Finding an agent is like getting married. No one dates as much as they want to. Your calls are frequently not returned. However, in the end you only have to find one to make it work and to be successful.

Agents will generally respond to your query either by phone if they’re interested or by mail if they are not. The good news is that good news comes early. New authors who are looking for an agent their first novel will not be inundated by phone calls. Agents hear about book ideas every day, they are skeptical of almost every query that lands on their desk, including yours. Be positive and expect a limited number of responses. When you hear from an agent hit the turbo button to accelerate your novel. Don’t squander an agent’s interest in your novel by idling your time away.

When an agent calls be courteous, accommodating, and gracious. At this point you’re the nerdy kid with bad acne that just landed a date with the head cheerleader to homecoming. You need her much more than she needs you. At the same time don’t go overboard with excitement. Tell the agent you will send your proposal to in a few days after you have heard from any other interested parties. If you are fortunate enough to land more than one agent use your agent research to pick the best fit.

Decide which agent you want to use and act quickly. Don’t get frozen with fear and try to decipher the stars to pick the perfect agent. Use your research and common sense to pick a good agent and get her the information she needs.

Jacob

I wanted to add to my previous post about researching literary agents. I have found a few online resources that will help you capture the interest of a legitimate agent.

• Agent Query
  • One of the largest databases of literary agents
• Agent Research
  • This is the love connection of agent sites. They try to match you with the literary agent who is right for your work.
• Writer Beware
  • Warnings about literary fraud and other schemes, scams, and pitfalls that target writers

Jacob

Part 1 of this series - The Publishing Process

Part 2 of this series - Preparing a Proposal

Getting the attention of the right agent is hard. Many good books languish in purgatory because their author can’t get an agent to even glance at it. As the days tick by waiting for an agent to respond don’t be surprised if you lose some hair or can’t resist eating an entire box of chocolates in 5 minutes. Don’t get down on yourself, waiting for a stranger to tell you if your baby is cute or ugly is truly maddening.

You can increase your chances of landing an agent by getting to know the agent before introducing your work to them. Agents divide themselves into groups, the most obvious being fiction and non-fiction. Look for agents that love the kind of work you are writing. If you are writing a the History of Harvard don’t send it to an agent that has only represented romance novels with a western twist.

Get a copy or the Guide to Literary Agents by Chuck Sambuchino to help you get to know some agents. Use this book, or another one like it, to find out what books agents have represented in the past and what each agent expects in a query letter. Work smart and work hard and you will eventually get an agent to seriously consider your novel.

Do you want to discover what your peers think of your novel? Upload a chapter and let us critique it for you.

Jacob

Why do books with contrived plots and tired characters fly off of the shelves of book stores while a publisher won’t even open your masterpiece? Because a crappy book backed by a literary agent will go a thousand times farther than a masterpiece without an agent. .

The first step in the publication process is to not write your book. STOP the presses! What? The goal is to get a book published not to write a book. Start with the end in mind not the beginning.

The second step is to find an agent. I am sure it happens, but I don’t know anyone who has been published without landing a literary agent. If you have already created your work of genius, don’t fret all is not lost.

You need an agent because the publishing world is a closed community. Publishers only accept books through specified channels, namely agents. Publishers let agents dig the diamonds out of the dregs people write every day. Getting an agent to support your work is your best avenue to publication. Sending a manuscript to a publisher is the quickest road to rejection.

Publishers consider manuscripts only after agents with solid track records recommend them. This makes agents picky about who they work with. It is not easy to land an agent, but once you do they will work tirelessly to get your book published. In return agents generally get 15% of the deal. Before you go ballistic at the thought of parting with a small fortune, remember 85% of something is a whole lot more than 100% of nothing.

I will talk about what to send an agent in more detail in part two of this series. For now remember agents don’t want to read your 500 page manuscript, they want to read a one page query letter that summarizes your idea, tells them who you are, and explains why you are qualified to write this book. The query letter is important because if you can’t write a good one page letter how can an agent trust you to write an entire novel?

Read the 2009 Guide To Literary Agents by Chuck Sambuchino to learn more about how to find a literary agent and stay tuned for part two of this series.

Jacob