Laura Pohl's Blog
December 3, 2021
I’m a New York Times Best-selling author!
Honestly, can you all believe this is a post I get to write? It feels like a dream coming true.
THE GRIMROSE GIRLS hit the New York Times Best Sellers monthly list for YA. The list counts all paperback sales.
THE GRIMROSE GIRLS was the Barnes&Noble YA monthly pick, which means it got a featured table in every Barnes&Noble store. I don’t think the book would have hit the list if not for the tireless and awesome work of all B&N booksellers. It was featured in November, and it’ll continue to be featured in December as well. If you get 2 within their selection, you get a 50% discount on the second book!
The list is something no author controls (we have no power over sales), but I’m sure it’s something we all dream of. Now it means my books will get that “New York Times Best-selling author” on the cover! I can’t put into words how happy I am with this development.
Thank you all so much for supporting this book and my writing journey. I hope I see you all again for the sequel!
July 8, 2021
The process behind the stunning Grimrose Girls Title/Cover
It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me on the blog. I wanted to show everyone some things regarding the cover of my new book, THE GRIMROSE GIRLS, which will come out in November, 2021. Here’s the gorgeous cover if you haven’t seen it!
I really love this cover and how well it captures the heart of the story. The Grimrose Girls is a book about four girls in boarding school (pictured in the silhouettes) who start investigating the mysterious death of their friend, and find that they’re all connected to an ancient fairytale curse. It’s got mystery, fairytales, boarding school, and the dark tone of the cover really captures the heart of this blend of thriller and contemporary fantasy.
You may be wondering, however, that I had another book coming out in 2021. You may recall that the original title was A Beautiful Doom. So what happened?
I sold the Grimrose Girls duology at the end of 2019. That means The First 7, my second book, hadn’t even come out yet. Back then, it was known as Doomed.
As you can see, the announcement didn’t even include that it was going to be a duology yet. Sourcebooks and I were working in tandem to make sure the story was in its perfect form, and that meant it was going to be two books! I was really excited, but at the same time, Doomed didn’t leave a lot of room for a sequel title. So we went back to the drawing board.
The First CoverThe challenge of The Grimrose Girls is that it’s a book that’s both contemporary fantasy with heavy thriller elements. It blends the two genres together. There’s magic (real magic!), and there’s also a murder spree and an investigation. We wanted to make sure readers knew what to expect when they saw the cover and the title. My editor, Annie Berger at Sourcebooks, came up with the wonderful series title: The Grimrose Girls.
Still, we didn’t feel like it would stand out on its own to convey the fantasy/thriller for the vibe the design team had in mind for the cover. So after discussing titles (and I mean really discussing them, we went back and forth with over 30 titles for this book!) we arrived at A Beautiful Doom.
I received the cover on the left first. I really liked the element of the apple (which doubles as a reference to both school and fairytale), and the title of the series is above and creates the atmosphere of fairytales. However, a black cover with apple is deeply reminiscient of Twilight days, and it didn’t stand out on its own enough. The Sourcebooks team tweaked the cover and voilà: you have the cover on the right!
At the time, we felt like this was the perfect cover to settle on. We revealed this cover first in LGBTQ Reads. You can read the first couple of chapters there!
The Second CoverWe were all set, and the book’s release was August 2nd. It had already been pushed back from April, both due from COVID-19 outbreaks and publishing concerns, and because of our title discussions.
After a meeting with everyone on their sales team, Sourcebooks delivered some excellent news to me: the book had even more potential in the catalogue, and they were happy to push it even further! That meant we had to rework the cover, as well as find a new title.
I loved The Grimrose Girls, so I was very happy for it to take center place as not only the start of the series, but the book’s title as well. And the team started discussing a new approach to the cover.
This is a cover for the book that you haven’t seen before!
Cover mock-up for Grimrose Girls. Not finalized in any form. This was such an interesting take! However, because at its center is a photo, we had limited resources to work with it. Doing photoshop on covers to make the characters look more as they are described in book — the image features 3 white girls, and The Grimrose Girls features 4 main characters, two who are white, another who is both Black and fat, and another who’s Asian — would be a lot more work.
It was important to feature 4 girls on the cover — because they are all equally important as main characters —, and to modernize the road and the uniforms would require heavy photoshop. A photo can be powerful, but it also doesn’t leave room to work with. The more photoshop goes on in a picture to modify it, the more unshapely the results turn out.
