Laura Zats
@LZats
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Founder & Agent @HeadwaterLit . Host of the award-winning @printrunpodcast . AALA member. Publishers Weekly industry MVP. She/her & Ms/Mx. Open to queries!
Twin Cities, MN
Joined August 2011
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@HeadwaterLit
represents books that reflect our values. We are leftists and anti capitalist. We believe in abolishing prisons and police. We believe in access to abortion. We are anti-Zionist. We condemn structural and personal racism, homophobia, and ableism.
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I’m not going to RT the biphobic YA take but a bi person is literally never in a “straight” relationship. Every relationship they have is queer. Even a relationship they might have with someone of a different gender is still going to be very, very different from a hetero one!
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The authors affected are doing a 💯 job of breaking down that nonapology and the racism inherent in this entire mess, so let’s just do a general thread real quick about parts of the world that should cease to exist when you get your book deal. Ready?
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This morning I finished my shampoo and conditioner bottles at the same time, so I guess I’m ready to accept the mantle of my godly power
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I've been at my desk for 22 minutes and I've already received TWO notices of offers from querying writers, so let's talk about it real quick!
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I see so much fatphobia in books (published and unpublished) that it honestly seems like writers are going out of their way to be cruel.
It's actually incredibly easy to not be shitty about body shape and size! Here's a list!
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TW: pet death
We said goodbye to our dear Moose this morning. Thank you to those of you on here who have loved her too. She was a very special girl and I’m going to miss her a lot.
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As a rule, I try not to dunk on querying writers but I'm mad about the "sorry, white writers can't get published anymore" lady and I have some things to say.
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Writers producing work without a contract are not just doing it for fun, they’re making a financial investment with the hope of future gain. It might pay off, it might not. But never is it not serious.
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Things that will happen when there’s a PRHSS monopoly:
-fewer imprints and fewer editors
-ever-shrinking midlist
-fewer debuts being published, and fewer sophomore books
-agents and writers hold significantly less leverage, leading to worse terms for writers
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Just a real quick note on this:
If you are a part of this, I do not want to talk with you. I do not want to know you in any way, in any capacity. I will not work with you. We are not and will never be colleagues.
A publishing network for those “concerned about the impact of gender ideology on our sector and wider society” launched today for publishing professionals, authors and creatives 👇
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Man, Book Twitter is ALIVE today. In case you're missing it:
- Piracy is always bad. Authors should not have to be grateful for it
- If you're running a conference, put award nominees on programming!
- If you're running a conference, put POC on programming!
- Libraries are Good
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I would like a publishing executive to explain to me in detail how exactly editorial, production, and sales/marketing are not already functioning at absolute capacity.
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Okay, I've become aware that a lot of American writers on here don't know about taxes for their business (writing is your business!) so I'm going to do a lil thread on the subject.
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Living in 2022 is fun because you constantly get to figure out if your crippling anxiety is from Covid, impending war, harmful legislation, police violence, your mental illness, or from having to pretend to still live and work like none of the above is actually happening!
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I keep hearing about agents and editors asking for books with neurodiverse protagonists and then never being able to “connect” with the voice and I simply don’t get 1) why they’d do that and 2) why they don’t think ND characters make for the best books?
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Up early going through queries with a huge pot of tea. I'm thinking, as always, of different ways to make querying easier and more successful for all kinds of writers.
I think a lot of writers find hard-and-fast rules about querying useful. But many don't. (thread)
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BOOK TWITTER! I'm looking for a black artist for a series of historical picture books. They don't need to have done a book before.
Holler if you know someone!
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Hey querying writers! Did you know that the Harper Collins union is currently on strike for livable wages? Consider paying attention to what agents/agencies are supporting the strike, and which ones are silent while building your sub list.
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Big news I just got the query everyone was talking about last week that says I'm a jerk and to "just read the fucking book"
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I've been talking with authors a lot about how they're frustrated that writing in a panini isn't getting easier. So here is my guide to writing in a global pandemic/when life is hard and uncertain/in late-stage capitalism/in a climate crisis:
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A reminder to literally every white person: DO NOT CALL THE POLICE. They are not helpers. They will not make a situation safer. It’s a dangerous and horrific thing to do and someone might end up dead.
