ALT periwinkle background with golden snowflakes and a glass ornament in the center reading “Our 2026 Event List: January 30th, April 29th, July 24th, November 4th”

ALT SCHMAGENT RED FLAGS TO LOOK OUT FOR by Lilly Lu and Solar Hoàng

ALT 01. CHARGING FOR EDITORIAL SERVICES An agency will never charge you money! Editorial services on top of rep is also a conflict of interest and is the classic sign of a schmagency. This applies to agents plugging their external editorial service as well.

ALT 02. FOUNDER HAS NO AGENCY EXPERIENCE Agenting is an apprenticeship -based profession. Many agents go through YEARS of training and networking under a mentor before taking on their own clients, let alone founding their own agency. Without years of experience, they would not have industry connections to submit your manuscript(s) to.

ALT 03. A YAPPY AND ONLINE TWITTER AGENT It’s not bad if an agent is active on social media, but it might be a red flag if they do not many sales or no sales to major publishers in combination with no mentorship. Another MAJOR point: if they're always weighing in on dramas just to get engagement. Publishers pay attention to socmed!

ALT purple background with pastel yellow leaves drawing encircling the center. Highlighted in the same color is “#questpit Q&A” and below it “Question 3: What is your favourite writing weather? And does it tie into your manuscript’s atmosphere?”. There is a blue butterfly to the left of the writing and a lady bug in the right corner of the drawing.

ALT purple background with pastel yellow leaves drawing encircling the center. Highlighted in the same color is “#questpit Q&A” and below it “Question 2: Are there spring elements in your book?”. There is a blue butterfly to the left of the writing and a lady bug in the right corner of the drawing.

ALT purple background with pastel yellow leaves drawing encircling the center. Highlighted in the same color is “#questpit Q&A” and below it “Question 1: Introduce yourself and what you’ll be pitching April 29th!”. There is a blue butterfly to the left of the writing and a lady bug in the right corner of the drawing.

ALT purple background with pastel yellow leaves drawing encircling the center. Highlighted in the same color is “#questpit Q&A” and below it “Join us for a Q&A today at 12 p.m. EST”. There is a blue butterfly to the left of the writing and a lady bug in the right corner of the drawing.

ALT Author feature: Taylor Grothe. Is this descriptive or is this purpose? Four case studies of beautiful prose. Read now on substack

ALT Taylor Grothe: Is this descriptive or is this purple? Four case studies of beautiful prose. And while descriptive, breathing prose is a welcome read, a scene heavy with obscuring description is distracting at best, and DNF-worthy at worst. So, this begs the question: how can you craft a beautiful book without falling into some of the more common pitfalls?

ALT winter wonderland #questpit winter 2026 jan 31st

ALT a dark blue background with snowflakes and ice sickles and text that reads “#QUESTPIT Q&A QUESTION #3: is winter prevalent in your story? if not, how would it impact your story?”