Below is a mockup of what the ideal cover would look like, and a sketch drawn yby Samia Harumi, who has done other character art for me. Evidently, we’d have to go for an illustrated cover to remain true to this concept and character descriptions. In the end, we discarded this concept to rework from scratch.
Cover mock-ups for the second iteration of the cover, based on the team’s original idea.The Final CoverOne of the best things about working with a team of designers is that the process becomes collaborative. Sourcebooks is an exceptionally attentive team who do deep research for all their covers and connects to readers to get their feedback. So when the final cover came back, I was delighted to see that the results are incredible!
The rose stems are reminiscent of the second cover, but everything else is new. You have Ariane, their friend, as the big figure on the cover, and the four main characters below. I love the element of the roses, thorns and the apples. The glass looks interesting and sharp. The title conveys the grittiness of the thriller elements. I really love everything about this new design.
I can’t wait to see the cover in person and in readers’ hands!
As for now, you can preorder through Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Amazon and Book Depository. You can also add it on Goodreads, and it’s available for reader request on Netgalley. Are you excited to meet the Grimrose Girls?
June 21, 2018
The Last 8 has a cover!
Hello everyone!
I’m so excited to announce that my debut book, THE LAST 8, finally has a cover.
The Last 8 is coming from Sourcebooks in March 5th, 2019.
A high-stakes survival story about eight teenagers who outlive an alien attack—perfect for fans of The 5th Wave
Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is the only reason she isn’t among the dead when aliens invade and destroy Earth as she knows it.
When Clover hears an inexplicable radio message, she’s shocked to learn there are other survivors—and that they’re all at the former Area 51. When she arrives, she’s greeted by a band of misfits who call themselves The Last Teenagers on Earth.
Only they aren’t the ragtag group of heroes Clover was expecting. The group seems more interested in hiding than fighting back, and Clover starts to wonder if she was better off alone. But then she finds a hidden spaceship, and she doesn’t know what to believe…or who to trust.
Ready to see the cover in its full glory? Here it is!
What do you think? I absolutely love it. I like how well the disintegrating elements play into the cover, and how it also has the same colors as ALIEN, which is one of my favorite science-fiction movies. I think it plays really well into the genre, and you can see the inspiration behind it. I can’t wait till all of you get to read this book!
You can read the first chapter here.
Pre-order THE LAST 8 on Amazon.
May 28, 2018
My cover is out!
The cover reveal for my debut book, THE LAST 8, is finally live! You can check it here along with the first chapter:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/t...
May 24, 2018
How to avoid “filter” and “crutch words” in your writing
Hey everyone!
Today we’re again talking some more about writing craft. There are just so many different topics in which we can improve as writers, and this is yet another topic. “Filter words” and “Crutch words” are just things that slow down your writing, but they’re a lot more than that.
We’re discussing exactly what they are and how to get rid of them in your draft, so buckle up.
First of all, what ARE filter words and crutch words, exactly?
These words come up a lot in our writing when we’re drafting, and then we end up never getting rid of them. They’re words that fill the space between the blanks, and are used for intensity. Instead, you should always try to use a stronger verb.
They can be used for any number of reasons while drafting — to emphasize an emotion, to increase any number of words. They’re most often seen in the form of adverbs or hedging phrases.
Filter Words
Filter words come up a lot when you’re narrating a story through a character’s eyes. They are more about the experiences the characters are having than description, and they distance the reader from your character. You want the reader to be gripped by this story, to feel emotions as your character feels them!
In most cases, filter words achieve the opposite of that–they filter down the character’s emotions for the readers, and the writing comes off as bland. Here’s a list of words that are considered “filter words”:
see
hear
think
touch
wonder
realize
watch
look
seem
feel (or feel like)
can
decide
sound (or sound like)
know
This may look like a lot and it IS. You shouldn’t just cut off every single one of these words in your narrative, but it’s best to avoid them, especially when you want to produce feeling.
Here’s an example of filter words used.
She smelled it in the air, realizing that it reminded her of home. She knew it was only lemon and sugar, and she wondered if this smell was always going to remind her of her childhood.
Or, without the filter words.
The smell was in the air, and it brought memories of home. It was only lemon and sugar, but it always reminded her of her childhood.
It’s smaller, sure, but it can be more concise and evocative, and you can also make sure not every single emotion is filtered through your character’s lenses.
