A few weeks ago, after many years of trying, I managed to find a literary agent. Since then a lot of people, who I’d previously thought of as friends, have asked me for advice and help in finding one themselves. Rather than answer each of these worthless parasites individually, I thought I would put these tips online, in the hope that you can profit from them.
- It helps if you are good. I don’t mean you have to be a genius -it probably helps if you are definitely not a genius. But you have to put the hours in. You have to write a lot and read a lot as well. Even in a fairly bad published novel you get a sense of someone who knows what all the words mean and has taken the time to put them in the right order. In my case that meant a thousand words a day minimum, two unpublishable novels in my bedside drawer, and countless ruined relationships and sabotaged careers. Unless you too are prepared to mess up your whole life for this you might want to consider a different job.
- It helps if you have connections. I hate this as much as you do, by the way. In particularly low periods, I would google writers I liked, bitterly anticipating the familiar details of private school and Oxbridge. The literary world can often seem like a narrow elitist clique, not least because it often pretty much is. But connections don’t have to mean that you were eg in the Bullingdon Club. In my case I’ve met or chatted to a lot of writers just by being active on Twitter and talking a lot about books. When I finished my manuscript I asked a few of them to read it, a handful said yes and when I wrote to agents I was able to include quotes from them saying they liked my work (see point one, above). If Twitter appalls you (and you’d have a point) then there are writing groups, classes, chance encounters etc. And if you absolutely have none of these, then contacts aren’t essential. Having contacts will only rarely make up for you not being good and if you are good you will eventually not have to worry about having contacts.
- On a similar note, don’t be daunted if literary agents seem drawn from a small section of society and if this section is not your own. The important thing to remember is a) all of them got into this from a love of books and b) the most important factor of all is usually sales. So if you have a brilliant novel it really won’t matter where you came from (this does matter in terms of time to write, access to education, ability to survive as a writer etc all of which I will discuss in a later post). My advice is try to get over any justified hang-ups about how posh the publishing world is while quietly working to build a socialist utopia in your spare time.
- Finish your manuscript first. We’ve all read stories about a photogenic 22 year old given a five book deal on the evidence of one page, one paragraph, a single word etc. This makes the news because it hardly ever happens. And you aren’t a photogenic 22 year old. Are you? No, you aren’t.
- Find your agent. Normally this is the point where you get told to buy the Writers and Artists Yearbook but I found this website just as helpful: http://www.litrejections.com/uk-literary-agencies/ It lists most of the current UK literary agencies, with links to their websites and details of how to submit. Rather than submit to the agency as a whole it pays to look at the individual agents. Make sure they seem to like the sort of thing you write. More useful than this however, is to try and pick the youngest one on the team. They’ll be hungry for fresh clients and trying to build a career. If you pick someone at the top of their profession they might well have less time for you. If they already represent Salman Rushdie, they aren’t going to waste time turning you into him.
- Write a decent introductory email. This is surprisingly difficult but the best formula is a) Who you are b) What the book is about and c) if you have them, quotes from writers who like your stuff. If you like one of the agent’s writers it doesn’t hurt to mention this either.
- Most agent websites will have detailed instructions on how and what to submit – generally your first three chapters and a synopsis. Ignore this and send the introductory email. Some will get back to you politely suggesting you do what it says on the website. Many will ignore you altogether. But some, if your email is good enough, will get back and ask to read the whole manuscript. This is important because it means you can add this sentence to your introductory email…
- “I should warn you that other agents are reading the manuscript in full, but I’d still love the chance of working with you”. If an agent knows other agents are keen, this will encourage them to read the whole thing as well. This is good and will save you writing a synopsis.
- You should definitely write a synopsis anyway. Boring, I know.
- Be patient. It took 3 months for me to find an agent and there were times I considered quitting. You will get rejected, you will get ignored, you will probably want to give up. And remember an agent is only the first hurdle, you will have this to go through with publishers as well. But if your book is good enough and you have a thick enough skin, eventually you will get there. Maybe. You might get there.Oh well, it’s a worth a go.
Hope this helps, budding writer types. Any questions, stick ’em in the comments.
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