3rd post – read 1 & 2 first
How Do Literary Agents and Authors Find Each Other?
There’s a lot of information out there on what agents want from authors and how to approach them with your idea. So much, that there’s really no excuse for a serious new writer not to know how to go about submitting a professional manuscript (or non-fiction proposal) to an appropriate agent. (I’ll link to a few in my next post.)
So what can I add?
Perhaps to think beyond the book that’s burning a hole in your desk. If you want a career as a writer, act on the experience and advice from authors and agents in post 2. Try to find an appropriate agent you think you will be able to work with long-term. Investing the research and networking time up front (while you are writing the manuscript in fact), will increase your chances of finding a supportive, professionally productive and lasting author-agent relationship.
The fast-track pass to finding an agent is probably to work in journalism or publishing. Good for your writing too (which is one of the reasons it helps of course).
If this is not a possibility, there are other routes. Go ask questions of an agent at a conference, workshop or festival; go on a course where an agent is speaking; ask a friend, colleague, or author you like for a recommendation; check out the (Children’s) Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook for agents in your genre; go look at the agents’ websites, check out the (numerous) blogposts on what agents want, follow agents on Twitter and get a sense of their tastes. If nothing else you’ll enjoy the journey, make friends and come out wiser and more savvy about the publishing industry than when you began. The experience might help you to refine your book. You’ll have done your homework.
When you are ready, there are really only two ways to get your (by now perfect) submission letter and manuscript read – by referral or by submission.
See the lovely Miss Snark (sadly now retired) on just this point: misssnark.blogspot.com
And as to what you need to submit?
All the agents, authors, publishers and bloggers I spoke to and read up on say pretty much the same thing:
- Write a brilliant and brilliantly written book (or in the case of non-fiction, the brilliantly written plan of a brilliant book)
- Be on trend and/or marketable and/or prize-winning material (that’s you and the book, but mostly the book)
- Be professional by which they mean:
* Write to the right person, by name, for the type of book you are proposing
* Follow the agency’s submission guidelines to the letter
* Present your work perfectly, checking grammar, syntax, spelling etc.
* Show that you know about writing and are confident (but not arrogant)
* Put your personality & experience into your submission letter (be genuine)
* Show that you’ll be pleasant to work with and are not mad as a box of frogs (mostly anyway)
* Be realistic and flexible in your expectations
As Stephanie Thwaites www.curtisbrown.co.uk says. “Finding new talent is the most exciting part of the job really.” The right agent wants to find you, they really do. They just don’t want to have to wade through all the piles of stuff they don’t want, to be able to find you. Make it easy for them. Stephanie again. “Be decisive and confident. If you’ve pitched yourself well, we can pitch you on.”
In my next post I’ll give a few links on all of the above suggested networking routes to get you started. But you know your genre and your book and what sort of personalities you’re going to get on with. Make your judgement based on that.
And believe. As Tony Bradman said to me and room full of aspiring writers for children. “You are the talent. If not you, who else?”
Now read the next post with useful links from my research.