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query stats

Query Stats: Salutations!

June 22, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 140 Comments

When I was little I memorized the way my mom would spell out our last name to people over the phone. Ready? “B as in boy, R – A – N, S as in Sam, F as in Frank, O-R-D. BransFORD.” My sister has a variation that emphasizes the SF in the middle, which is […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: How to Find a Literary Agent, How to Write a Query Letter, query stats

Vacation Query Stats

January 28, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 123 Comments

While I was away on vacation last week I received 327 queries, all of which I have now answered. There are 165 more that arrived so far this week alone, which I haven’t yet gotten to. The queries are massing at the gate! Man the ramparts! I kept stats on those 327, and here they […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: How to Write a Query Letter, query stats

Agent E-mail Stats

August 24, 2009 by Nathan Bransford 136 Comments

Every Monday morning, as sure as the rooster’s cry (I don’t actually have a rooster) I can expect to come in to 100+ e-mails from the weekend, mostly queries. I like to think of it as the Monday Deluge, and it means that if I’m going to answer all of them (and oh, I do) […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: How to Find a Literary Agent, How to Write a Query Letter, Kindle, query stats

Presidents’ Day Query Stats

February 17, 2009 by Nathan Bransford 79 Comments

As many blogging agents have noted, there has been quite the uptick in queries this year, and I have the stats to prove it. I received 105 queries over the past three days, which is certainly a record for a holiday weekend. Also of note: the Stephenie Meyer effect is strong. I didn’t separate out […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: query stats, Stephenie Meyer

What’s the best length for a query letter?

September 2, 2008 by Nathan Bransford 68 Comments

What is the best length for a query letter? How do you know if yours is too long or too short? Back when I was a literary agent, I ran a word count on every query I received for a week. If the author included sample pages in the body of the e-mail I did […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: How to Write a Query Letter, query stats

Query Stats Eeyore Would Love

April 8, 2008 by Nathan Bransford 83 Comments

Do I sound depressed? No? Give it time. Usual preface: there were three or four queries over the weekend from regular blog readers that followed the rules, wrote good personalized queries, and were perfectly fine and just weren’t quite for me. Keep on trucking, I’m sure you’ll find the right agent. Everyone else? Wow. Let […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: How to Write a Query Letter, query stats

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About Nathan

Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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My Books

How to Write A Novel
Cover of How to Publish a Book by Nathan Bransford
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapo
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

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