The Writing Process: Literary Agent Queries

Recently I spent two days sending queries to literary agents. Several hours of researching the agents and their agencies, composing query letters, enclosing requested materials, and sending out twenty-two e-mails. Most agents accept simultaneous submissions, but they also appreciate a personal touch, so researching whether we'd be right together was pretty time consuming.

By the end of the first day I'd already received two rejections.

Many authors do just fine without agents, these days. You don't need one if you self-publish, or if you submit to publishers that permit direct submissions, like most small and medium sized publishers. Harlequin, the Big Shot in the romance novel business, doesn't require agented submissions. In fact, one of the Harlequin lines is currently looking at my romantic comedy novel, Fire On Mist Creek.

They've had it for two years. I'm not confident.

Many authors get published without agents, after all. I should know.

Many publishers, especially the big ones, won't look at a submission unless it's received through an agent. Also, good agents act as full partners with the author, assisting in many areas besides the submission process, and also provide a shoulder to cry on. As slow as the publishing industry can be, that shoulder can be important.

But is an agent worth the process of finding one?

I tweak my submissions to make them more personal. In addition, each agent has different requirements: Some want a synopsis, some a separate author bio; some want the first five pages, or the first three chapters, or the first twenty-five or thirty or fifty pages.

So  I took the time to target each. Some gave me a quick rejection; some I might never hear back from; some might send an encouraging note that they liked my writing, but didn't get excited enough about it. (And an agent must like your work, because they're going to dive into it with both feet.)

Maybe they'll like the query and ask for a partial; maybe they'll like the partial and ask for the whole manuscript; maybe they'll like the whole manuscript but, as with one agent, have a meeting with their staff in which it's ultimately rejected. (They loved my young adult novel but thought it wasn't dark enough, and felt "dark" was the way the YA industry was headed. No wonder young people today are depressed.)

Even if you ultimately land one, it might not be a good fit. I did have an agent, years ago, but eventually he decided to get out of the publishing industry, and I started again from square one. It wasn't my fault. I think.

There's ultimately no guarantee that the agent can make the sale, but you can be sure they'll try ... because a legitimate agency won't make any money from your efforts unless they do.

So there's the process: similar to the process of submitting directly to a publisher, and with a similar rate of success. Many authors are successful and perfectly happy with independent publishing, and others do very well submitting directly to publishers. Is the extra step worth it? Well, so far it's only cost me time ... on the other hand, time is a precious commodity.

We'll see what happens.

Any way you go, you still have to put the after-sale work in.

 

Find all of our (unagented) books at:

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 

New Year's Writin' Eve

     I wondered about the best way to start the New Year. I rarely drink--and if I didn't start drinking in 2020, I never will. I have no desire to see Miley Cyrus' Epiglottis on New Years Rockin' Eve (or whoever the most recent too young to be showing so much skin singer is).

What I do want in 2021 is to get published again.

     So I plan to start the New Year with new rounds of submissions to publishers, magazines, and literary agents. I have short stories already out, but novel manuscripts that need to go out, including Fire on Mist Creek, Beowulf: In Harm's Way, and Summer Jobs Are Murder. Another three manuscripts are mostly done, but need some work yet: Smoke Showing, The Source Emerald, and We Love Trouble.

By the end of January I mean to have all my completed but unpublished manuscripts out and about, and seeing more of the world than I. Meanwhile, since both COVID and winter are likely to stick around for some time, I'll stay home and work on getting the rest nicely polished and pretty-looking.

 
     I know what you're thinking: "You lazy sod, why won't you have all that done three minutes into the New Year"? Well, my paranoia has me pouring over query letters and synopsis' for hours before I upload manuscripts and hit the send button. Besides, a little celebration is in order--and I have a morbid fascination with seeing how incapable the folks in Times Square are of finding and using a trash can.

 

 Okay, the truth is I have to work New Year's Eve. The other truth? After 2020, we shouldn't make plans: You never know what's going to fall on us in the New Year.

Remember, every time you don't read a book and leave a review, a wicked witch terrorizes Munchkins. Save the short people.

 

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Literary Agents of 50 Authors From 50 States

It's quite a coincidence right after I spent time recently querying literary agents, but the focus of the last two weeks on 50 Authors From 50 States is indeed on agents, from Kansas and Louisiana:

https://annettesnyder.blogspot.com/2020/04/metamorphosis-literary-agency-of-olathe.html

https://annettesnyder.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-louisiana-literary-representation.html

Guess I'd better warm up those submitting muscles! (Hint: A writer's best muscles are the ones they type with, and the one they think with. Although the back muscles can be kind of important, too.)