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“But has she ever even KISSED a girl?” Well sexuality is based on attraction and not action, so GTFO with that intellectually dishonest, acephobic take.
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1) goodreads. No, you’ve never heard of it. No, you do not have an account.
2) the little star rating on your Amazon page/the bottom third of your product page. Never will you scroll so far!
3) vague $ amount categories on Publishers Marketplace. They’re all good deals, Brent.
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I don’t know who needs to hear this but do not sign with an agent who hasn’t read your entire book! It is not a flex to get an offer off of three chapters when you have 30!
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A white person cannot be an ally unless they understand and grapple with their own racism. They must confront it, unflinchingly, every day.
If you are white and think you are in no way racist, you are part of the problem.
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#YesAllWomen
because teenage girls are taught that obsessive, abusive relationships like in Twilight are romantic
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Because we’ve been getting some minor trolling action, this bears repeating:
@HeadwaterLit
is a Jewish-owned literary agency.
@HeadwaterLit
has always been and will always be anti-Zionist.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
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“This bi woman has only ever been in relationship with men!” Well guess what, they’re still not straight, and their relationships still aren’t straight.
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It's when agencies are forced to drop their gatekeeper act & actually sell themselves to a writer, and even if I don't end up competing for the book, it's so heartening to see writers setting boundaries and deadlines and being respected by this industry for the first frickin time
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1) notes app (classic, simple, can upload to cloud)
2) a tag in your libby app (use your libraries, y’all!)
3) one of those pretty journals you keep buying but not using
4) one of the dozens of other book tracking apps
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Can you even imagine if your boss sent you an email with “Sharing Some Thoughts...” as the header and then realizing it takes her over a hundred words to tell you you’re fired?
Sending much love to the agents and interns left in the lurch today.
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If you’re a reader worried about the batshit supply chain issues the book industry is experiencing, look at it as an opportunity to finally buy all those older, always-stocked books you’ve always had your eye on but aren’t quite as sexy as buzzy new releases!
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Also for panicking writers, 99.9% of agents will not take your ideas and run.
It is also totally fine to use old comps if done deliberately and effectively. The scammy side of this biz pretends there are more rules around comps than there are
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Hey there, Writer.
Yeah, you. Come here. I want to tell you a secret.
Literary agents work FOR you. As much as it might seem, it's never the other way around.
Never forget: YOU are the essential part of this equation.
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The guy who mass cc'ed agents to get them to bid on his query at $100/word (for the honor of ghostwriting his book) is still emailing the thread and I, for one, hope he never stops
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Today, at 2:47 CST, I received a C&D of my own, complaining about the RETWEETS I have done related to this entire incident.
Sorry, but I'm not going to be intimidated into backing down twice.
Here's what I got:
Almost two years ago, a retaliatory agent threatened to sue me for posting a link to a forum. At that point, Dawn pressured me into standing down, and now she’s using the same tactic on smart, brave members of our publishing community. Please support them if you can. I will be.
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Using a lawyer to bully people into saying you’re not racist is the most fragile and whitest thing I’ve ever seen
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4) any fan fiction based on your writing. Sorry!
5) social media accounts of people (esp other writers) who make you feels bad about yourself, intentionally or not! A mute is a beautiful thing.
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Super into the writers-making-friends-with-writers thing but is there also room for agent friends? Writers are the most fun.
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3 (caveat) it’s particularly important for BIPOC to be transparent about their advances
#publishingpaidme
because of structural racism, but if it’s engendering feelings of jealousy rather than solidarity, stop!
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I'm starting my morning with a gigantic pot of tea and my slush pile, so let's talk about queries for a few minutes!
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We get to laugh at an entitled white man reporting a black, woman to her publisher because it's Roxane Gay, but take a moment to acknowledge how horrific and dangerous this behavior is to people who don't have her kind of platform or resources.
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Go take a gender, women, and sexuality class and stop being an exclusionary dipshit
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tl;dr TAKE THE TWO WEEKS and know you're the literally only essential part of this entire equation.
Be brave and be clear about your expectations and never let an agent fuck with your dignity because capitalism will be doing that anyway.
