A Publisher's Perspective with Renee Rocco*

So, there I was, checking our submissions inbox and there I found some pretty huge no-nos when submitting. Because of this, I decided to scarp my intended post (all about contracts) and address these issues since we're seeing them over and over again..

(No worries, I'll get to talking about contracts soon. Promise!)

Okay, here is a tremendous no-no. If your query reads something like this, Attach you wil find my manuscript, thank you From: Author, it will likely get deleted without consideration. And yes, this is an actual query I found in our inbox. Typos and all. And yes, it was signed "Author" rather than with a name. I wonder if this is a joke. I HOPE it is. If it's not...oh boy! This poor author has no idea how they are shooting themselves in their own foot even if their story is amazing. No publisher or agent will even open a submission if this is the query they see first.

If I had a dime for every filler word authors leave in a manuscript I'd be a very wealthy woman. Seriously. My bank account would be enviable. Why? Because all these words add up to a big steaming pile of garbage: