Author Matt Dunn explains why knowing your genre not only helps you pitch your manuscript to agents, but might even help you write it in the first place.

Next month, Grant Faulkner will get half a million people the world over to write their first novel. How? With National Novel Writing Month, the thirty-day literary blitz. Hayley Radford spoke to Grant and found out why November is much more than just an excuse to grow an elaborate moustache.

Like any other industry, book publishing is rife with jargon. Most of the time, publishing professionals use these terms without even noticing. But for those outside of the industry, including first-time authors, this makes the industry even more inaccessible. So we’ve compiled a list of some of the most commonly used terms that every author should know when dealing with agents, editors, or anyone else in book publishing. If you run into any other words that aren’t on the list, feel free to post them below, and we’ll do our best to get you a definition.

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Before we start looking at what a cover letter is, let’s look at what it definitely is not. It’s not a cover letter! Have you gone mad? you ask. No, it's true. A cover letter – or query letter as it’s also referred to by US agents – is not a piece of correspondence that merely acts as an introduction to other, more important documents. Do not think of it as a ‘Dear Sir or Madam, please find enclosed, thank you for taking the time to consider, blah blah…’

So if it’s not actually a cover letter, what is it?

by Charlie Brotherstone, literary agent at AM Heath. You can look at AM Heath's LitFactor listing here.

Say the word ‘agent’ and for many people some pretty negative associations come to mind: greed, ruthlessness, deceit, double-dealing. If only the world of literary agenting were so glamorously malevolent! That said, the whole process behind how agents come to work with authors has in the past been shrouded in mystery. I think this is starting to change, which is a positive thing for both sides.

Charlie Brotherstone at a book launch

Literary agent Andrew Lownie offers some advice on how best to present yourself to an agent. You can look at the LitFactor listing for the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency here.

Authors are often angry, frustrated or shocked by the responses or lack of responses from agents and it might be useful to give some background and advice which might help with pitching to agents.

Andrew Lownie

Good editors often appear to have clairvoyant powers: they know what literary agents and publishers are seeking. Add to that a painful awareness of precisely what they would rather not see, and benefits can abound when writers take their advice on board.

Jonathan Veale

By Juliet Pickering from Blake Friedmann Literary, TV and Film Agency. Have a look at their LitFactor listing here.

Many authors find writing a synopsis a tricky task. ‘How can I condense my 250 page masterpiece into just 250 words?’ they cry, their faces tortured already with the thought of the impossible job ahead…

Juliet Pickering

John Matusiak’s new biography, Henry VIII: The Life and Rule of England’s Nero, reveals how a difficult childhood may have planted the seeds of corruption and egomania that would later define the reign and the private life of England’s most notorious monarch. John spoke to Authoright’s Hayley Radford about getting into the mind of a Tudor tyrant.

 
John Matusiak with his book, Henry VIII