Six Degrees to finding a Literary Agent

Finding an agent is very much like high school dating. You do everything you can do to make the other person fall in love with you. Then, they ask for your number or you just give it to them and you wait. And wait. And then, if you don’t hear back from them within a “reasonable” time or if they “reject” you, you will often find yourself wallowing around in your pajamas for days, eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, and watching old episodes of The Great British Baking Show. This was my lot in life when I first started my journey of seeking an agent in 2015.

I had just published my first novel, Drinking From a Bitter Cup, and I was struggling to figure out my next steps. My husband, Robert, and I had been our own agent, lawyer, publicist, marketing department, you name it, for Drinking From a Bitter Cup, but I knew I didn’t want to wear all of the hats with my next novel, so I started the process of seeking out representation for my next book, tentatively titled at the time, Shoot Across the Sky, now titled When Stars Rain Down.

The process began in January of 2015. I took my entire winter break from teaching to finish the novel and begin the process of researching agents. After talking to various author friends, I quickly found out that finding an agent was not going to be easy. Mainly because the majority of agents, especially the top agents, receive hundreds of submissions per week/month so it was imperative that I did everything I could to give my manuscript the best chance of even getting read. So, below are a few steps I took that I think will hopefully help you.

1. Write the best book of your life. Really and truly, before you ever even think about finding an agent, you need to make sure you have a product that will interest an agent. Do the necessary writing and revision that will make sure your manuscript is well-written and well-thought out. Don’t give the agent a reason to say no to you and your work and submitting a manuscript for consideration before it is ready is an almost guaranteed N-O. I took nine months on the writing of When Stars Rain Down and then another six months revising before we sent it out the FIRST round. When it didn’t get picked up during the first round, I spent another 6-8 months of rewriting and revising. This writing life is NOT for the faint of heart.
2. Read the Acknowledgement pages in the books of authors who have a similar writing style/tone/topic as yours. Often times, authors will thank their agent. From there, you can begin to research and see if that agent still represents work similar to yours. It’s also good to research if that author remains with that same agent over several books. Granted, some authors agent hop, but if you find that authors seem to leave that agent with a quickness, it should at least give you room to pause.
3. Research the agents before you query them. Don’t waste your time or the agent’s time if the two of you are not compatible. Most if not all agents worth querying have websites and on those websites you can find out who they represent and who they are interested in representing. Next, read some of what their authors writing. Again, if your voice or writing style sounds so very different from what the agent normally represents, think twice about querying this agent. OR if this agent says they are looking for science fiction and you write historical romance, that agent is not for you. So really dig and do your homework. It is also good to Google that agent and see what others are saying about him/her/them. Writer’s Digest, Poets and Writers, Duotrope, Manuscript Wish List are all good resources for researching agents too.
4. Attend writer’s conferences that have agents present for pitching sessions. I am a board member of the Midwest Writers Workshop and this year we are planning pitch sessions for authors (https://www.midwestwriters.org/).  That is how I met my agent, Alice Speilburg of the Speilburg Agency. Allice was holding pitching session at The Carnegie Center in Lexington, KY and I decided to take a chance and pitch my book to her. I think I had about fifteen-twenty minutes to “sell” my book to her. Meeting with an agent face-to-face is ALWAYS a good way to make a case for your book IF you are a good salesperson. I normally am not, but I was fortunate. I had met Alice before at another writer’s event. I knew her to be nice and friendly so I wasn’t a ball of nerves when I pitched my book to her. AND I prepared for the moment. I did several run-throughs with my husband before the day of the pitch session. I would highly recommend face to face encounters with agents if you can swing it. Agents frequently attend conferences, so if you can put it in your budget to attend a few of them, do it.
5. If you don’t have the luxury of meeting an agent in person, then write the best query letter of your life. So often writers will spend months or years writing their novel, and they will dash off a hasty query letter, not realizing that in most cases it is the query letter that even gets their novel on the radar of a potential agent. So, I would suggest the following:
   1. Succinctly describe your book in the opening paragraph. Go read the book jacket descriptions of your favorite books for inspiration.
   2. Acknowledge if you have met the agent before OR if someone they represent suggested you query the agent. If there is already a connection, let the agent know about it.
   3. If you have read anything the agent represented (which you should), briefly mention and then show how your book will add to this agent’s roster.
   4. Talk about your credentials such as an MFA or a personal experience that makes you qualified to write this book. Also, make mention of any memberships to an organization like Romance Writers of America. These details can often help the agent figure out how to “sell” your book to a potential publisher.
6. Keep writing. I say this because often times an agent will come back with: “I don’t think this book is a good fit for me but I like your voice. Are you working on anything else?” You want to be able to say YES! And if that agent says, “Send me a chapter,” you want to have that chapter and others already in the works.

Bottom line, don’t give up. If you really are about this writing life, a no is nothing more than a detour NOT a road block. You can do it.