Published 11 March 200911 March 2009 · Main Posts how not to land an agent Jeff Sparrow At JacketFlap, a bunch of literary agents list the worst query lines they’ve received. These lists always seem a bit patronising but the examples are all recognisable. Part 3 is headed ‘Only include relevant, professional publishing credentials in your query’. That means you don’t write: My credentials for writing this book include: A divine mandate to speak the word of God. The best credentials I can share are the comments from my family and friends after they read my book. Please Google my name for more information. This isn’t my first published work, I have published 2 articles in G4S Pipeline Trade Publication. I have been writing since I could hold a crayon, and before that I used finger paints. I know 10 people who would buy this book right now! This is not representative of my best work. This is my first attempt at writing a fictional novel. I read this to the high school English class that I teach and they all agreed it was wonderful. I’m a real estate developer and you contacted me once in the past about a building or a home I had for sale at that time. Four paragraphs about your former career as a technical writer. Not one sentence about plot of book. The entire manuscript has been reviewed by both my writing mentor and a copyeditor and is ready for wide distribution. The manuscript is complete. It is 320 pages in Font 10 with 178,313 words. It has 36 chapters. I am not a professional writer. In a nutshell, I have no credentials. Read the rest here. Jeff Sparrow Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland. More by Jeff Sparrow › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 28 March 202428 March 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. First published in Overland Issue 228 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.