Chuck Sambuchino

Chuck Sambuchino is a Top 100 AALBC.com Bestselling Author Making Our List 12 Times

Chuck Sambuchino is an editor and published author who runs the Guide to Literary Agents Blog, one of the biggest blogs in publishing. His site has instruction and information on literary agents, literary agencies, query letters, submissions, publishing, author platform, book marketing, and more.

Chuck is a former staffer of several newspapers and magazines — most notably Writer’s Digest. During his tenure as a newspaper reporter, he won awards from both the Kentucky Press Association and the Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists.

He is a produced playwright, with both original and commissioned works produced. His work has appeared in national and regional magazines, with recent articles in Watercolor Artist, Pennsylvania Magazine, The Pastel Journal, Cincinnati Magazine, Romance Writers Report and New Mexico Magazine. During the past decade, more than 650 of his articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and books.

Besides writing, Chuck loves music, and plays guitar and piano in a rock cover band. He also has an insatiable sweet tooth and is forever searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. He and his wife have a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham, and they live in Ohio.

From the 2009 Edition of Guide to Literary Agents:

Cardinal Rules of Manuscript Submission

Find out the rules of submission.
So many manuscripts get turned down for violating these rules. Some houses, like Berkeley, only accept agented submissions. Very few big houses nowadays accept unsolicited pieces; the science-fiction house Tor is an exception.
Find out what the house publishes.
Again, critical information. You wouldn’t send a mystery novel to a house that specializes in historical romances. Not only is it a waste of time, it’s also a clear sign of ignorance.
Find out who the manuscript should be sent to.
Often, the editor who was in one house last year turns up in someone else’s house the next year. Submitting a manuscript to the attention of an anonymous editor doesn’t help at all.
If you find a house you’d like to submit to, be sure to send a query letter first.
A query letter is exactly what it sounds like, a letter asking if a house would be interested in looking at your work. A query also helps avoid the frustration of rejection later on down the road. A number of resources are available, most notably from Writer’s Digest Books, to help authors with the ins and outs of publication. WDB annually publishes The Writer’s Market series, which includes volumes on general fiction, romance, science fiction and fantasy, songwriting, and children’s books…