How
Not to Query and Get an Agent
Resources:
You can
use query tracker to keep up with your queries, but the real use of this gem of
a site is that it gives you insight about how long it usually takes an agent to respond. With so many agents using the
no-response-means-no, it’s great to have an idea of whether the agent you’re
querying takes a shorter or longer amount of time to respond when they request
pages. Sign up for a free account and check out the comments for the agents
you’re querying.
Janet
Reid, a literary agent at FPLM takes readers’ queries and tears them to bits
with her delightfully snarky advice. Start at the beginning and read these
before you write or send your query in. Every. Single. One.
If
you’re serious enough about writing to query, you need to suck it up and pay
the $20/month to have access to his site. While agents and editors self-select
to include their sales here, why would you want to query someone who doesn’t
have any sales listed? Or someone who
has not managed to make a sale to a NY publisher? This site is also helpful for
figuring out which agents represent books like yours and which agents regularly
get those change-your-life advances everyone dreams of.
To be
honest, I didn’t use this one much because I only queried agents with
documented sales on Publishers Marketplace and agencies that were well known.
It doesn’t hurt to check, though.
Agent-turned-middle
grade writer Nathan Bransford is an amazing source for clear explanations on
everything from how to write a query to what to expect from an agent.
Google:
Seriously. Before you even thing about querying an agent or editor, Google the
bejeezus
out of him
or her. Read every interview, review, or website you can get your hands on.
Know who that person is and who they work for. Don’t blind or mass query—do
your research. In the age of Google, there’s no excuse not to.
The
Nuts and Bolts of a Query Letter:
There are eleventy-million
sites and books about how to write a query. Go. Read them. Find examples. Copy
those examples. This is not the place to let your inner oddball show through.
·
Single-page business letter
·
State
the title, word count, and that you are looking for representation somewhere
(usually the beginning)
·
Include
a Hook, Mini-Synopsis, and a short Bio—in
that order (3-4 paragraphs)
*Start with your protagonist.
*Make the setting clear early on
*The synopsis should read like back-cover copy
·
For
romance, you MUST give an indication of the conflict and the stakes in the
relationship. The HEA is presumed, so why else would the agent want to read?
·
Contact
Information- professional email, phone that your child/cat/boss won’t answer,
address
Hints
and Tips:
* Don’t Query Until You’re Ready to
Let It Go
If
you’re still tweaking and writing, don’t query. If you’re still so in love with
everything about the story that ohmygodI’lljustdieifitdoesn’tgetpublishded!!!!! Don’t query. When your manuscript is as good
as you feel you can make it and when you’re ready to move on to another
project, query.
* Make Friends With A Spreadsheet
I called
mine The Reject File. I had the name of the agent, agency, email address,
whether they responded or did a no-response thing, the average time for
response, actual response, and pages sent. My spreadsheet kept me sane.
* Sell Your Talent, Not Your
Book
Sure,
you have a book you want to sell. That’s why you’re querying, isn’t it? NOPE!
You don’t want to sell a book. You want to sell lots and lots of books. You
want a career. To get that, you need to have an agent who wants you as a
writer, not just this one shot at one book. Make your query about showing what
you can do as a writer just as much
as it tells about your one book.
*Put Away The Crazy
If you
want to be represented by a professional, act like one. Put away the ego, put
away the strange fonts, ridiculous claims about your book’s brilliance, impulse
to call and check up on your query, glitter, chocolate bribes, threats, and any
other impulse you have that you think will make you stand out. YOU don’t
want to stand out. You want your writing to stand out.
* You’re Not JK Rowling, Nora
Roberts, or Stephanie Meyer (yet)
Unless
you’re making a comparison that elucidates something important about your book
(other than its possibility of making the agent a ton of money), do not compare
it to any of the big-named books. Also,
I’d watch comparing it to books/authors your agent already represents. Why do
they need two of the same thing?
*Sit On It
So you
have the perfect query, your pages are polished to a gleaming shine, and you’re
ready! Great. Now sit on it for a week. Seriously. Just close that file. Don’t
even peek at it for at least seven days. After that cooling off period, take
another look and see what you think. If you make any changes, sit on it again.
*Query Like It’s Your Job
If
you’re serious about being published, be serious about querying. No one is
going to come knocking on your door, agents are not going to ask twice for
pages, and nothing is going to happen unless you make it happen. Set a schedule
for your queries, keep clear records, devote a portion of each day or week to
querying and stick to it until you
either have an agent or decide the manuscript is dead.
*Embrace Rejection, Revel In It
Did you
notice how my query file was called The Reject File? Yeah, that.
You don’t have
to be pessimistic, but you need to expect rejection. It’s gonna happen, and
that first no is going to hurt. You’re going to panic and go back to your query
and your book and wonder if it’s good enough or if you did something wrong. The
chances of a first-time writer getting their very first manuscript accepted
from the very first agent they query who then sells it in the very first round
of submissions is slim-to-what-have-you-been-smoking.
It’s
going to happen. It is. Every rejection is one step closer to the yes. Check
them off on your spreadsheet, pout or cry or drink or whatever, and then let it
go and keep writing.
*Know When
It’s Time to Move On
Okay, so I lied. It might not happen. But that’s okay.
You’re a writer. You wrote one
thing,
and maybe the next thing you write (because you will write a next thing) will be the one. Make sure that you’re the
one to decide when enough’s enough so that you’re not querying out of
desperation. Do you really want that
agent no one’s ever heard of just because he’s the only one that will take your
book?
*Just Keep
Writing
Everyone
will tell you this, and at some point you will want to smack them all. Resist
and get your butt back into the chair and your fingers on the keyboard. If you
get an agent, he or she is going to want you to write more than one book. No
sense making them wait. Remember, writing is the thing that keeps you
sane. Or is that just me?
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