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Agent of Change, or: Literary Invention

As an author, searching for the right literary agent sucks.

I've been trying to find one that will be the right match for me, not just any warm body, so I spend a lot of time researching and seeking them out. Then I spend more time doing a search to make sure I haven't already queried them or their agency, since I've been on this hunt ever since I lost my last agent, over a decade ago. If there's one thing writers don't have a lot of, it's time.

So I've come up with a solution.*

Someone needs to create a LinkedIn type website, for writers seeking agents. The writers will post their best query letter, synopsis, and sample chapters, along with things like the genres they write in, a list of previously published works, their social media presence, and anything else an agent might be interested in.

Then the agent only has to come to the site, do a keyword search, and look for an author that meets their needs.

I just went through a list of about two dozen agents, and each of them had slightly different requirements for author submissions. It seems to me this idea would actually make things easier for both sides. The writer doesn't have to try to narrow and tweak his queries to meet the desires of individual agents; The agents, instead of being inundated with e-mails every day, can just do a quick search on one website whenever they're looking for new clients.
Win-win.

Unhappily, I'm tech challenged. So which of you internet geniuses is going to get the ball rolling?


*Not applicable to you successful self-publishers, of course.

http://markrhunter.com/

An Agent of Progress

As you all know from my incessant harping about it, I have some major publishing news to announce first on my newsletter—as soon as I have ten new people sign up for the newsletter, which hasn’t been active much up until now. (The signup is over at www.markrhunter.com.) We’re about halfway there.

Because I’m comfortable with how things are progressing on new projects, I thought I could take some time and go the traditional route with some other works. With my YA mystery Red Is For Ick and my SF novel, Beowulf: In Harm’s Way, I decided to take up the slow, laborious, and often fruitless process of searching for a literary agent.

The good news is that most agents are okay with an author submitting to more than one of them at a time, which speeds up the process. (But only a little, because I take the time to research agents in my search for the right match.) The bad news is that at any one time, there are about two billion agentless authors for every agent who’s looking for a new client. Maybe three billion.

Anyway, once I exhaust all the agents who might make for a good partnership, I planned to go direct to those traditional publishers that accept unagented submissions. Then I would consider independent publishing. Thinking that far ahead shows that my confidence in the traditional publishing process has eroded over the years.

The steps of publishing are measured in weeks—best case scenario. More likely months. Once an author sells a completed manuscript, it’s still often years before it comes out in print. So earlier this week I sent out some queries, along with outlines and sample pages, then moved on to other writing work. No sense waiting by the virtual mailbox.

Within less than 24 hours I got a request for a full manuscript.

I told you that whole story just to show how rare this is. It’s also by no means a guarantee of representation. I’ve received requests for fulls before: Only once did it lead to me getting an agent, years ago, and that didn’t work out. Statistically speaking, I might be no more likely to sign with this agent than the Cubs are to get into the World Series.

But stranger things have happened.

Another Submission Season

In all the work and fuss over getting Hoosier Hysterical published, I haven’t had time to deal with the other works I sent out into the cold, cruel publishing world. Over the last several months they’ve all come back to me via rejections—except in some cases when I hauled them back in after not hearing from publishers/agents for several months.

So I’ve gotten busy again. Over the last few days I’ve sent out eight submissions—three novels and five short stories—to various magazines, publishers, and agents. I have another romantic comedy (Coming Attractions) that I’ve held back for some further editing, so that’s my next chore.

Unlike most editors, agents are usually okay with simultaneous submissions, which means I could be telling you about several dozen submissions. But a writer/agent relationship needs to be very solid, so I spend time investigating agents, looking for one that might be just right for me … shotgun submitting isn’t my style. If an enthusiastic publisher offers me a three book deal before I land an agent … well, that’s a “problem” I’ll just have to deal with, isn’t it?

Secret Agent, Man

Feeling that I’m not balancing enough in my life, I’ve sent a query and sample chapters of my YA humor/mystery novel, Red Is For Ick, to an agent. That makes six works I’ve got out making the rounds – three novels and three short stories – assuming one doesn’t come back by the time you read this.

            Of course, only one – The Notorious Ian Grant – is actually sold. The rest are simply submissions, one after a request for edits and the other four in slush pile purgatory. Still, one thing I’ve heard often remains true in today’s publishing world: The reason most manuscripts are never published is because they’re not finished and sent out.