How To Get An Agent For My Book – Part Four: Finding Agents

The hardest part of your search for an agent begins: how to find the agents to write to. Seems easy, right? Just look up ‘literary agents’ on Google, make a list, and send your submission out to all of them? If you do that, you’re wasting your time and also your chances all in one go. Here’s everything you need to know about finding agents to submit to.

Setting Up Your Submissions Process

Research each agent you find. Start here at this agent database at P&W. Read their manuscript wishlists (#MSWL), and look at their social media. Do you like them as a person? Would they like your sort of book? Then check out what deals they did in the book world.

You can do this two ways: Buy a subscription to Publishers Marketplace or Google the agent’s name with ‘sells book’.

Then research them on YouTube. Are there any interviews with them at book fairs?

Who do they represent? Are their tastes in line with yours? Are their authors people you’ve read? All of this matters. Don’t submit to any agent who doesn’t read your sort of book, or it will be a straight rejection.

Trust your gut. Don’t like the look of someone? Maybe their website annoys you. Remember, as much as this feels like you are working for them, you are going to be paying them to sell your book. So move on if anything about their agency or manner doesn’t suit you. This person is going to be your representative.

Make a spreadsheet. When you see that they are an active, serious agent, put them in your spreadsheet. You can do this in Microsoft Excel or Open Office (free software). Make a column for their name (AGENT), what agency they work with (AGENCY), their email, and then notes on their submission process (SUBMISSIONS). In my sheet, RESPONSE is a column I use for their stated response time, i.e. 4-6 weeks, two months etc, with the date I submitted and therefore, what date I should expect something back. As time goes on, you can color-code or move rejections to another sheet.

Headings to consider:

The Unknown Knowns – Rejection Learnings

When you have made your spreadsheet, pick five. Yes, FIVE. Don’t choose your dream agents first. You’re going to get this wrong a few times. Let’s call this the ‘unknown knowns’ part of the submission process.

What I mean by this is that you will realise when you get rejected (and you will, pretty much all the time) that you could have done something better with your submission. I did all kinds of things, like sending a submission with spelling mistakes, or sending a really long synopsis before I realised why I was being rejected. So we only go for five agents first, to experience the following as a kind of cathartic pain that never leaves you:

How long it typically takes for an agent to get back – this will be a lot longer than expected by possibly months, or possibly much sooner/immediately rejected.
Receiving comments that lead to you changing the submission pack you created (rare to get comments but sometimes you do.)
Agents who ignore you entirely and how utterly bad that feels. Soak it in. Rejection will be your superpower.

The Known Knowns – Now You Know How It Feels

So yeah, it sucks. It hurts. It’s infuriating. I cannot understand how the literary agent world has limped along without autoresponders or any kind of plan to simply let authors know their material is rejected, but 9/10 times it will be a case of tumbleweeds.

It’s infuriating and maddening that an agent can’t create a catch-all reply to say no thanks, but they don’t, and in fact, many don’t even let you know they have received your email.

Part of the process for some reason is a sort of madness where dates and promises and all civil communication that in all other industries is commonplace is missing, and you’ll have to get over this to get on board. Agents seem from the outside to function in a chaotic whirl, until they don’t, and then they sell your book! So just accept this oddity as a ‘known known’ and play the game.

So what do I do when an agent doesn’t get back?

Wait three months. Yes, three months. That’s how long. Because agents are both busy and scattered.
After three months, you can write a note – this is the one I send:

Hi AGENT NAME,

Just checking if you need more time to look at my submission, BOOK TITLE HERE, submitted DATE HERE.

If I don’t hear from you by GIVE THEM A 2-WEEK WINDOW, I’ll assume it’s a no.

Thanks for your time in advance,

Best,

AUTHOR NAME

This note will elicit a response more times than not. This will either be that they need more time, and in some cases, they might ask for a full MS at this point. The other responses will be a no from an assistant, or nothing again, which you can assume as a no.

I have had agents tell me how much they love my writing and give me dates they say they will definitely get back to me on, and then they never answer me again. This is the most depressing sort of rejection, but sadly, more common than we’d like.

NEVER write an email to give them a piece of your mind. Agents are a small network, and it could queer your pitch everywhere else.

Next! Where do you go from here?

You know the song. Pick yourself up, dust yourself down…And yes, start all over again.

So pick another five agents. Repeat the process. Keep going.

That’s it?

Yup, that’s it.

Keep going…until one day you might get an agent.

This is why writers self-publish, because the stamina required to get an agent is tantamount to a Japanese endurance test of the mind. It’s not fair, it’s grubby, and it’s not for everyone. You may get to that breaking point after all of this, and then, hey, self-publishing will be there for you.

Until then,

Good luck, fellow author!

PS: A note on literary agents in the age of COVID

Something weird has happened to publishing. So everything I say above goes triple. Agents are not behaving normally, books are being rushed out in their hundreds. Bear this in mind when submitting in this difficult time.

Read Part One of this series – The Submission Letter

Read Part Two of this series – The Synopsis

Read Part Three of this series – The Book Sample