Writing & Publishing Article: How to Find a Literary Agent

Thank you, lynnmosher. I skimmed it, intending to read it later, and i remember reading it at some point, but i don't quite remember. Maybe i'll look at the date. Thank you for sharing it!
 
OK, there are a few things this article sort of glossed over.

First, "Pick the agent that's right for you," is a bit of a joke. There are so many factors in querying, and one of them is whether an agent is available. Some agents will always be unavailable for submissions. Some agents will only do queries by referral. Some agents will be available for submissions for a month, and then it could be YEARS before they take them again. So, if you're going to wait for the agent that's "right for you," you may be waiting a long time.

And it's no guarantee that the agent that's "right for you," will be right for you. You have no clue about their business practices, how they'll approach your work, or whether they'll adequately promote your work. You literally won't know until you get there.

Then you get the, "I need to fall in love with your book in order to take you on," types. You may write a book like someone else that agent represents, but now you're competing for that agent's love and affection just to do business.

Then there's the "Make sure the agent represents books like yours," section. I audibly laughed when I read that. Some agents, it's clear what they want. With others, it's like you have to be Columbo to figure out what genres they'll represent. The agent bios, even direct statements about the genres they deal with are sometimes vague to the point of uncertainty. This part was actually maddening, because I suspect that roughly a quarter of the agents I queried may not have even looked at my books because it wasn't something in their wheelhouse. It might have been nice IF THEY ACTUALLY TOLD ME WHERE THAT WHEELHOUSE WAS!!!!

Knowing your book's genre and market appeal is also another vague statement. Yes, you need to know where that book lies on the bookshelf, but you'd better put it in terms of present-day fiction, and not the classics. This is the part that kills me. Out of a billion books that exist, you need to know the right books your works compares to, or your done. You need to know authors you've probably NEVER heard of (and probably sold less books than you if you self-publish). You'd have to be such an avid reader to keep up with this, that you probably wouldn't have time to write. And then they'll read your sample pages, and if you don't match your comparison - in the agent's estimation - your book will get rejected. Because some agents have their own ideas where something matches. Likewise, they may dismiss you based on your "understanding" of the market.

The thing is about query letters is that they should only take up about one page. Maybe you can get away with a page and a half, but you'd be pushing it if you did. And in that page and a half, you need to get in your pitch, your bio, info on your book, and then some little tidbits that may or may not interest the agent. It's not a lot of room, so you can't be Shakespeare. Oh, and have a one-page or multi-page synopsis available to send, as some agents require this.

In short, it's like job hunting...because that's exactly what it is. And as a guy who is a bit of an expert on job hunting, I'll tell you that that people can be picky and petty to the point of utter stupidity.

But, I'm not bitter...
 
Jeff Potts said:
But, I'm not bitter...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
LOL. Sorry for laughing but when you know, you know.
I could have been bitter but I gave up at 10 submissions rejected from various sources. (small presses, a few agents) I'd heard the mantras that Robert Silverberg (and Larry Niven and even Stephen King) wallpapered their offices with rejection notes. That for some famous authors it was a decade or more of rejection before they made it through the crack in the door. That John Grisham started out selling his books from his car trunk on street corners because nobody gave him the time of day.

But all of those blurbs made it less and less likely I was going to keep shoving at the fortress wall around the publishers, guarded by agent gatekeepers. I don't love rejection, and have gotten too much from other arenas to enjoy another round in the literary world. After learning that publishers don't accept manuscripts, or even first chapters, or even query letters, that they only work through agents, and the agents, again, only accept query letters when they are in the mood to, or are open for submissions because they happen to be hungry, that I sat back and waited until self publishing became a viable alternative.

Especially when I learned that an agent may receive 100 query letters in a week, and select one to ask for more info, and out of 10 with a first chapter, they might select 1 for a mss, that out of 1000 query letters from agents in a month, a jr editor might select 1-5 for a first chapter, and out of 10 first chapters they might ask for ONE mss, and out of 10 mss, they might bring ONE query letter to a monthly editor's meeting. That out of 10 proposed pitches from editors on staff, a house might select one to publish a month (a bigger house might publish more):
Thomas Nelson: 250/yr
Zondervan: 300/yr
MacMillan: 250/yr
Simon and Schuster: 2000/yr
Random House: 15,000/yr

Still, for the bigger companies, the sheer volume you are pitted against ramps up exponentially. Odds are astronomical, and those are simply random odds. Your book may be jaw dropping, your first chapter riveting, your opening page mesmerizing, your elevator pitch tantalizing, and yet... you still go into a waste bin because somebody is too busy, too bored, already committed to somebody else, etc. If any of those things (pitch, first page, etc) was in the slightest bit not a superstar to your agent or jr editor, you are already out. Even if they are perfect, odds are not good.

Sorry, but I had a day job I was good at and happy with, that paid well and kept us in diapers and food, so I was fine with writing as a hobby, or a calling that was on God's nickel, and His timing, not mine. If I had NOT taken the self-pub route, I would be a decade older inside, bitter and closed off. And still not published. So the cost-benefit analysis says it was a good decision to indie my books.

Can't say I haven't taken the reins back too often, or that I don't pine away about lack of sales now that I'm published, Or at how marketing is expensive and barely nets a profit. But I can say I avoided a lot of baggage from skipping the dance with agents and publishers after the first waltz. I'm happy to let them snub other dance partners without giving them another opportunity to ignore me.
 
Jeff Potts said:
First, "Pick the agent that's right for you," is a bit of a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I am a SQL programmer. The WHERE CLAUSE in a SQL statement whittles down the records, eliminating ones that definitely do not match your needs. Looking though the list of genres the agent says they represent plus other hints on their social media is a WHERE CLAUSE. It eliminates many agents that will definitely not be interested. That still leaves a huge pool of other agents who won't be interested or are too busy, as you stated. This does not mean that the advice is bad, just that it is only the start of the process of whittling down the list of agents to those likeliest to bite.

Given how many genres there are and how many the agents I have researched represent, I would say that the genre and stated interest and disinterest elimination step gets rid of 95% of the agents or more. That should reduce the pool of agents worth approaching by a factor of twenty, and for niche genres, even more. That is a vital first step. You must follow that with more in depth study of the remaining agents. Many have social media presence. The things they say on their posts can be invaluable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Recent Discussions

Back
Top