Today's query pitfall

Describing a character only in terms of race and sexuality: sexy Latina; hot black; frigid bitch (this one was a Labrador retriever I'm guessing)


If you think that's an enticing way to describe a character, any character, you're querying the wrong agent. You might consider the editor for Penthouse Letters.

It's easy to get caught up in cliches.  Tell me something interesting about the characters in your novel: like what choices they face, and what dreadful plot points await them.

But if you set a blonde adrift in a canoe with a boa constrictor, well, then you know how to turn a cliche upside down and hell yes, I'd read that.