First of all, when I was shopping Girlish, I went with the “wallpaper the internet with queries” technique. I queried editors and agents and entered emerging writers’ contests—I tried to put my manuscript in front of as many people as humanly possible. One agent I really liked only took submissions through something called authors.me, so I checked it out. Authors.me is basically a dating service for agents, editors, and…
Note: This week we’re talking about the long and arduous process of how we got our agents. I mean, maybe it’s not arduous for everyone, but damned if I didn’t learn a thing or two about patience along the way. I like statistics. When I was in the process of looking for representation, it felt like all the stories I heard were people who’d queried a handful of agents and…
Note: this week, we are discussing the process of landing a literary agent. For anyone unfamiliar with this torturous process, it involves writing a one-page letter, describing your book and yourself, in which you are supposed to entice, or at least not frighten, the agent. You wanna talk about the sting of rejection? Settle in, child. I am the patron saint of awful query letters. In the beginning, I tried…
Some people have agents. I am not one of them. It’s not that I don’t like agents, or appreciate their worth, it’s just that I got an offer for Girlish directly from Skyhorse Publishing. You see, I went with the “Wallpaper the Internet with Queries” technique when I was ready to place my book with a publisher. I started on Memorial Day weekend, 2016, and by September, I had an…
I signed with my awesome agent Natalie in June of 2014. She was the best birthday present I could have ever hoped for! Especially after the six months it took to land her. New Year’s Day, I made the commitment to myself to find an agent for my work in progress novel. It had already been given the thumbs down by several agents and I was feeling defeated. But that year,…
This week the Debs are sharing stories about how they found their agent, plus giving advice on querying and the process of landing your own agent. The topic for this week happened to coincide with another column I write, for the GrubStreet writing center’s blog. Last week, I wrote a big long post on how long it took me to find an agent and how I eventually connected with the amazing…
Tomorrow I am headed to Los Angeles to attend the AWP writers’ conference. I look forward to conferences like AWP and Grub Street’s Muse and the Marketplace every year. What could be more fun? It’s like day camp for writers. Conferences are amazing places where writers can recharge, learn craft, make connections and get inspired. There is a ton of good advice out there about how to prepare for a writers’…
For years I pursued a particular agent, who was like the Wizard of Oz to me–a gigantic, intimidating talking head that would decide the fate of my writer’s life. Would I get back to Kansas? Get a heart? A brain? A book deal? Courage? When she turned me down, I was initially devastated. However, a wise friend of mine suggested that maybe it was a blessing. Maybe my writing career…
A funny thing happens when you finish your manuscript and you are ready to begin your search for representation. Suddenly you are required to make the giant leap from artist to businessperson–someone who can write a sharp query letter and pitch their work with ease. When I entered this phase of my writing career, I did what I always do when I’m faced with a new writing task, and spent…
There is a ton of excellent information online and in books about how to write the perfect query letter, the one that will wow your dream literary agent and set you on the path to publication. But in between giving your manuscript that final polish and digging into the finer mechanics of the elevator pitch there’s a step people do not write as much about: creating a thoughtful agent list….
