Researching Literary Agents - It's Never Too Soon

Reading all my favorite writer's blogs, and your comments at this site, I notice that many of you are looking forward to the agent search when your book is finished. In fact, it's never too soon to start.

The process of deciding what tack you'll take, what agent query site, doesn't start when you've decided your work is ready - it starts now, because it takes a long time to vet each agent.

Here's my method, just to get you started. You'll soon find out what works best for you and devise different approaches, perhaps.

I used Query Tracker. I asked for results for Women's Fiction, and opted for New York* agents, because I'm only an hour away by air, brightly thinking I'd be handy to the wonderful being who'd committed to represent me, in case they wanted to have a quick coffee, shoot the breeze.

The truth is, many writers never meet their agents. Just about everything is done online now, and sitting down face-to-face is probably long gone. We all know that agents are busy, busy people, and I doubt they could manage regular meetings with their writers without seriously disrupting their attempts to find new ones. (However, if you make them heaps of money, I'm pretty sure they'll at least have a coffee with you.)

*Originally, I did research British agents, as Hafan Deg's setting is divided almost equally between Britain and Australia, but so few of them take email submissions - old-school traditionalists that they are. I managed to find only two who appealed to me, one of whom took me on, but that was late, late, in my querying, the submission almost an afterthought.

Once Query Tracker gave me my list of choices, those who didn't take email submissions were marked 'Disregard'. Perhaps I missed out on some great ones, but I have neither the time nor inclination to be running to the post office with hard copy. If things got desperate later, I could always return to them.

From the reduced list, I read the comments left by other Query Tracker users. It doesn't take long to skim down and see whether or not an agent is efficient in responding, or prone to losing manuscripts, etc. More 'Disregards'.

With the remaining list, I then looked more closely at each agent. I checked what their response stats were, what other writing sites like Publishers' Market had on them (linked from the agent page). If things looked reasonable, I went to their website.

This is where the real stuff is - their clients, perhaps (not always), to see what books they've handled and if yours is a good fit; their reading likes and dislikes; their personal genre favorites; their agenting style - warm and friendly, or cold and intimidating. I made notes here (on the site page) to be used in my query for that personal touch. More agents were marked 'Disregard' at this point.

The website is also where you examine their Submission Guidelines. It would be great if agents could agree on an industry standard - where all accepted a brief query letter, one-page synopsis, and first three chapters - or even just five pages - to see your actual writing, but they don't. Each one has his or her own set of rules.

The one-page query is mystifying. What can really be assessed there? How can the quality of your unique book be judged by a few paragraphs? I sent nine of them, of course, receiving just one request for a partial, and NO responses to the others. If you go this route, you'd better have a magical letter. I thought mine was perfect...

In many cases, when I came across condescending or what I called Bossy-Britches guidelines - we must do this, and must do that, or off with our heads! - I dropped them from my list. I mean, I'm not a child, and if most agents feel it unnecessary to treat me as one, I don't need to deal with those who do.

Once my list was more or less complete, I added them to My Query List. I began Googling them for their blog sites, to get a closer understanding of them, and more personal references for the query letter.

So, out of hundreds of names, I ended up with a list of perhaps 40 that took ages to produce, and even longer to analyze. And that's why you need to start now. Devoting some time to it, when you're taking a break from your writing, will give you a well-considered group to query when you're finally ready. If you're really ambitious, you could do draft emails to each of them, ready to go. You'll have spent so much time with them, perhaps following their blogs, and having articles about them delivered to your Reader, that they will feel almost like friends when you send that email off to them.

Now - your way - your brilliant book is going to just sit, while you mess around with your agent research at the end. Best start now. It's fun. It also could reveal some important points that need to be incorporated into your manuscript.

As to your query letter, that should be done and dusted. It's been tweaked and polished to a finely-tuned work of art in itself by now, right? Set it up in a draft email. All that's necessary is to pop in those personalized bits. Send one to yourself at your other email site. Pretend you're an agent, opening it.

Interestingly, you'll find that doing these things - having your agents' list, and the query all ready to go - will make you more confident in the writing, even more determined to stick to the schedule you've set for yourself.


By the way, I'm not so egotistical as to think that I am through with querying agents. Strachan's Attic, so close to completion, could be of no interest to the agent I'm signing with for Hafan Deg. And this same agent could well throw in the towel in a few months, if he can't find an editor for the first one. So I'm keeping my list up-to-date. Things happen. I'm always a realist.


