A Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents, Part 2

What is this story that you’ve written?  A novel, sure.  But what kind of a novel?  Agents want you to define and categorize your novel for them so they will know how to sell it to a publisher.  My first thought was, “I don’t know what kind of novel it is!”  I had thought it was the agent’s job to define and categorize my novel.  Isn’t that part of the selling process?  Don’t agents read the novel?  Yes, I believe when an agent requests the full manuscript from you that he/she does read it.  But they use what you have used to sell the novel to them to sell it to a publisher.  You’ve already done their work for them in that area.  I’ve wondered if an agent has ever disagreed with how a writer has defined and categorized his/her novel…I don’t know. 

Where to find the definitions and categorizations?  Think bookstore.  How are books shelved in a bookstore?  By categories.  This is the through-line from you straight to your readers — agents want to know what your novel is in order to tell a publisher where it will be shelved in a bookstore.  If it can’t be easily categorized, that’s a problem for everyone involved in the selling process, but not necessarily a problem for readers, who just want good stories.  I have agonized for hours and hours over how to define and categorize Perceval.  First and foremost, it’s a novel, a work of fiction.  Second, it’s a character study.  Third, it’s set in the near future, has elements of espionage, international thrillers, assassin stories, and psychological suspense.  But above all, it’s a good story.  I wish that’s all I needed to say about it….   What I’ve learned: The more simply and easily categorized the book, the better.  Agents can be easily confused.  Which may not be such a bad thing — you also don’t want to confuse potential readers.  It also helps to spend lots of time in bricks-and-mortar bookstores and learn the categories.

So, you have a list of agents, preferably 40 or 50 to start, and you’ve defined and categorized your novel.  Now it’s time to put together queries for each agent on your list — actually, I send out queries in batches of 10.  When I’ve heard back from those 10, I have another 10 all ready to go, and so on.  Each agent will want something specific in the query, usually a query letter (no more than 1 page) — actually a sales pitch letter, a synopsis and sample chapters up to 50 pages.  More and more agents prefer e-mail queries, and in that case, the query would be one long e-mail, no attachments, that begins with the letter, followed by the synopsis and usually up to 10 pages of your novel.  I prefer snail mail queries.  E-mail queries are far too easy to just delete.  Again, pay close attention to what the agent requests in the query and follow those directions.  A query is like going to an interview — it says alot about you, and professional presentation is important — no gimmicks.  What I’ve learned: It takes time to craft a really good query letter that can pique an agent’s interest.  Most agents, though, have “readers,” people who screen queries for them.  So, even though the query is addressed to the agent, the agent may never actually see it because the reader has rejected it for him or her.  Welcome to sales!  You are now a salesperson pitching your writing….

Agents respond when they respond.  Some are quite good about responding within the timeframe they’ve published in their query guidelines.  Others don’t.  I have gotten responses up to a year after I mailed the query.  If you receive a rejection, whether it’s a personal letter, a form letter, or a one-sentence e-mail, know this: the rejection is about the agent and his/her subjective taste, not you or your writing.  Do not respond to a rejection.  At this point, there is absolutely nothing you can say that will change the agent’s (or the reader’s) mind.  The best thing to do is send out more queries.  If you receive a request for sample chapters (if you didn’t send them initially) or the full manuscript, congratulations!  You’ve progressed to the next step.  Send requested material immediately.  What I learned: Finding the right agent is a crap shoot — one I haven’t yet won.  A match depends on timing, the agent’s taste, and luck in having chosen that agent to query.  Agents in general are not trailblazers but follow a herd mentality — I’ve heard this description from several agents.  Agents and publishers look for the next blockbuster without knowing what the next blockbuster might look like because no one can really predict what the public will want next.  This doesn’t stop them from relying on past experience.  One more thing I’ve learned: the next time an agent requests sample chapters, I’m sending the full manuscript and telling them it’s the sample chapters plus – the plus being that if they like the sample chapters, they can continue reading without a break to request more.

After all that and sending an agent the full manuscript, what if the agent calls you with an offer of representation?  You’ve now won the lottery, my friend….

A Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents

To engage a literary agent, or not to engage one?  This is the question.  Whether it is crucial for the writer’s business to have representation will depend on the writer.  Some writers are perfectly comfortable representing themselves.  Others prefer to hire an entertainment lawyer to negotiate contracts.  Then there are the writers who want that buffer between them and everyone else in the publishing process.  A good, knowledgeable and professional agent will be worth the commission.  As I’ve backed off my search for representation this summer and started to query publishers myself, I’ve looked back at the last four years and this last burst of constant marketing for Perceval.  What can I now say about the literary agent search?

First, if you decide to pursue representation, I’d suggest taking a moment to ask yourself: why?  It’s important to have a clear understanding of the reasons you want representation before plunging into the labor intensive search for the right agent.  The way I approached this was to ask myself what I wanted an agent to do for me and my writing.  I realized that I considered my job to be writing, not selling.  So the first thing I wanted the agent to do for me was to sell my writing to publishers.  I’d take care of the writing part.  The deal-sealer for me: most publishers do not accept unagented submissions.  What I learned: Writers have to sell to agents in order to attract them and gain representation.  Do not believe any agent who says otherwise.  They want to be sold to!  The time spent researching, developing query materials, and marketing to agents might be better spent marketing to publishers.  It’s certainly time spent not writing.  And if you address your query letter (and only a letter) to a specific editor at a publisher, it will be welcome. 