Crutch Words
Crutch words, on the other hand, are often used in the middle of the descriptions or even in dialogue, and they’re exactly what they describe–crutches. They make your writing weaker and undeveloped, and this is why you should try avoiding them.
Actually
Well
So
Literally
Honestly
Seriously
Totally
Basically
Essentially
Really
Very
Just
Like
Obviously
a lot
stuff
things
definitely
How to Avoid Them
What I do with my own writing is when I’m at the stages of showing something to my agent/editor, I seek each of these words out in the manuscript and try to avoid them. You don’t have to eliminate ALL the filter/crutch words, but make sure they’re only there when necessary.
You can use tools like ctrl+f or a wordclound, so you can seek them out more easily and see which words you’ve used as crutches. When you can, replace them with stronger verbs or a different sentence that conveys the true meaning you wanted.
Happy writing!
May 10, 2018
Prologue: yay or nay?
One of the many things about writing craft is that it can take many different forms, and it can be about big questions, or about small questions, such as the dreaded prologue.
You’ll see a lot of agents and writing people talking about how much they hate prologues. And then writers going “but I love prologues!” Love them or hate them, they’re always present. So let’s talk about prologues and what they’re for!
Personally, I don’t mind prologues exactly.
They can be fun, short and sweet, and they can bring information to the narrative. A prologue has to have objective–what are you trying to set up with yours? As a baby writer, I absolutely ADORED prologues. I thought they were fun and great and were oh-so-clever… except my friends pointed out that the prologue did not add anything to the story whatsoever. If you cut it out, it would have made no difference.
What is a prologue?
A prologue is a small section of a story that comes before chapter One. It often does not follow the rule of the story — so for example, if your story is narrated in first person, your prologue does not necessarily have to follow that rule.
It can be used for exposition and introduction maybe even in the form of a poem, a letter, or something like a fairytale. In the end, it’s something to help you set up the rest of the story that is to follow.
Why use a prologue?
Prologues are used for many different reasons and to achieve different things.
To set a mood. Usually they’re short and sweet, and help you understand the mood of the story, whether it’s going to be funny, heartbreaking, or full of reflections.
To give a vital piece of information. Like a puzzle, sometimes writers give the readers pieces on the prologues so they’ll be able to understand when the final resolution is presented.
To present the world. Prologues are especially and commonly used in SFF. This way, the writer tries to present the world in some way before the actual events of the story.
When not to use a prologue:
To expose an event that’s going to happen much later in the book. You might remember it from Twilight, where we first get the scene where Bella is dying and we’re all intrigued. Except that in the end, it’s just very short and has nothing to do with a story, so it kind of fools the reader into thinking that it’s good.
For infodump. Fantasy writers use prologue as clutches, and this is not always necessary. If your reader is going to skip the prologue because it’s boring, you have to wave in the information in the first chapter.
For a vital scene that happens before the events of the story. Is it really necessary? Can’t you find a way to put the information inside the story so it makes sense for the characters to know?
A prologue that has nothing to do with the main story. If you’re writing a scene that seems so disconnected from Chapter One, it definitely makes the reader wonder if they’re going to like the book at all.
Use a prologue to showcase action. If your story starts in the quiet way, you might be tempted to write a prologue where it’s full of action. But the fact is, most readers won’t care about the action if they don’t know the characters that are participating in it.
A prologue can be used for any number of reasons, but remember that they’ll be the first thing your reader will see with your book. If your prologue is bad, the reader might not want to pick it up or simply want to skip it. Prologues are subjective, and many of the issues above could be subverted depending on the writer. A prologue should be short and intriguing, and it should be absolutely essential to your story.
A bad prologue is much worse than no prologue at all, so keep that in mind!
April 26, 2018
Editing: the Big Questions
Hey everyone!
Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about the editing process, which can leave so many writers confused. Everyone does writing differently–some people edit as they write their first drafts–and others don’t, so you always have to find which method is perfect for you. What I’m going to say here might not work for it at all.
One of the first things I like to talk about when I talk about editing is the IMPORTANCE of the editing process. It’s absolutely vital that a book gets edited, both by the author as well as other people. Your book is never going to be ready in a first draft, maybe not even a second. And the only way it gets better is if you rewrite and edit your book.
Ready for this post? Then let’s get on to the big questions.
How do you know when to edit a text?
Well, the first thing about editing is that it’s usually done after you’re done with a rough first draft. It’s no use doing line edits or going back and forth with minor things that are wrong in your story. It’s better to finish a good and solid first draft rather than edit the particulars of your text.