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I’m sorry, but I’m just now learning that some agencies have a clause in their contracts that prohibits an author from querying elsewhere for a period of time after leaving. What the actual fuck? Why????
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Now is also a good time to remind everyone that
✨✨✨you cannot know someone’s gender just by looking at them✨✨✨
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My favorite type of slush pile reply guys are the ones who tell me I'm too scared to take on their genius
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—Are the only fat people in your book villains? Guess what, that's fatphobic!
—Do you only ever describe fat characters as grotesque or sexually/romantically undesirable? That's fatphobic!
—Do you ever speculate on a fat person's level of "health"? STOP IT
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And real quick while we’re here, here’s a list of better ways to keep track of your reading that’s not goodreads (which, unfortunately, no longer exists)
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Every time a blatantly harmful book is acquired, published, and publicized, I can’t help but think of the marginalized writers who have to keep track of an ever-shrinking pool of people who are safe to work with
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It’s absolutely bad that some agents take a year or more to get through queries but the genre of post that’s “I just got an agent rejection on a book coming out soon” shouldn’t exist because writers should absolutely pull all outstanding queries when they accept an offer!
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—Never tell us how much your characters weigh
—Never show characters asking if they're fat/complaining about being fat (esp if they're straight size!)
—In fact, make sure you never use "fat" as a negative, as a feeling, or as a joke!
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Almost changed my profile pic but then remembered my smirk in this one made some dude mad enough he wouldn’t read my Publishers Weekly opinion piece
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It's my favorite thing when a writer tells me they've got an offer from another agent bc it marks a turning point--but I'm not talking about their career. I'm talking about how this is the point where all the agents drop the pretense that the writer isn't the one in power.
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(Rant brought to you by me, who encountered really traumatizing fatphobia in the first chapter of FOUR (4) books in the last 48 hours)*
*Half were submissions, half were pubbed
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I am never not confused about why most agents don’t talk with their authors (often, in depth, and strategically) about what to do if their book doesn’t sell.
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It’s Day 3 of the Titan submersible news cycle and boy do I wish more people understood that humor and horror are deeply, inherently related parts of the human experience
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If a writer receives an offer from an agent, it's imperative they tell EVERYONE who has a query from them (not just pages!) and giving agents at least two weeks to request and read your book.
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So agents and publishers stating explicitly that they want stories by and featuring minority voices is an effort towards equity, not exclusion.
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Okay, y'all. There have once again been some shenanigans, this time in the indie/self-pub space (and I'm waiting on a few emails) so let's do A Thread about what is sketchy and what isn't
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15 years ago, I found my first gray hair. Today, I finally let them show!
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Any agent pressuring a writer for an answer is actively trying to prevent them from doing their due diligence and often is hiding some shady shit. At a minimum, they are signaling that they don't value you, and that they know that can't compete against other agents in their genre
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I love that Macmillan just raised their starting salary from 42 to 47.5k like it’s nbd and HC is still out there showing their complete ass to everyone in publishing
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Welcome to
#500queries
. For the next 5ish months, I will be going through my slush pile in order. 1 tweet = 1 query.
Here are some tips if you're following along:
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I’ve been trying all day to wrap my head around the goodreads bombing fiasco and I simply cannot get past how anyone could possibly think this was a good use of their time on this planet
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That two-week deadline isn't for an agent's benefit--it's so a writer can collect and then compare/contrast as many agents (and their offers!) as possible so they can make the right decision for their vision for their book and career.
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In the US, white, cisgender (mostly male), heterosexual, Christian people are treated automatically as the default identity, and thus are the type of character publishing believes is the Most Relatable to everyone.
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"After five years, all her gorgeous subtleties were burned away. The vinegar in her heart corroded her kindness, her patience. All that was left was a maniacal smile and the identity: agent."
#misandryinpublishing
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Does it matter, REALLY, if someone is squeezing into a size 14 pant instead of an 8? For women's clothes, those numbers don't even mean anything anyway. THESE ARE PEOPLE YOU IMAGINE IN YOUR BRAIN! DON'T BE SHITTY ABOUT IT
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I honestly don’t know what to say.
