You’ve got your manuscript (let’s say it’s a MG book about a Hispanic girl transported to a magical land where she comes to grips with her family’s dark history and there just so happens to be a talking dog as her partner. Not the focal point of the story, but a part of the story nonetheless.)

You’ve written it. Edited it. Sent it out to beta readers. Taken notes. Edited it again.

And now you’re ready to query.

You look up agents open to queries.

You find some on MSWL.com open to middle grade books.

You find some open to fantasy.

You find some open to BIPOC main characters.

You find some open to family drama.

You make notes of all this in your agent excel spreadsheet, tracking key words and signifiers that show you would be a good fit.

You research the agency.

You reread the agent’s submission page on the agency website.

You look at the agency head and why they started it.

You look at their client list.

Their sold books.

Their upcoming books.

Their foreign rights deals currently in development.

You finally decide this is it. This agent seems awesome.

You’re going to pitch this agent.

You gather all your notes, reorganizing them to fit their Query Manager format.

You rework your pitch to include the buzz words they asked for that you know is in your work.

You see they also have a website.

You click on the website to get any more helpful hints about what to include in the pitch.

And there, at the very bottom of their MSWL page on their personal website, you see for the very first time anywhere…

“NO TALKING ANIMALS.”

47 minutes have passed.

Thanks for reading…