#MSWL

Patrick.S

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I wanted to give a heads up to people on Twitter, that today at 9:00est it is #MSWL day. For those who don't know, MSWL stands for Manuscript Wish List, and it's where agents and editors post what they are looking for right now. Just a note: It is not a place to pitch your book. That is a big no no over there. It's there to give you an idea of trends and if your MS fits, who to query. It's great fun!

Mods: Not sure if the roundtable was the appropriate place to post. I'm sure we'll be moved if it isn't.
 

Tromboli

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#MSWL and #MSWLM

Today is a big #MSWL event on twitter. Stands for Manuscript Wish List, where agents and editors post what they're hoping to see, sometimes specific sometimes just genres but its a great way to build a query list and just see what's popular/ sought after right now. And Jessica Sinsheimer put a ton of work into another part: #mswlm (MS wish list media) where they'll post pictures and videos about what they hope to see.

If you're not clear about how to use twitter, just go on twitter.com and in the search box type #MSWL or #MSWLM and it will show all the tweets. Then all you do is read and click the links (but be careful of what you click, popular hashtags often get some spam) no need to make an account.
 

juniper

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Ok, so for those of us (I mean, ME :e2paperba) who still haven't got the hang of Twitter, despite having an account there ... how do I find all those #MSWL tweets?

:gaah I am hopeless ...
 

Patrick.S

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No sweat. I'm a relative newb too. Go up to the search bar at the top of the screen and type #MSWL. That's it. They should all come up.
 

LJD

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I don't have a twitter account, but I'm looking here: #MSWL
also, the tweets are later compiled on tumblr
 

juniper

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If you're not clear about how to use twitter, just go on twitter.com and in the search box type #MSWL or #MSWLM and it will show all the tweets. Then all you do is read and click the links (but be careful of what you click, popular hashtags often get some spam) no need to make an account.

Ha, thread merge! Thanks for the detailed info.
 

Chumplet

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I'm loving it, but many agents are simply regurgitating their normal guidelines: great writing, well written, something I'll love, etc.

I'd rather see their specific wants. Finding your own MS in the pile is like finding treasure.
 

Tromboli

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There were a lot of people complaining that all the agents were looking for YA and MG but as someone LOOKING for agents mentioning MG... there weren't a lot. Most of the ones that did say MG were very specific "creepy circus for YA or MG" "MG set in middle east" so it was tough. I only found 2 agents to send to from #MSWL. There WAS a lot of YA/NA though.
 

juliesondra

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I like when they tweet specifics, too. Even when they're not talking about something I could give them, it's really interesting to see stuff like "oh I really wish someone would send me an MG book with a female lead set in the 19th century" and stuff like that.

I'm not great with Twitter myself but I'm learning. There really are opportunities there that aren't around anywhere else. I'm infamously terrible at being concise so Twitter is like the bane of my existence, and I've made fun of it here and there. And then my agent found an editor who tweeted a match for my book and she pitched (through e-mail, of course) and got a request out of it. I said that if my book sells to that editor because of a hashtag I will never bash Twitter again.
 

Polenth

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Specifics help, as it gives an idea what they want beyond genre and strong writing. You may not have a circus story, but you might have written a book about a small group of unrelated people who don't fit in so well with mainstream society. That atypical found family theme is common in circus stories.

Which is why I'd have liked to see more specifics and fewer general genre statements.

(Not that I'd mark a query as #MSWL if it was only loosely related to what they asked for, but it'd give some more places to query.)
 

Tromboli

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Yeah. I like specifics too, even if I don't fit them. Just found it odd that people we're commenting on all the YA/MG being mentioned when I couldn't find all that much MG.

Two agents on my list that I know would like something specific about my MS is helpful no matter what. I'll still have a pretty good list of agents to query first with my MG (probably won't be ready until the end of next month)


Juliesondra- it's cool to see the other side of it too. Agents looking to editors for where to place MSs. Hope it works out! Good luck!
 
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Tromboli

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Oh! And I just found another on the tumblr site. I'm sure I missed some throughout the day yesterday, will be much easier to search through tumblr.
 

juliesondra

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Yeah, I would sometimes get disappointed when I'd see someone looking for what I wrote and it turned out to be an agent. There aren't many editors doing it, compared to the number of agents. But I did find one editor who seemed appropriate and mentioned it to my agent, and she said actually she had him in mind for my book (but can't sub to him right this second because he's already considering another book by a different client of hers, and you're not supposed to hit them over the head with All The Work by your clients). So I guess I'll have to wait in line. ;)
 

hikarinotsubasa

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Kind of a weird thing I've seen a few times... why would an agent post something they want on the tumblr site when their homepage says they are closed to unsolicited queries? What does that mean? Seems kind of contradictory to me. Do they want people to send them queries that match their wish list description, or not?
 

juliesondra

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hikarinotsubasa, I'm not an agent so I can't definitively answer this question, but all three of the agents at my agency are closed to queries and yet sometimes they participate in contests. My agent said if you put the hashtag of the contest in the subject line of your e-mail then she would know it was being submitted because of a special exception. If I were you, I would send a query to the agent in question and mention the #MSWL hashtag in the subject line, and in your opener, acknowledge that you know they're closed to unsolicited queries but were wondering if this constitutes a "solicited" query. After all, they literally asked for it. (Just make sure whatever you send someone in this situation really is a match. ;) )
 

gingerwoman

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Kind of a weird thing I've seen a few times... why would an agent post something they want on the tumblr site when their homepage says they are closed to unsolicited queries? What does that mean? Seems kind of contradictory to me. Do they want people to send them queries that match their wish list description, or not?
Maybe you should ask about that in the agent forum.