Thank you for this video, it was just what I needed to hear! I will make sure to mention it in my query, even though the triggering event is only hinted at and not depicted.
I feel the nature of my story speaks for itself when I refer to a controlling and manipulative husband. As I continue on my querying journey I have come across agencies that do not have an agent who appears interested in my genre, so I move on though it does bring me down when I have to eliminate a whole agency.
You guys are awesome. I never even thought about this subject. I'm a senior and have read books that detail murder (egs. Stephen King). Thanks for your guidelines.
Love these videos! I've learned so much from them. I have a general question about queries. Between August 2021 and September 2022, I sent out over 100 queries to agents and except for 2 requests for fulls, everyone else passed right away. Is it ever OK to re-query an agent who passed if A) I've retooled my query and/or B) substantially edited and reworked my MS? Thanks for the feedback and the great videos.
Hi! So glad you've enjoyed our videos! Yes, you can re-query agents. If you're querying with the same book, both the query and the MS should probably be heavily reworked, since you don't know whether it was the query or the sample that made an agent reject. In the query, you can mention that you've queried them before, but you've substantially reworked the story :)
@@BookEndsLiterary Thanks for confirming what others (non-agents) have said on Twitter in the past few days. It's always good to have an authority speak on a topic.
Thanks for sharing another insightful video. I have a (burning?) question too. What to do if I get an offer before querying my dream agent? The industry standard seems to be giving 2 weeks to other agents to read the submission & decide whether they wish to offer. It's unlikely though that a dream agent would manage that time limit out of the blue. It's more likely that the dream agent would simply step aside sending their best wishes. So, should I reject the offer from the agent on whom my heart isn't set? But I might not get another offer. I bet I'm not the only one worried about this. Most of us don't start from the top of our list to query because we worry we would get rejected for rookie mistakes. I highly appreciate your response.
Hi! You can still submit to your dream agent, and then use the feature in QM to let them know that you received an offer of rep. You can mention in your notice that you think they would be the perfect champion for your book, and so you didn't want either of you to miss out on the opportunity to work together had you not submitted at all. If they end up not replying, you'd be in the same position as you were before querying them; but if they DO reply, you've earned yourself an opportunity you may not have had otherwise! But whether you turn down the offering agent in the meantime is up to your discretion, and the risk analysis would have to be yours
As a reader, I think trigger warnings potentially spoil the reading experience. I'm going through that now since the trigger warnings were on the opening pages (Delicious Monsters). I wish the trigger warnings were on the last page of the book and on the front say, "Trigger warnings on the back page for those concerned." (Then again, I guess I could just train myself not to read them!) I wonder if some agents may resent "spoilers" in queries as well?
I have this concern for my own manuscript. Trigger warnings would definitely constitute spoilers in my novel, as a few difficult events are part of the surprise for readers and pivotal moments for characters. I really don't know how to handle this. 🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
We definitely understand the concern! That's why it could be a good option to put the trigger warnings at the bottom of the query should you decide to include them. But also, a well-written query should compel an agent even if there are spoilers in the TWs. After all, agents typically also have the synopsis on hand and can technically know the ending before they begin even without the TWs! As long as the book has a strong hook, it should withstand the spoilers :)
Depending on the genre and TW, an author could mention them without spoiling the book. "Graphic Violence" is pretty general, even "Graphic sexual assault" doesn't tell the reader when and how it happens or which characters are involved. On the other hand, if the book is about a woman getting pregnant, then a "Miscarriage" warning would likely spoil some of the book.
Hi! If you are going to be including trigger warnings at all, you should definitely also include any that might be considered spoilers! Trigger warnings are so that the reader can make educated choices of whether a piece of media is right for them; the people that don't need trigger warnings will likely skip over them in the query and the people that would appreciate trigger warnings might feel they'd been misled about the content of the book if something occurs at the end of the book that is triggering to them and wasn't labelled when other triggers were labelled. Hope that makes sense!
What about multiple trigger warnings, or just one? I don't want to overload on triggers, e.g. if I'm writing about a girl that experiences a certain type of violence and therefore experiences suicidal ideation (and feel like the themes and way of writing is graphic enough to warrant a trigger warning), should I add both of those trigger warnings?
It sounds to me like you don't need a trigger warning if the subject of your novel is clear in your query. That is, the query itself will be saying that these things happen in the book, so a warning would be superfluous. Your opening line can introduce the subject matter, and thus serve as the warning.
If your query makes it clear what the content is, then it's up to you whether you decide to say "TW: x, y, z." But sometimes, trigger warnings are included especially if they content is described in a graphic manner, so something like "TW: graphic violence" could be beneficial! (Since you don't always know from reading the blurb whether something is included graphically or is just mentioned)
Would it make more sense to include warnings when you send materials after a request if the triggering content happens after the sample pages? I wouldn’t want to have an agent being anxious of something coming up if it doesn’t happen in those pages.
You can certainly choose to do that if you'd like-although, I would say that an agent who feels anxious just thinking about the TWs while reading is likely to heed the warnings and may choose not to read the book knowing that it might trigger them. So, in that case, it might be better to be up front about it so they aren't surprised once they have already gotten invested and receive the requested materials, because if they aren't a good fit you probably want to know sooner rather than later. Hope this makes sense!
Hi! The query for a first book will look a lot like the query of a standalone, since the focus should be on the hook of the first book. You can mention in the query that it's the "first in a planned duology/trilogy/quartet/etc." when you talk about the word count and genre in the intro paragraph. For the blurb, our advice is to take a look at the cover copy of the first books in some series in the same genre as your book. See what kinds of details get included in the book-how much of the world is revealed, which conflicts are covered, etc. That's the same info that you should cover about your own book in the query letter!
I really don’t believe that we should include trigger warnings in Query letters. We should probably expect literary agents to be adults and not expect to be cautioned that this book discusses racism or sexuality.
Thank you. It is silly and asinine to add "trigger warnings" to writing. Also, the literary agents I know are much like Rambo when it comes to "being triggered."
