Pete Knapp

I generally read them but sometimes they get misfiled in the wrong place by the auto filter, so I would send a new email to the [email protected] email with a subject like “inquiry - Pete Knapp” if you need to get in touch with me. 

I’m sorry you’re dealing with this; assuming you’ve already talked to your previous agency with no luck in moving the needle, I would discuss with your current agent, but it sounds like you might want to write a letter of direction to your publisher for those titles asking them to send you your payment directly, and asking for copies of your royalty statements sent directly to you. You can also email your editor to ask for copies of those statements, and in many cases they can help get copies to you. Discuss more with your agent though to see what your options are. 

Not as far as I know.

I would most likely represent them, perhaps in coordination with a colleague depending on the specific book/situation. 

yes!

I can only speak for myself here: my policy is I will see a resubmission of a query I passed on one time (but no more, please) if there have been big changes to the MS. I prefer for the author to say it’s a resubmission so when I get the sense that it’s something I’ve seen before, I know it’s because it’s a resubmission and not because two writers are writing very similar things or there’s a book I heard about that already covers the same ground...better to remind me that I saw an earlier version. Other agents may well feel differently. 

Alas, that range you heard is true (and it ranges even more than that in some cases...). It just depends on the book. For example, BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE (such a classic!) is around 22k words long; Lauren Oliver’s MG ghost story LIESL & PO is 52k words. The range depends on what the story demands and a little bit on how you are positioning it.

I think it will depend on how the series has done, how the agent feels about the existing series, and how the companion novel fits into the series. Plus, how the agent feels about your writing in general. This is how Maggie Stiefvater found her agent -- see here.  

YES.

I’m BEHIND. But my goal is to catch up to queries through 11/15/19 this week/weekend. 

Great writing! Truly, I look to be hooked, however that happens, but a few things I notice I’ve loved: the feeling that as a reader we’re trying to catch up with the story (i.e., something has happened before the book begins, so the character is already highly motivated right when we meet them, like when we meet Ana in BLOOD HEIR); a character struggling with an internal emotional problem and/or moral dilemma (such as Emily Bain Murphy’s THE DISAPPEARANCES where Aila has just lost her mother 3 weeks prior and the devastation of the loss is immediately apparent from the first lines).  

I think this really depends on a number of variables...for instance, if your fan fiction is erotica and your books are middle grade fantasy, it may make sense to not link them and keep them under different names. But if you wrote a bunch of YA fantasy fan fiction and have strong connections in that community, linking your books to your fan fiction may give you a leg up by allowing you to tap into the fan fiction community to help sell your book when it comes out. Being for and of the fan community is a great position to be in when launching your own work. Once you have an agent (or if you currently have an agent), you should be able to talk through the pros and cons and your options a bit more. 

Nope...I had a book on my list that did that and I loved it (though the particular part I’m thinking of was ultimately cut from the book during the revision process.)

I think it’s totally fine to include it’s a series in the query. If that’s what it is, that’s what it is. And if an agent thinks it needs to stand alone, they can read it and then give you that feedback when talking about their editorial vision.

I don’t think it hurts your chances as long as they have strong relationships and have been mentored and/or have the support of their agency to help make relationships where they may still be building them. Everyone starts somewhere, and especially in kids books I have found editors to be incredibly open to agents just starting out...because a good book is a good book, regardless of whether it’s a 20 year veteran sending it to you or a newly minuted agent. And when I think of a lot of big successes in the past, they often were sold by newer agents. 

If it works, it works...can’t comment on whether it does for your book without reading it alas. The big issue that gives prologues a bad rep is that they’re often used as a crutch to hide the lack of tension in the first chapter by flashing forward to a more tense scene, and then the first chapter feels flat somehow. Or they’re used to do a big information dump/world-building. But prologues themselves are of course not inherently bad, it just comes down to how they’re used. 

No, it means I’m now running behind. I’m in the process of catching up!