a lot of authors (myself included) regularly say "ask agents hard questions on the offer call!"

& querying writers rightfully ask "WHAT QUESTIONS???"

SO! agented friends -- what are some "hard" Q's you're glad you asked, Q's u wish you'd asked, etc

going to compile a big post

i'll give credit where credit is due & link any questions back to your name. i just think (hope?) that having a blog post with all of these in one place will make querying' writers lives....a bit easier. bc this was def hard for me to navigate, too, esp the 1st time around

when i signed with my first agent there was so much i didn't even know to ask, or that i felt like i didn't have a *right* to ask, and the second time i felt much more confident asking said questions but if i can save even one person a little bit of heartache i am glad to do it

i already have a decent list i want to include, but wanted to put this out there bc i am One Person and things i need to ask may be different from others

if you chime in, and it's not on my list, i would love love to include it in the blog post w credit to you if that's ok

off the top of my head; things i'm glad i asked the second time around --

i am writing about my identity / experience which is x. how do you protect your marginalized authors?

how do you feel about x future project?

how editorial are you?

what happens if you leave agenting?

oh, and this isn't a question, but a method:

i always, always

a) tell my friends to ask for a second call

b) ask their hard questions on the phone. not email. (sorry agents lol) because tone of voice, in-the-moment, on-the-fly answer is often more helpful than a crafted email

the latter i will admit is not something i knew to do naturally and actually had lovingly shouted at me by my boyfriend who worked in marketing and is a business owner

sometimes how people to respond to a question is more important than what they actually say, honestly