But I’ve changed my mind and the plot is different now. What do I do? Don’t I need to edit?
That really depends. I’ve only had to restart a draft maybe once or twice, because it depends on how big those plot changes are. If it affects the whole book, it might indeed be better to just start it again. If not, just mark on a paper your changes and where you started them, and then continue to draft normally. This is usually what I do.
What is the first thing you do when you edit?
When I’m editing by myself my first draft, usually I’m acutely aware of what I failed to do in the first draft. I make a list of all those things, whether they are character motivations, settings or plot lines that I’ve forgotten, or plot holes, and then try to fix them one by one.
What is your favorite editing method?
I’m a huuuuge fan of Susan Dennard’s method, but I’ve simplified it over the years. Basically I do the same things as listing what happens in each scene (with scrivener), and then I chronollogically go change them one by one as I’m drafting it a new. I’ve also found helpful to type the book again, especially the scenes that were harder to write. Usually I also make a check-list of all the things I need to change in a new big picture edit, so I can check them when I’m done and make sure I’ve been through it all.
What do you edit first?
I always look for Big Pitcure issues first. These consist of setting, characters, and plot. Those things will surely affect more in my story than let’s say, whether a dialogue seems like something a character would say or not. Big Pitcture stuff is always what you should edit first, and then move on from there.
Do you use Critique Partners and Beta Readers?
Yes! I can never find all the plot-holes by myself. CPs and betas are essential to any writer’s writing process, because their feedback is what will make you understand what’s wrong with your book, and how you can start fixing things. They are the first people who will read your book, and their feedback is very important to what you want to accomplish with your book.
How many times do you edit a book?
Again, it depends on what the book needs. There were a total of 6 big re-writes for The Last 8, for example. 4 versions before I got my agent, the 5th version I revised under my agent’s feedback, and the 6th version is the one getting published. Each story is unique and requires different things.
Is there such a thing as over-editing?
Yes. If you just keep changing a couple of lines back and forth, over and over again, it’s probably time you query agents. Nothing is going to change with a couple of lines. Just go do the things.
Was this post helpful to you? Do you guys have anymore pressing questions about editing? Let me know in the comments!
April 12, 2018
How to Get Published: A Guide
Hello, friends!
This is a blog post that focuses on the steps of How to Get your Book Published — from getting it into the hands of agents and even a book deal. This is actually more of a big reference post to other posts of mine that are about the publishing process as a whole, but made it to an easy guide.
A lot of people I know have asked for resources, as well as ask that million-dollar question: “How do I get published?”
Well, this blog post is going to break down every single part of publishing. Yes, let’s get real. I’ll update as the links come.
The first thing you want to know about getting published is whether you’re going with the traditional route, or the indie one. One is not necessarily worst than the other, but they are different. While indie publishing you can control your work more and get more profit on copies sold, in traiditional publishing you sell your rights to a publisher which then will distribute the work for you. I’m oversimplifying things , but this post will focus on more of the traiditional side of publishing.
Let’s get to step one.
Write a book.
Really. Write it. Finish the novel you’re working on.
Revise it.
Reread it, rewrite it. Get some Critique Partners who’ll point out your mistakes. If you’re not overly confident, hire a freelance editor. Then rewrite it again and again.
Prepare your query and research agents.
I did a whole series of posts on how to query agents and what to expect. You can find that series of posts starting here. After you’ve done all your research and written your query, it’s time to send them off! Remember to proofread your query and always follow submission instructions.
Wait.
Writing is about patience. You’ll often be waiting months while you’re querying. Make sure you’re working on another project meanwhile (and no, not your sequel). If you don’t get an agent with this book and no offers come, go back to step one.
Get an offer! Yay, you now have an agent!
Your agent is the person who will take care of your career and also give you good career advice. They’ll make sure publishers are paying you, that your book will land in the best publisher for it, and basically managing your writing life. It’s important you find an agent who helps you grow, and that will grow with you. You have to work together on the next steps thar are to come.
Remember, your agent is the person who you should trust. It’s someone who always has the best in mind for your career.
Revise. Yes, again.
Your agent will usually make you revise your book at least once. I talk about what to ask your agent on the series of posts about querying, and you’ll have to make sure that your vision for the book matches. He might ask for more editorial revision, or just do some line edits. It depends on the agent’s style.
Go on Submission.
