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…
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…
This week we’re passing along advice from the publishing industry, and my agent, Leigh Feldman, was nice enough to outline her top pointers for querying writers. I’ve had the honor of working with Leigh for the past two years, and one of the things I love about her is that she tells it like it is! **Make sure the agent you query represents books in the genre you have written. When…
I started the process of seeking an agent the way many of us do: a combination of earnest mailings to total strangers, desperate mailings to friends of friends, and offering my first born to the gods of literary representation. But strangers ignored me, friends of friends rejected me, and eventually my first born turned eighteen, making him a less appealing sacrifice. I had no takers. I had written a novel called…
This week we are presenting the insights of our agents on querying and the publishing business in general. I am fortunate to be working with Michelle Brower, formerly of Folio Literary Management but now at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. Michelle picked my novel out of the slush pile one snowy afternoon, and changed the course of my life. Working with her has been a joy. She has the instincts of an editor,…
While you know that I’m not the mushy type, I do tend to gush a bit when I’m asked about my agent. My agent rocks. Laney Katz Becker, of Lippincott Massie McQuilkin, has edited me, supported me, pushed me, consoled me, and made it clear all along the way that she’s in my corner. I found out the hard way, when my first novel didn’t sell, that Laney is a…
My fellow Debs have done an amazing job this week of demystifying the agent querying process. All have given stellar advice and/or shared their experience. I hope those new to the process are learning that there’s no typical success story, and every “yes” “no” or “maybe” from an agent is the result of a million different factors. That said, there are some particulars about my book that led me to…
It was 2007 when I first set out to understand the query process with a manuscript much lighter than what I write now. I looked online for advice, and found mostly angry blogs and chat groups convinced no one read the slush pile. It was all very what’s the point in trying if your mom isn’t Judy Blume? Then I discovered a blog called Miss Snark. Miss Snark was a respected agent blogging…
Ah, the query. The most important 500 words you’ll ever write. Oh, man, I wish that were an overstatement. Here you are, a newly minted novelist, having finally finished your book with all its delicately chosen words and its delicious plotting that unfolds languorously over 350 pages like an origami butterfly, and now you have to turn into a brazen huckster who crams a hard sell into one single-spaced page….
Yesterday, Louise gave some of the best advice I’ve read on how to research agents. She suggested going to conferences and events, reading blogs and subscribing to Publishers Marketplace, attending webinars and consulting Twitter. It’s kind of hard to blog about getting an agent after the wealth of spot-on information she gave. Except I didn’t do a single thing she mentioned. Call me a slacker, call me uninformed, but my…
