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Helen Lane

@helenlane.bsky.social

2.8K followers 1.1K following 1K posts

Agent at the Ki Agency. Editor. Obsessed with deep sea horror 🦈🐙 🐊🌊 https://www.helenlanewriting.uk/

www.helenlanewriting.uk

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Reposted by Helen Lane

Savannah Stephens has a book to draft and a book to promote @booksbysavannah.bsky.social · 1d

Hey out there Beautiful Souls, Savannah here with a small request. If you use Goodreads and or want to read/support #witchqueenrising, please consider adding it to your "Want to Read" list there. 🔗 In 🔗🌲

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 2d

Illness this week has knocked me out. Can't remember the last time I spent the better part of a week in bed.

a painting of a woman laying in a bed with a blue blanket and a white pillow

ALT: a painting of a woman laying in a bed with a blue blanket and a white pillow

media.tenor.com

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 3d

Here is the cover reveal for Hunter's Treasure, published via @harpercollins.bsky.social February 12th 2026.

Reposted by Helen Lane

Savannah Stephens has a book to draft and a book to promote @booksbysavannah.bsky.social · 3d

I wanted to give a shoutout to the amazing artist who brought #WitchQueenRising to life. Many thanks to the wonderfully talented Micah Epstein who can be found at
www.micahepsteinart.com and @micahepsteinart on X/IG

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 4d

I am raging at Big Brother tonight. Could storm the house level.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 4d

Same!

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 4d

Bartimaus, ninth house, Artemis fowl…I will now be rereading them all.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

If you receive a request the best place to update an agent is in the return email IMO

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

I would say that if you’ve received a request, assume we don’t need to know. Lots of our querying authors have requests and if they all updated us we each time our emails would never stop. So do it when you hit a bigger number. I’d say four but others are welcome to state otherwise.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

Lots of authors either include their request stats in query letters (this is good) or update us via QM. The update itself is not a bad idea, but how and when someone chooses to do it can become overwhelming and frankly annoying for agents. So it’s about judgement.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

If you are at double digit, yes. But I feel 4 is around the time a manuscript starts standing out as getting lots of attention. Others may say higher, but I think lots of authors will have a few requests.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

8. Above all else, please be polite. If you do not receive that politeness back it is the fault of the other person. All you can control is your side of the interactions.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

*please, note, this is in relation to talking about agents in general, I am not trying to police actual negative encounters where people need to talk/ warn others - although I would say please fact check*

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

know anything about your books

7. If you are querying, don't write long posts on social media about how agents are parasites and don't know what they are doing. Even if we like your work, we are not going to want to work with someone who holds us in such low regard.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

it for the meeting when you already have the agent in front of you and they've invested the time and effort). This advice may bite me in the butt later but it's how I would do it if I was an author.

6. Don't email us about genres/ age ranges we don't rep. You wouldn't want us to rep you if we don't

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

Hype around an agent and client can work in your favour but it can also work against you. If it were me I'd find the middle ground between making it clear your project is in demand but not saying who or how many offers you have, beyond it being multiple (or at least save

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

However, this is not information you are required to share and actually may work against you. As the more interest there is and the bigger the agent(s) we are up against are, the more some agents may decide not to invest the time to compete.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

agents have set.

4. Don't tell an agent you have an offer or multiple offers when you don't.

5. Don't send an email query to skip the queue in QM.

6. If you have an offer and we are interested in matching it, we are always curious who the other agent is that we are up against.

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

but one or two full manuscript requests will apply to a huge portion of the queries we have and just result in a lot of notifications. However, feel free to update your query letter when you next send it out though.

3. Please don't lie about your word count or genre to get past the boundaries

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

2. If an agent has not requested notifications about full manuscripts, please don't send them. Especially every time you get one. If you find that you are getting a lot of full manuscript requests (four or more), that feels like a different situation as there is hype rising around your project,

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 5d

A couple of pointers on QM etiquette/ querying in general. This is offered in the spirit of trying to help rather than criticise, so please no attacks.

1. Please don't use the offer of representation notification for anything other than an offer of rep. (But if you've done this don't panic)

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 6d

The most confused I have ever been was the first time of watching the end of Buffy, season 5, episode 1. It still hurts my brain now.

a man wearing sunglasses and a suit is smoking a cigarette and asking who are you ?

ALT: a man wearing sunglasses and a suit is smoking a cigarette and asking who are you ?

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Helen Lane

James Bennett @jamesbennett.bsky.social · 7d

Whatever you do, don't tone down your natural queer expression to fit the mores of a mainstream market fixated by palatable "rep". Might take years for your work to find a home, but ballsy editors are out there. And you won't feel like you've become less than yourself to fulfil a tacit quota. 👍🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 7d

I don’t. Im sorry:

Helen Lane @helenlane.bsky.social · 8d

I am receiving a large number of queries to my email. This is a polite reminder that I am only taking queries (unless it’s a referral) via QM. All other emails are deleted.