories and organizational rules that you should research heavily before you start.

And there are big differences in subject matter and sensibility between, say, Middle Grade (books for 8-12-year-olds) and Young Adult (12-18-year-olds), which are now increasingly shelved differently in bookstores.

Even if you’re planning to bend some genre rules and break new ground, it helps to know the genre conventions, and thus your reader’s expectations, ahead of time, so that you can break these rules to maximum effect.

Perhaps the greatest example of convention-breaking is George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. Martin knew the High Fantasy genre backwards and forwards, which for decades had been dominated by hero stories and redemptive plotlines, such as a dishonored knight who saves his realm, or a young boy who finds out he has secret powers and defeats the evil bad guy.

Martin took those conventions, upended them, shocked his readers, and then he did it again. And again. And again. It was quite thrilling. But you have to know these conventions in order to break them.

How to find your genre

Don’t know your genre? Well, that’s probably due to one of these reasons:

• You aren’t reading enough. Just want to write a book without worrying about what else is out there? No one’s stopping you! But when it comes time to pursue publication, you need to be reading the competition.
• You haven’t done your research. It really only takes an hour or two of dedicated research to identify your genre and some helpful comp titles published in the last 5 years. Here’s how to do it.
• You’re unwilling to be categorized. Some authors I’ve worked with are simply allergic to being pigeonholed and don’t even want to try to narrow themselves down. But unless you have invented a genre whole cloth (which, to be fair, really does happen once in a while, most recently with LitRPG), your book can be categorized.

Just remember: Your book is going onto a particular bookshelf and will be marketed to specific readers, whether you like it or not. Might as well just go ahead and figure out which ones.

Even if you mix genres, be firmly planted in one

It’s totally fine to blur genres, and many successful novels do this, but even if you do some mixing, it’s extremely helpful to have a base.

You can have a Fantasy novel with Science Fiction elements or a Literary novel that utilizes a Horror plot, but whatever approach you choose should fit squarely in one genre even if it branches into another. This way, it will not only rest comfortably on the right shelf in the bookstore, but it will also be easier to market the book to the hardcore readers of a particular genre. These readers will be the evangelists who will help spread the word to a broader audience.

So yes, it’s not romantic to be forced to think about genres and genre conventions before you’ve really gotten going, but a bit of thought and preparation will help save you from the heartache and the time-consuming revisions that stem from writing a book without a natural home.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

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Art: The Virgin with the Unicorn by Domenichino