Second, an abundance of information and resources exist to help you find an agent.  Plan on taking the time to research them: read about agents, look them up online, and research what their preferences are.  Pay attention to what they want to see in a query.  Read about the differences between a boutique agency and a large full-service agency and which will serve your needs best.  Pay attention to the books the agent has sold.  Watch for signs of scammers — charging reading fees, unprofessional websites or communication, etc.  I used The Writer, Writer’s Digest, Poets and Writers  and Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents to begin developing a list of agents which I then checked with online resources such as The Association of Author Representatives (www.aar.org), Backspace.org, AgentQuery.com, Publishersmarketplace.com., and agent websites among others.  The more I searched online, the more sources I stumbled onto, which was great, really.  What I learned: Agents aren’t always clear in what they want to see.  Sometimes (often, actually) their lists are quite general and vague.  I’ve read that they don’t want to limit themselves or authors, but be careful.  Agents are still very specific in what they want to represent, and much of their decision will be subjective based on their taste, likes, dislikes, etc.  It’s interesting to read blogs written by literary agents and they are out there.  Also, agents often write in their guidelines for authors to not worry about “selling” their books to them or categorizing them.  That’s the agent’s job.  Well, yeah, but they will take what you say to them and use that.  So, do worry about selling your book to them and categorizing it.

Next time in A Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents, Part 2: Defining your novel, developing the query letter, and sending out the queries.  What do you do if an agent wants more material or calls you?

What Does Publication Mean?

The other day during lunch with friends, the conversation turned to books and writing, editing and publication.  J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series came up, specifically how the quality of her writing changed after she requested that the publisher stop editing her books.  The change, as one friend described it, was not a positive one, but that Rowling had become too verbose for her own good.  I found that interesting.  Not that her writing became bloated but that she could tell her publisher that she no longer wanted to be edited.  The conversation moved on to other topics, but my mind still batted that story around like a cat playing with a half-dead mouse.

First of all, I suspect Rowling’s writing is not so awful that it would miss editing, but I’d have thought she’d want the writing to be the best it could be.  I wondered why she no longer wanted to be edited.  Then I wondered, what did publication mean to her?  Was it to share the stories?  Was it to make money so she could get off the dole?  Was it for self-gratification?  Was it to say she was a successful writer?  I doubt there’s anyone in the world today who’d say she wasn’t successful as a writer.  She’s published.  She’s made billions.  She really wouldn’t have to write another word or do anything else for that matter.  Will she continue to write and stretch her abilities as a writer?  Is success only about publication and making money for a writer?

For me, publication is a measure of success, but isn’t the only one.  There’s what comes before, and what comes after to consider.  For the reading public, publication is the first step of success, becoming a blockbuster and making lots and lots of money seals it.  As a writer, though, success is cumulative.  When I’m working on a first draft, each 1000 words I finish writing in a day is a success, each finished chapter a success, each finished draft a success.  When I’m ready to begin marketing, then each query sent out is a success, each agent requesting the manuscript a success, and landing representation a success.  The same “steps of success” apply to the search for a publisher.  So publication is one step in the long stairway to writing heaven.  Writers dance up and down that stairway all the time.

Does publication make me a writer?  To the general reading public who aren’t writers, yes.  That is the general perception, I think.  And after the first publication, a writer is a writer forever.  Especially if the books do well! (smile)  But if they don’t, then a writer becomes a “used to be” a writer, like I used to be a musician.  I still listen to music, but I no longer play any instrument or participate in a performing group.  Back to writing, what about all that time the writer actually spends writing, even long before publication?  Doesn’t that make him or her a writer?  Even more so than publication.  The person is writing.  All the work that goes into writing — reading, research, coming up with ideas, characters, settings, a narrative structure, and an ending, and putting the right words down on paper, then revising, revising, revising — this is writing and makes a writer.  The commitment to the work, the dedication, the practice of writing, the creation.

What does publication mean?  At times, it means writing stops in favor of all the work of promotion.  But it shouldn’t mean the end of writing, the end of good ideas, of imagination.  For me, publication is a beginning: the beginning of the public life of the novel.  It is sharing stories among us.  And it doesn’t end there.  For real writers, it is the end of one era, the era of that particular story, and time to sit and stare.  Flannery O’Connor wrote in one of her essays: “There is a certain grain of stupidity the writer can hardly do without, and that is the quality of having to stare.”  When writers stare out a window or across the room, they are open and receptive to what their imaginations will give them, and they wait for it.  Staring….

Another Update

WRITING:

• Reworked and resubmitted the essay that was rejected so quickly last week.  This time, no response yet.  I’m hoping the editor isn’t on vacation.
• Almost finished with the essay that’s due on or before 8/15/09.  I will make this deadline, thanks to e-mail.  This essay began with one idea that led to another that led to the idea the essay ended up being about.  Interesting how that works.
• Joined Facebook.  I’m also on LinkedIn for professional networking.  I’m hoping to build interest for my writing with Facebook (and connect with people like a long-lost cousin who found me there this week).

JOB SEARCH

• Nothing new with the medical coder jobs I’ve applied to.  One was through a recruiter, another through a temp agency, and the third directly to a clinic.  What I continue to hear in the coding world in this market is that being certified is crucial to landing a job, even if it’s at the apprentice level.  I’ve assembled study guides to prepare for the certification exam, and I continue to practice coding.
• I found an open job at a local publishing company and sent them my resume.  I would love to work for a publishing company and this one publishes non-fiction. 
• I continue to slog over the job postings for new possibilities and opportunities….