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Last night at the @SCBWI webinar, I mentioned that I thought putting your picture book word count at the start of your query was wasting prime space you could use to pitch me the real hook of your story. The response was, uniformly, “Agents tell us we have to!” #PBChat
One person wondered if it was so writers would know they should be mindful of word count. But that sounds like a “best practice” issue and not something that‘s fixed by putting it in the intro of your letter.
So, agents, can you weigh in? I’d rather get a quick, hot sound bite of what the pitch is at the start of a query. I know how to do a word count on my own if I need to (which I don’t). Are agents really demanding this? If so, why? Genuinely, respectfully curious.
And, PS, I told everyone to cut it out. Sorry! (Not sorry!) 
(Also, I don’t read query letters. 
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Thanks for a super-fun quarantine-edition webinar, everyone! It’ll be fun to get into this in person someday.