I know my stats are of less importance now, as Hafan Deg's been picked up, but would you believe that an agent I really liked, who had my Partial, finally asked for a full submission? It hurt to have to turn her down, but a Full doesn't guarantee an offer, and I'm committed to signing with my new agent as soon as the paperwork arrives. One thing that came out of it - I now have her direct email address for anything else I'd like to submit to her in the future (she found my writing 'lovely'). This means not having to go through the usual crowded portal with other queriers, if I do need her down the road.

I'm on another hot-hot roll with Strachan - 11,000 words over the last four days, 80% finished, and not wanting to stop. It won't be long now.

That last wistful comment, incidentally, recurs throughout the novel, used as it was by so many waiting for World War II to come to an end.

Renewed Writing Vitality - That's What Friends Are For

Well, I've reviewed the agency's contract, and now the hard copy should be winging its way to me for signature. According to Malinda Lo, things are then largely out of my hands, and I should just get on with the next book. Her blog on how she got published is a good one, and, whether you're at that stage, or dreaming about it, you must read it.

I had mentioned to the agent that my other novel, Strachan's Attic, was close to completion, and they now have a synopsis and 30 pages to consider. They pointed out that most publishers prefer writers with more than one book, to prove they aren't that hackneyed "one-book wonder". Naturally, I hope they'll want it, too, but it's a totally different book, quite unlike Hafan Deg, and nothing is guaranteed.

Did my news of this past weekend make you sit up and take notice? I think so, by the number of comments. Are you now more determined than ever to get your own book picked up? You'd better be.

Melissa, of Grosvenor Square, told me that she was spurred on when I mentioned publishers' preferences for more than one book, and now really would be getting down to it. We've been exchanging critiques lately, and I think of her as my writing buddy. Considering that Melissa has already finished three novels (!) and is working on her fourth, she's almost home and dry, in my eyes. Although her prolific output is impressive, her writing is even more phenomenal. Now if she can just snag that agent...

Casey's blog, Literary Rambles has been featuring the querying process lately, and there are some good things there. She also had a good post she picked up from Query Tracker on researching agents that I thought you should look at. Again, although you know these things, it's a clarion call to getting the query process right, and it can't hurt to revisit the topic.

So, are you now looking at your own work with renewed vitality? I want that for you. We know the writing is the most important thing, but getting an agent, possibly publication, would make it all so valid, wouldn't it? All those solitary hours of frowning, weeping, laughing over your words would finally be rewarded publicly. Are you feeling that?

I've calmed down now, and will get back to Chapter 24 of Strachan's Attic today. Poor Strachan and the others were left dangling at a crucial point of the story last week, because I just couldn't get my head around this Agent Found thing.

Thanks to all of you for your good wishes - you commented and emailed - even Etsy artists from my art blog. It was quite overwhelming. But, after all, to quote the song - 'That's What Friends Are For', I guess.

“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing...By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows, anyone's life can stand a little of that."
- Charlotte, 'Charlotte's Web' —E. B. White (1899-1985); author.

On Finally Securing an Agent, and Coming Back to Earth.

I had a range of reactions to getting that 'Yes!' from the British agent this weekend: disbelief, shock, joy, doubt, suspicion, then joy again. I did little writing, which was to be expected considering how out of things I felt. This morning I am accepting and grateful, now the adrenaline has worn off. I've apparently cleared the penultimate hurdle in this writer's foot race, but it has left me tired, as I slowly flutter back to earth today.

Although I did my usual snoop around, prior to sending off my query to them, I've since done even more homework on the company, and have found nothing negative. It's a relatively small outfit, with an equally smallish list of clients. This is possibly why they take such a personal approach with their queries. On their submission site, they are encouraging, warm and humorous - no drill sergeant orders here. I showed a snippet of their guidelines on May 29, in case you missed it. I certainly was getting impatient with being addressed like a wayward child on some of those other agency pages - in fact, I didn't query agents whose wording was overly demanding or patronizing.

All I have to do now is sign the agency agreement, assuming I like their terms. Practical as ever, I believe it's never over 'til it's over. The final hurdle will be their success in finding a publisher. And that's a whole new challenge in the race, akin to marathon runners 'hitting the wall', as they put it, but who's going to give up now, so close to the winner's line?


Anne Mini of Author!, Author! (left side bar under Helpful Sites) has a wealth of information - I mention her a lot, because she's so good. She's covered just about every question the unpublished writer could ask. Here's a paragraph on rejection that I'd like to share:

"The important thing to bear in mind is that at the query or pitching stage, the book could not possibly have been rejected because the manuscript was poorly written . The query might have been rejected for that reason, naturally, but it’s logically impossible for an agent to pass judgment on a manuscript’s writing quality without reading it."

