Helen Lane

If you receive a request the best place to update an agent is in the return email IMO

I would say that if you’ve received a request, assume we don’t need to know. Lots of our querying authors have requests and if they all updated us we each time our emails would never stop. So do it when you hit a bigger number. I’d say four but others are welcome to state otherwise.

Lots of authors either include their request stats in query letters (this is good) or update us via QM. The update itself is not a bad idea, but how and when someone chooses to do it can become overwhelming and frankly annoying for agents. So it’s about judgement.

If you are at double digit, yes. But I feel 4 is around the time a manuscript starts standing out as getting lots of attention. Others may say higher, but I think lots of authors will have a few requests.

8. Above all else, please be polite. If you do not receive that politeness back it is the fault of the other person. All you can control is your side of the interactions.

*please, note, this is in relation to talking about agents in general, I am not trying to police actual negative encounters where people need to talk/ warn others - although I would say please fact check*

know anything about your books

7. If you are querying, don't write long posts on social media about how agents are parasites and don't know what they are doing. Even if we like your work, we are not going to want to work with someone who holds us in such low regard.

it for the meeting when you already have the agent in front of you and they've invested the time and effort). This advice may bite me in the butt later but it's how I would do it if I was an author.

6. Don't email us about genres/ age ranges we don't rep. You wouldn't want us to rep you if we don't

Hype around an agent and client can work in your favour but it can also work against you. If it were me I'd find the middle ground between making it clear your project is in demand but not saying who or how many offers you have, beyond it being multiple (or at least save

However, this is not information you are required to share and actually may work against you. As the more interest there is and the bigger the agent(s) we are up against are, the more some agents may decide not to invest the time to compete.

agents have set.

4. Don't tell an agent you have an offer or multiple offers when you don't.

5. Don't send an email query to skip the queue in QM.

6. If you have an offer and we are interested in matching it, we are always curious who the other agent is that we are up against.

but one or two full manuscript requests will apply to a huge portion of the queries we have and just result in a lot of notifications. However, feel free to update your query letter when you next send it out though.

3. Please don't lie about your word count or genre to get past the boundaries

2. If an agent has not requested notifications about full manuscripts, please don't send them. Especially every time you get one. If you find that you are getting a lot of full manuscript requests (four or more), that feels like a different situation as there is hype rising around your project,

A couple of pointers on QM etiquette/ querying in general. This is offered in the spirit of trying to help rather than criticise, so please no attacks.

1. Please don't use the offer of representation notification for anything other than an offer of rep. (But if you've done this don't panic)

a man wearing sunglasses and a suit is smoking a cigarette and asking who are you ? ALT: a man wearing sunglasses and a suit is smoking a cigarette and asking who are you ?

The most confused I have ever been was the first time of watching the end of Buffy, season 5, episode 1. It still hurts my brain now.

Whatever you do, don't tone down your natural queer expression to fit the mores of a mainstream market fixated by palatable "rep". Might take years for your work to find a home, but ballsy editors are out there. And you won't feel like you've become less than yourself to fulfil a tacit quota. 👍🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I don’t. Im sorry:

I am receiving a large number of queries to my email. This is a polite reminder that I am only taking queries (unless it’s a referral) via QM. All other emails are deleted.

Yay.

Convincing you to read my debut novel #witchqueenrising from the vibes. ARC request and preorder info here: linktr.ee/AuthorSavann...

Why the hell did it take me so long to work this out.

Just an author and her first book. #witchqueenrising arrives 4.21.2026. In this Southern Gothic, dark fantasy debut Seraphine Barreau is the only one that can save a city full of monsters from themselves...if they don't kill her first. Preorder and ARC info at linktr.ee/AuthorSavann...

It’s horror month! Please excuse me as my entire personality becomes gore soaked and shrieky.

My next 121s through @jerichowriters.bsky.social are on Thursday 23rd October.

Lots and lots of inappropriate word counts. Please do your research before you query.

Some patterns I've noticed in queries tonight:

I often talk about similar book openings and why queries get turned down for not standing out.

Tonight I have read 13 queries that start with 'I didn't know today would be the day I died' or 'death is never what you expect it to be' variations.

Sorry, just saw this. It’s definitely on Amazon US and UK and Waterstones UK. Plus B & N in the US. Hope you enjoy it.

It’s happening. My friends who have recently gotten into Romantasy have asked me for book recommendations. I’m going to meet them for dinner with first books from many different series. For anyone who has ever seen my library while on a call…this is my moment. Tonight I am a book god!

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I just bought clothes on line from a new place and they fit.

What is this magic and how can I harness it?????

I have received a lot of notifications of offer this month (wonderful for the authors and frustrating for me). As sadly this is one of the busiest months since I became an agent and I am unlikely to be able to read much. But I will try and at least respond to everyone before a deadline either way.