Those are the odds of an unpublished author convincing a literary agent to represent your novel, according to Mark Malatesta at Literary-Agents.com. “The best book agents can get as many as 1,500 ...

From a query letter to sample chapters—a book proposal determines if your brilliant idea makes it to print. Here is some practical advice to make sure your pitch sings.

There are countless ineffective ways to pitch a manuscript, ranging from the slightly boneheaded (addressing a female literary agent as “Mr.” in a query letter) to the more extravagantly awkward ...