Because she is made of awesome. Just sayin.

Your question: I’ve been working on something for Laura for a while now. It’s an alternate earth/paranormal and is so big I’ve split it into three books. When do you stop editing and just submit the thing? I want it perfect. But if it’s not something marketable, am I wasting time by continuing to tweek, tweek, tweek it?

LB: Well you always want to make something as polished as possible before you send it off to an agent, but sometimes there is a fine line between polishing and obsessing. And it is possible to tweak your voice right out of your work. I have no way of knowing whether something is marketable until I see the material, so I can’t really give you a straight answer.

If you love the work, I think you should give it every opportunity to find a home, whether it is in NY or elsewhere. If you believe in it enough to think it deserves publication, you have to just bite the bullet at some point and let some kind of industry professional see it. Believe me, there is no shortage of people out there who are dying to tell you whether they think something is marketable or not.

Your Question: How would a typical day in the life of Laura Bradford be?

LB: It varies, of course. Most days I start out with a task list and then inevitably a call comes in, or a contract, or a problem of some kind that shoves itself to the head of the line. Generally I start by day by sorting through my email and prioritizing first anything from a client or editor. If I am pitching a new project, I will make those calls first thing. After that, I will work on client material. On any given day, I have about 8-12 pieces of client material that needs my attention–could be a proposal for the next book in their contract, could be an option, a new manuscript, an edited manuscript due for delivery that they want me to read through. All of this can take the entire day, and does. Then there are contests to judge, questions on Lauren Dane’s blog to answer, pitch letters to write. I also need to keep up with my electronic queries, so they don’t pile up too much. It stresses me out when I see that I have 100+ unopened queries in my inbox, so I work hard to keep that under control. I read hard copy submissions at night, usually.

Laura Bradford is a literary agent who is, as I’ve mentioned a few times, made of awesome. She has her own shop – Bradford Literary Agency and works incredibly hard for her clients (I can totally attest to this fact)