Submission is one of the things least talked about in publishing. This is when agents will send your book baby out to publishers. Each agent has a different style of submission and what they prefer, so it’s nice talking to them before hand. My agent, for example, usually does three rounds of submission, meaning that she sends the manuscript to a batch of houses first, and then waits for their answers before moving to the next one. These batches could be both for smaller publishers or Big 5 publishers, and again, it depends on the agent.
Some will wait a whole six months before entering the other batch. Editors can take a while before they answer, and it can happen in several different steps.
Get an offer. Or maybe not.
This is where it gets tricky. Some editors will read your book and love it. Then they’ll take it for other editors for second reads… and then the other editors don’t think your book is a good fit. Or maybe you get your editor, and second reads, but then you get to Acquisitions and… nothing. The publisher doesn’t think that your book is the right fit.
Once you’re out on submission, a lot of different things can happen. Your book may almost be acquired to be stopped at the last second. Sometimes you speak to your editor before going to acquisitions, and sometimes you get an offer in your inbox even before you talk to your publisher. Things vary. But remember, while you’re out on submission, start working on another book as well.
You’re going to be published!
Yay! This is the best news any writer wants to hear! You’ll often have to wait until your contract is settled and your agent finishes negotiating your deal. You might also have to wait before you can tell anyone about your book. This industry is slow, and as I said, there is a lot of waiting around.
But once the news is out, you can tell everyone! Tell your friends, your neighbours, your enemies! And congratulations. You now just have to wait sometime till the actual book is in your hands!
March 16, 2018
Learning to Differentiate your POV
This is another post in my series I’ve done about POVs. You can find out the first post here, where I talk about how I choose which POV is best for my story, and the second post where I talk about possible POVs and how they work in each story.
This week, I’m going to talk about how you can differentiate your POV when you’re writing multiple 1st Person POVs in a single book.
Multiple person POV is one of the hardest challenges a writer can face. That is because it’s not just about having a different narrator, but creating a whole new perspective of seeing the world. I talked about that in some of my previous posts about POV, how each character will see the world differently and how this will reflect into their narrative style and crafting your unique voice.
But when you have one more POV, things get even more complicated. It’s not just about crafting an unique perspective, but crafting it to make sure it stands out from the other ones inside the book. Your reader should always be able to tell who is narrating the story. If you get confused about who’s narrating each chapter, it means that the author has failed.
Which leads us to learning to craft these differences. The easiest way to avoid this problem is to narrate things in 3rd person instead of 1st. That way, even if you follow the narrative closely, you can still use small things to stand out. Each character will have different thoughts and expressions, but in the end, it doesn’t have to be completely distinguishable because you’ll still be using the POV character’s name in the paragraph.
You can see the difference in the following scenes, narrated by two different characters in line to get coffe, for example:
Alice was late. She looked at the watch, and then at the queue ahead of her. She was so late. Oh my god, she would never get to work on time. Her boss was going to kill her. It was the third time this week, and she couldn’t afford to be late again. And yet she stood in the queue, antsy, her fingers tapping her purse, and waited for her coffee. Hurry up, she thought to the barista, as if she could speed him up with only her mind.
Or narrated differently here by another character:
The café was packed in the morning, but Greg really didn’t mind it. There was an antsy woman in front of him, and the line moved slowly, but he liked the way people were always busy and in a hurry in the morning, as if the world was about to end if they didn’t get to places on time. There was a strange poetry in it, a type of magic that came from the busy life of the city.
Here it’s evident that these characters, narrating the same event, have different thoughts. Although ultimately you still use their names to narrate the events, you change the style to fit them better, but it doesn’t need to be extremely pronounced.
When narrating in 1st POV, this becomes a challenge, because you no longer have names available to make that easy distinction. The names become “I” only, and that can be very confusing to the reader.
So here are a few tips you can use to differentiate your POVs when narrating in first person.
Vocabulary. Vocabulary is the first resource you must find. Above, you can see that Alice thought of ‘queue’, while Greg talked of a ‘line’. This can work on many levels, not just on word choice, but whether your character relies a lot on vernacular language, or if they like using fancy and longer words, or if they use a log of slang. There can be so many distinctions made here, and this is always where you should start.
Descriptions. Make sure your characters describe different things. If one of them is a baker, they’ll describe food and scent more acurately than someone who has no interest in those things, for example. People will also notice different things in a room. Someone will notice the decoration, somebody else might notice whether the house is clean or not. Keep in mind that your characters work differently, and thus, they’ll notice different things.
