All writers want this. All writers long for this. Publishing a book with Random House (okay that would be nice!) and getting some sort of recognition from their hard work. But there is something that is funny about getting recognition and value in books. The Literary Agent. Some writer call these people book publishing agents, but really their true title is literary agents.

If you were to look into the Writers Market, you'll find a lot of important information: how to write query letters and how to decide on an agent. believe me this is important. Vital, because there is hardly a day that goes by when I don't read a bad query letter.

No I'm not a literary agent, but I'm the gatekeeper to one. We have a unique relationship her and I. I know exactly what she is looking for and my tastes are similar. Yet, there is a high level of trust on her part. She trusts my judgement and values my input. I in turn take my knowledge I've learned from her, which is considerable, and improve my writing.

This in turn helps me weed out the not so good things. Think it's easy? It's not. It's a lot of reading and a lot of trying to decide if this particular manuscript is a good fit for her. Rachel is a confident literary agent, and editor and publicist, and well I'd better give her good information or she will lose a bit of respect for me.

I want you to all go and read your Writers Market. What you don't have one??? Get one, it's all important. And not as a paper weight. Use it.

Now in the front of my edition, there is quite a bit about publishing and writing query letters. I read them a lot. I use it in my gate keeping.

Why?

Well first I need you to spend some time trying to boil down your manuscript to say about 25 words. Now make it interesting. Can you do it? Good. That's the biggest thing when I read a query letter. One page. One page.

I know it sound like I'm nit picking but I am not, I have got some query letters that are 8 pages long. I'm sorry but I have twenty-four hours in my day, same as everyone else, and I have other commitments beyond reading query letters.

Along with a query letter there needs to be two sample chapters, now for Rachel, the literary agent, I gate keep for doesn't mind which two, just that they are the strongest chapters. For me it's the errors, I've become a better writer and this in turn helps me to understand other writers.

Another big thing, and my new personal pet peeve, no literary agents don't give you money, they only get money when they see the manuscript you've written to a publisher. So don't ever ever ask me when you get your money in a query letter. Please don't do that. Now you know.

Check your writing with spell checker, even better put the grammar checker on. I understand a few typos-- they can be corrected but, plot outlines and big time typos that could have been fixed before with a push of a button, not something I want to see.

Yes, no attachments. I don't know you and I don't know your computer, so please, I do want to read your work, please no attachments. Cut and paste will do nicely.

Yes, did I mention one page query letter? Send it to my email address, and I'll look it up, and yes I do read the query letters. I still have enough time to respond that I've read them, but no twenty emails a day asking if I've read the query letter you sent that morning. Two kids got that people? I have two kids!

Being a gatekeeper also is challenging, I need to make a snap choice when reading something, anything. After an initial read of a query letter I either put it aside to read more, or go to Rachel to confirm that I've read it and find out what she wants. Of course, I've been doing this for a while now, so it's not as phone intensive. I do have a form letter I can use. By the way this isn't good to get one of these. The more personalized the better.

The ones I've set to the other side, I reread and then make a choice, reading the sample chapters or not. The process is repeated one more time after that. It's not easy, I play "breaker" of hearts.

At the same time, I always try to encourage people to write and to write well. Keep writing, sometimes a no is simply a no, and sometimes a no is no for now. Keep writing and good writing will find a home, trust me on this one.