I haven’t said much publicly over the last week and a half because while I’m extremely on the record as being anti-Zionist, I have been struggling greatly with my feelings about being a Jew.
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I don't know who needs to hear this, but you are not and should not feel required to out yourself as marginalized when querying agents. This information is entirely optional.
#ownvoices
is great, but it should never feel like a weapon you're forced to hand to a stranger.
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If an agent bulldozes you on the Call and tries to make you feel insecure about your writing or your vision of the book (rather than exploring editorial options with you), that's also a red flag power play! As are making you feel weird for asking questions.
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But none of these steps, which are intended to slowly change the makeup of publishing to better reflect the world we live in, means that white writers are being ignored or oppressed. Maybe you're just a bad writer.
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But the thing is that the white=relatable idea isn't actually true--it's just a cycle where as children we are taught What is Normal and Relatable and so white people never have to learn how to identify with people who don't share some/all of their own Default Traits
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Worth noting that this is the agency that has hired a firm to erase any bad opinions of their agents online and also threatens libel lawsuits constantly. I have it on good authority that this is the top of the iceberg regarding their unethical behavior.
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My Friday Hot Take is that long, personalized submission forms on Query Manager are a waste of time and also an access issue!
Agents, keep these as short as possible. Everything you need is in the query anyway.
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I truly hate those "big secret haha publishing I can talk about it in 6 months" tweets but I'm a hypocrite and just got confirmation that a dream project of mine is coming true so I'm just very thankful for this job today and also to all of you for putting up with this tweet.
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Like, all you gotta do is *not* write some lines and think for 30 seconds about the balance of body size in your book. It is literally so easy to not traumatize your readers.
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Is anyone else screaming about the fact that BA refused to pay the people of color in their test kitchen vids and then just launched an entirely new brand with almost all POCs? WE SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WE DONT LIKE IT
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Slush: This erotic romance is complete at 69,000 words.
Me: ...
Slush: ...
Me: Nice.
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One of the things I'm most grateful for today is authors who are really upfront with their agent about their emotional needs. Everyone thinks that the author-agent relationship is all business, and a lot of authors don't want to overburden their agent with worries or anxiety.
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So what do we want to bet that it never gets mentioned in this trial that publishers make a profit on a book long before the author earns out?
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Hey all, I’m officially going on hiatus/bereavement leave beginning today for the rest of January.
I’m not closing to submissions because I want to have lots of goodies to read when I come back, but for those querying, please be patient!
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Even if you end up signing with the person who offered first, a good agent will want you to talk to others, because they want to be your first choice, because then you're committing to that partnership and vision with clear eyes.
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(by the way, both offers that came across my desk today have given me two weeks and this thread is not a subtweet of them they are doing it exactly right lol)
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Explain to me where we can cut 5% of an already overworked, overcommitted, and underpaid workforce and not irreparably damage the business and countless lives. I’ll wait.
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Almost two years ago, a retaliatory agent threatened to sue me for posting a link to a forum. At that point, Dawn pressured me into standing down, and now she’s using the same tactic on smart, brave members of our publishing community. Please support them if you can. I will be.
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This is bigger than a Red Sofa. This is the third agent I know of who has threatened and/or instigated legal action in an effort to hide bad acts. All of these agents are senior, white, and do this over and over again. It needs to stop.
Almost two years ago, a retaliatory agent threatened to sue me for posting a link to a forum. At that point, Dawn pressured me into standing down, and now she’s using the same tactic on smart, brave members of our publishing community. Please support them if you can. I will be.
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Bad fit agents might also rely on strategies like telling you you need to decide NOW because of Super Time Sensitive Trends or weird rules about submissions or whatever. ALL OF THESE ARE LIES! YOU CAN ALWAYS HAVE TWO WEEKS.
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And then when these children grow up into Publishing Adults, they often see a book by a brown person, a Jewish person, a queer person, and/or a disabled person, and get worried it's not "relatable" enough because it's not a Default Character.
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All of my Best Practices for how a writer should navigate an offer have to do with going in clear-eyed and gauging who is still trying to convince you you're not the essential piece of this puzzle.
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