Friday, May 19, 2006
Finding a Literary Agent
Help! I need a literary agent! What do I do?
Here are a few tips on how not to get a literary agent:
Never give up. Getting published is one of the most difficult things you'll ever do, and finding an agent is a difficult part of that difficult process. According to Wallace Stegner, it takes most people 10 years of serious writing before they get published. If you cannot find an agent, then hone your craft more, send your manuscript to an editor or writer's group, improve your writing... and try again.
Want to learn more? Visit Customline Wordware's Web and read more about agents there.
Finding an agent is definitely a task... beyond the elements of style!
Here are a few tips on how not to get a literary agent:
- Choose an agent based on the famous wealthy authors they already represent: if Agent X can negotiate multi-million deals for John Grisham or Stephen King or Anne Rice (insert your favorite Famous Author here), then I'll probably get the same deal. Right? Wrong. Said agent is spending a lot of time and energy representing Famous Author, and consequently will have less time and energy for you. Selecting someone fairly early in their career, or in mid-career, is going to be better for you in the long run.
- Don't worry about what kinds of books a given agent currently represents, they'll probably take yours on anyway: here's a great way to waste your time and energy. If an agent specializes, it's for a reason: that's where their passion is, and that's where their contacts are. Moreover, querying them with something that they clearly will not take on only demonstrates that you don't know how to read – that information is readily available. Possibly not the best first impression to make.
- Send an agent a query and follow it up with a phone call:Go to the blackboard and write 100 times: I will not call an agent. I will not call an agent. I will not call an agent. Chances are, it's going to take any agent a while – and I mean a while – to get to your query, much less to give it any serious thought. There's an etiquette, archaic but real, that you must follow: first contacts are always in writing. If you haven't heard back in, say, two or three months (yep: you heard that right), then you may send another letter, politely asking about the status of your query. That's it. No calls, not until an agent calls you.
- Query an agent and then wait to hear back before querying another: Do you have a decade or so to waste? If not, then remember that this is your business, just as it is theirs, and do what makes the most sense for you. Send your initial query out to as many agents as you can (after having identified them as being potentially a good match for your manuscript). Send a short letter introducing your manuscript and yourself, and then wait. You'll receive a lot of rejections, guaranteed. You'll have some show some interest, ask to see more. Unless the agent is asking for exclusive viewing rights, continue sending out queries to others. (If the agent wants exclusive viewing rights, grant them, but only for a set period of time – a month, for example.) Keep trying; it can take years to find the right fit.
Never give up. Getting published is one of the most difficult things you'll ever do, and finding an agent is a difficult part of that difficult process. According to Wallace Stegner, it takes most people 10 years of serious writing before they get published. If you cannot find an agent, then hone your craft more, send your manuscript to an editor or writer's group, improve your writing... and try again.
Want to learn more? Visit Customline Wordware's Web and read more about agents there.
Finding an agent is definitely a task... beyond the elements of style!
