Rejection. A horrible word that nobody wants to face, but one which those of us in the publishing industry encounter regularly. At times, rejections will float into your inbox in a quiet email, often disguised in polite words, but that doesn’t stop the sting; at other times, they’ll be lost in radio silence. Both kinds damage your confidence and leave you questioning everything, but I’ve learned that rejection isn’t a reflection of a writer’s work.

What is a metadata paragraph? And why do you need one in a query letter? What should it include? This post takes a closer look.

I've joined Birch Literary as a Junior Literary Agent. Read about how it happened, and what lies ahead.

My time in the query trenches: all about querying, your chances of landing a literary agent, and some pros of self-publishing.