So my suggestion to you today, if you're not quite convinced your query is the best it could be, or your automatic rejects are coming at you fast and furiously, give that vital letter an overhaul. Check out Anne's site and all those others offering tips.

Right now, with each query, you're standing outside the agent's door, your email 'send' button is your foot inching around the door, but your fascinating query is the only thing that's going to fling that door wide open. Once it's open, you'd better have a fantastic manuscript to follow up with. And I know you do.

Go get 'em!

 

Full Manuscript Request and Very Little Giddiness...

I don't know if you saw my postscript on Monday or not, but, after my positive thinking about that nice agent who asked for the partial, I was promptly asked for the FULL Hafan Deg manuscript! He also requested a thirty-day exclusive on it, and I'm happy with that.

Funny thing is, I'm not overwhelmed by this, and I thought I would be. I mean, I don't want to sound casual about it, but I am just so relaxed with this whole query process. If it happens, it happens. (Which is in keeping with my more or less Buddhist philosophy on life, anyway.) You'd think there would be anxiety, but I've so come to terms with the constant reminders of the time it can take to find an agent, that I'm not really expecting one yet. How practical and sensible is that? Anyway, one agent has Hafan Deg from start to finish, and I hope he enjoys it, but I'm also thinking that a partial is now being opened at another agency, mailed the week before, and I'm wondering if something might come of that, too. It would be uplifting to have to apologize to them that the full couldn't be released to them yet, right? Oh, optimistic fool!

When I first started querying, I was surprised at how easily I sent my snippets out. I enjoy the research, tweaking my little stats spreadsheet I've set up in XL, and updating my Query Tracker list. I figure I have a lot more names to add before the exercise is complete - if ever. The act of querying has become a sort of game, and quite fun.

Can you believe that after all this time, re-writing and re-writing, weeping over words, reading blogs that depressed or alarmed me, being warned about "agent" con artists, hearing about failing publishing companies, and that e-publishing is the wave of the future...all of this stress suddenly disappeared as soon as I let the book go? Well, it did.

Hafan Deg is on its own out there now, I hope safely, in professional hands, and I'm not experiencing that stab of pain felt when I handed a child over to school that very first day, and I thought I would.

We've all had it drummed into us online that it could take 30, 40, 50 or more queries before we get a nibble. Some never get a nibble. So I came into this expecting to wait quite a while, and it somehow released me to get on with writing Strachan's Attic. I honestly think this has been the saving grace. If you haven't already done it, start on that next book now. It will renew you.

So - Query Summary - 12 Pending, 1 Partial, 1 Full with exclusivity, and 5 Rejects.

And I'm just about as relaxed as I can be.

Sending Out Those Queries

You should all know by now that I've been querying agents for Hafan Deg. Already I've discovered some pitfalls. I don't know if it's a problem with my computer, or what.

Some agents are happy to have a one-page query with a short pitch. This is easy, although you long to include more. Others want extracts included. One page is easy, but ten pages? I tried to do this for one agent who wanted a full synopsis plus ten pages. By the way, the stipulation with ALL agents is that these extras are included in the body of the email, never as an attachment. Well, wouldn't you know it? That one time I tried this with all the extra pages, it bounced back with some technical reference that the email was too long. That can't be right, can it? I will persevere, of course. I hate giving up on anything that's half-tried.

Another odd thing happened. One agent, according to the comments on Query Tracker, is noted for having a full mailbox. I checked the website, and it clearly said it was accepting submissions, so off went my query. It bounced back with "Mailbox Full". Oh, well, I thought, I'll try again later. The very next morning I received a form rejection from them. So they HAD received it. How strange is that?

Needless to say, this was my first rejection. As all that agency saw was my brief "pitch", I'm not concerned; it's foolhardy to expect to knock the socks off everyone who sees it. No doubt this will become a regular thing.

I find it intriguing that my Geo-tracking-whatsit indicates a bunch of New York sites looking at my blog. Most of my queries have gone to New York. Is it possible? Could it be? Are some of them checking me out?

I'm not only using Query Tracker, by the way, although I must say it's a very convenient site. I've googled, checked book acknowledgements, and read lots of blogs. I've become so fond of some of those blogging agents, however, that I'm shy about approaching them now. I mean I've made comments there! Will they see my query and think that was the only reason I commented - just to get my name in front of them? So I haven't queried one of them yet. Me and my big mouth...

Basically, I don't mind this work. It IS work, though. I'd much rather be working on Strachan's Attic.

Oh, has anyone taken a look at the summary of that yet? I wondered if it had grabbed you in any way. I'd like to hear from you if it did, one way or the other.