Noah Lukeman’s FREE eBook for Writers
Three weeks ago I set aside an hour on today’s calendar and built my entire day’s schedule around it: the appearance of New York agent/author Noah Lukeman on Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s radio show on KUCI-FM [see my previous review of her program].
I tune into “Writer’s On Writing,” via the internet, usually when the show features someone who will talk about business and productivity issues, as Lukeman was sure to do. I’ve followed his career ever since discovering that he agented a couple of books similar to the one I’m currently working on. I’ve read his highly acclaimed The First Five Pages and look forward to getting A Dash of Style now that it’s in paperback.
The hour-long interview was, as expected, full of information and informed opinion. Two hundred pages of typed manuscript works out to about 130 pages once it is published in book form. The typical submitted novel manuscript runs between 250-400 manuscript pages. Yes, Lukeman admitted, most agents pick up a submitted manuscript looking for reasons to toss it into the rejects pile. [He himself received about 10,000 submissions a year, and in recent years he might accept only one. Now he’s not even looking for new clients.]
Most important, in Lukeman’s opinion, is the quality of the writing itself, not the overall concept of a book. He returned to that theme time and again.
The biggest surprise to me was his announcement that his eBook How To Write A Great Query Letter is now available online for free, “a way to give back to the writing community,” as he put it. I recommend it — I bought it online two years ago and found it provocative. You can find it at the eBook’s dedicated website.
Fortunately, you will also be able to download the entire interview from DeMarco-Barrett’s radio show website, along with well over 100 other past programs.
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