Thank you for providing such great examples. I have also read that you should include comp books, is this the case for picture books or not?

Thank you!

In reply to Maria Norris.

Thanks for the feedback, this was a quick practice literary agent query which wasn’t sent to any agents.

Does show the importance of diligent proofreading queries before submission.

Looking back there are other mistakes.

“Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms. Agent Name,”

Shouldn’t use Mrs, so:

“Dear Mr/Ms. Agent Name,”

The age recommendation within:

“A delightful twist ending to a lovely little story that will appeal to parents and children (ages 3-6) who love read aloud rhyming picture books.”

Could annoy some agents, it’s their job to determine audience.

Indicating there are five complete manuscripts is probably not a good move either.

Thanks again for the feedback.

David

Really appreciate the examples, but it was hard to get past the glaring misuse of “it’s” rather than the possessive “its” in the first line of the “Monster Spud” query. (Fearless little Sam finds a scary monster stuck deep in the mud, despite IT’S appearance…) I’m not sure an agent or editor would read beyond that. It may be a small thing, but we as writers should know better.

I am about to buy this Huion but I’m still skeptic with it not being as popular as the wacom. Would love it if you could hurry with the review. Sorry for the rush.

Hi, there!

You’re using your new Huion tablet, right? How’s the size and ease of use been working out for you? I’ve been considering getting a Huion instead of an (honestly overpriced) Cintiq myself, and your husband’s review in consideration of the weight/comfort factor made me more seriously consider it. :)

By the by, does GIMP actually have pressure sensitivity for you? It never has for me, but every other art program I’ve tried does.

If you’re open to trying a new drawing-specific program, I’d recommend either Krita (which is free but really great to draw on and has lots of fun, useful brushes!) or SAI (which is about ￥6500, but is simpler for some people to draw with than Krita or GIMP). Both Krita and SAI have good pressure sensitivity, and may speed up your workflow and/or improve the quality of your drawings. However, GIMP is the best of the three at editing and color balancing, so it’s definitely still a viable tool in your arsenal.

Hope that helps! If you do try one of the programs I recommend, I’d love to hear back on how well they work for you. :)

Can the Huion GT 185HD be used similarly as the Wacom Cintiq companion without cables? Some of the pictures displayed for the Huion GT 185 are displayed similarly with the Wacom Cintiq, and I am looking for a portable graphics tablet.

David,
Thanks so much for taking the time to share this information. I am presently creating a prospect agent list, and I find this truly valuable. I hope you continue to do the updates. It’s very kind of you to share this.

Love & gratitude,
Aimee

Completely missed a grammar mistake in the literary agent query I’d probably be sending to agents soon. Fortunately I posted a link to the above article on Facebook and one of my FB friends posted a comment:

Families greedy goat or family’s greedy goat– first line.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Brandon for catching this AND for taking the time to comment.

I made the mistake three times in one query letter, I have a feeling had I sent it out the agents would have noticed!

The offending Families vs Family’s grammar mistakes:

The Addison families (should be family’s) greedy goat has stolen a button from a coat, ruined Mom’s cherished wedding things and of course munched on Dad’s new toupee. Dad now looks like a funky punk and has had enough, That Greedy Goat Just Cannot Stay!

Follow the families (should be family’s) hilarious adventure as they fail to re-home their greedy goat at a farm, petting zoo, old junk yard and a garden with a moat. On the verge of giving up the goat finds it’s place in the world as a hair stylist to royalty in a nice boutique.

A simple storyline about a greedy goat, BUT the illustrations paint a different picture. Yes, the goat eats flowers and hair, but he is wrongly accused of taking the button, Mom’s wedding things and most of the ensuing chaos. The goat is a patsy, a dupe, a scapegoat if you will, the real culprit is the families (should be family’s) cunning sheep!

A thought provoking story with a twist at the end that will appeal to parents and children (ages 4-8) who love read aloud rhyming picture books.

This is a simultaneous submission, the full 461 word manuscript is below, with a link to example illustrations below the MS.

Embrace your mistakes and learn from them. Oh and make friends with people who are better at grammar than you :-)

David Law

If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea.
Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.
Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.
Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.
Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.
Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.
Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.
Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one’s tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.
Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.
Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one’s ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

Evening Standard, 12 January 1946.
The Collected Essays,
Journalism and Letters of George Orwell,
Volume 3,
1943-45,
Penguin ISBN, 0-14-00-3153-7

Updated July 28th 2016…

I didn’t want to add the submission status for the literary agents in the main article because it would be out of date a month from now. So adding the status here and will try to keep this comment regularly updated (no promises though).

Heather Alexander of Pippin Properties – open
Isabel Atherton of Creative Authors – open
Stephen Barr of Writers House – open
Emily Van Beek of Folio Literary Management – open
Stefanie Von Borstel of Full Circle Literary – open
Brenda Bowen of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates – open
Jamie Weiss Chilton of Andrea Brown Literary Agency – closed
Elena Giovinazzo of Pippin Properties – open
Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary – closed (open via referrals only)
Kirsten Hall of Catbird Productions – open, I think?
Elizabeth Harding of Curtis Brown – open
Teresa Kietlinski of Bookmark Literary – open
Lori Kilkelly of Rodeen Literary Management – open
Jennifer Laughran of Andrea Brown Literary Agency – open
Steven Malk of Writers House – open, but concentrating on current clients
Holly McGhee of Pippin Properties – open
Erin Murphy of Erin Murphy Literary Agency – closed (open to referrals only)
Edward Necarsulmer IV of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency, Inc. – open
Lori Nowicki of Painted Words – open
Anna Olswanger of Olswanger Literary – open
Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary Agency – closed (open to referrals only)
Alexandra Penfold of Upstart Crow Literary – closed
Rubin Pfeffer of Rubin Pfeffer Content – closed (open to referrals only)
Paul Rodeen of Rodeen Literary Management – open
Jennifer Rofé of Andrea Brown Literary Agency – open
Kathleen Rushall of Andrea Brown Literary Agency – open
Abigail Samoun of Red Fox Literary – closed (open to referrals only)
Rebecca Sherman of Writers House – open
Kelly Sonnack of Andrea Brown Literary Agency – closed
Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio – open
Caryn Wiseman of Andrea Brown Literary Agency – open