Personality. This is also important, because characters will react differently to dialogue. Someone who is always quiet and keeps their anger inside them will react differently to someone who’s usually brash. They’ll also have different emotions. Someone might pay attention to when people are angry, and others are attentive when people are sad.
Metaphors. Metaphors can also really help! A character who’s an athlete might use a lot of metaphors that compare things to sports, while a character who enjoys theater might compare things to their favorite play.
Elements that are visually different. This is the easiest way to distinguish things: some characters may use caps lock in their narrative randomly, or like the book “Will Grayson, Will Grayson”, one of them never capitalizes any words. These visually different elements can come in the form of lists, of footnotes, of highlights and italics, but they’ll make it easier for the person reading it to know it’s a different POV. And I’m not talking about fonts here, I’m talking about elements of their personality that can be represented visually into the narrative without warping your objective.
At last, keep a list! I always recommend keeping a list when using more than one POV, and that way, you can easily go back and distinguish which things you were using for who. It will work like a ‘cheat list’, but that also helps to keep track if you have been using things that are too similar to one another.
Happy writing!
March 1, 2018
How to Get a Literary Agent, part 6: I have multiple offers! Now what?
First of all: congratulations! Multiple offers is something to be excited about. I know it seems like a hard decision, and it is one. Choosing an agent is choosing someone who’s going to be your partner, who’s going to manage your career and help you on your way to get published.
After the calls and after you’ve gotten all your questions answered as well as talked to their clients, it’s time to sit down and think. about the answers you’ve been given. If you’ve got more than two offering agents, I highly recommend using a spreadsheet system to lay down their suggested edits, as well as reading everyone’s agency agreement. See if they are an agent that represents only one book or your whole career, their plans for the future and their submission timeline. All those things should help you make an informed decision on who to choose.
And if you have any doubts, don’t hesitate to e-mail. Offering agents will be more than happy to clarify points for you, and talking to them again might help when making a decision.
Make sure you have talked to their clients and seen their page on Publisher’s Marketplace. All those help you weight this difficult decision. Take your time to sort through the offers, and talk to your friends about the offers and the feelings you have on them. Good writing friends will help you sort out through those feelings, and really choose the agent that is best to represent you.
Still in doubt between agents? Here are things to take into consideration:
BOOK DEALS. Has their agency had any book deals recently? How well have their books fared? Any agency books with the big five? Any agency books have hit the NYT?
NEW AGENT vs OLD AGENT. Are they new? If they are new, are they with an established agency, who has had other successful book deals for their clients? If they are an established client, can they assure you that they’ll have time to read your work and you won’t get pushed behind? New agents can have all the time in the world to dedicate to their clients, while older agents may put you on queue. Make sure you choose accordingly.
FOREIGN RIGHTS. Does the agency and agent work with a foreign rights agent? Do they have someone responsible for selling you overseas? You want to work with someone who can sell your book both in the USA as well as in Europe and other countries. An agent who can do that will not give up the rights to the publisher, which means more money for you.
WHAT IF YOUR BOOK DOESN’T SELL? This is something you want to be aware of. You need to ask other clients what happened, if they have shelved manuscripts before. You want to work with someone who’s invested in your career as a writer, not just one single book.
These are all good questions, as well as asking about film rights, moving agencies, etc. The first offering agent gives you two or three weeks for a reason, so you can take your time with your decision and choose wisely what’s the best fit for you. Agent Janet Reid has a post on what to ask as well when you have multiple offers which you can read here.
Now it’s time to choose. Once you choose the agent, make sure you e-mail them first to say that you’re accepting their offer of representation.
And now it’s time to tell all the other agents that you’re not accepting their offers. A simple e-mail will do, thanking them for offering. Here’s an example:
Dear agent,
Thank you so much for the time you spent considering me as a client. I appreciate your enthusiasm for my book, and for all the notes you’ve given me.
After much thought, I’ve decided to incline your offer. I ended up with more than one offer, and I had to make a difficult decision. Your enthusiasm for my manuscript as well as have made it especially hard.
Thank you so much for the offer, and I wish you all the best with future projects and furute clients.
That’s pretty much all you need to do! Some agents will reply to this e-mail, some won’t. Don’t take it personally. But now you have an agent! And your journey ahead of you is wonderful!
How to Get a Literary Agent, part 6: I have multiple offers! Now what?
