Searching for the right literary agent is one of the most stressful and overwhelming parts of book publishing. All those rejections and putting your work out there in the world to be judged and critiqued is really hard. But it can also be informative and enriching. I will share a bit about my experience pitching and landing an agent. I want to share the process of searching and pitching rather than focusing on the acquisition of the agent.
The Query
I finished the manuscript for my memoir in 2016 and began the process of finding a literary agent. I wrote my query which was almost as hard as writing the whole manuscript. It was basically a summary of the book, while simultaneously being a marketing teaser. It was meant to highlight my skill as a writer but also be clear and straightforward. Not too long or not short, a query should please Goldilocks, it should be just right. I got some feedback on it, ran it through a few thorough edits, did a proofread and called it good. While it was a real struggle to write it and I felt a fair bit of resistance to writing it, I learned a lot. I learned how to talk about my story and pitch it verbally because I had homed in on the deeper message and meaning of the book.
The Search
I had my query letter polished and ready to send. I needed a list of agents that represented memoir. There are a lot of resources for finding agents. I used as many of them as I could find, cross referencing and curating a full list for myself. Some of the resources I used were AgentQuery.com, LiteraryAgents.com, QueryTracker.com and ManuscriptWishlist.com. I also subscribed to Writer’s Digest and Poets and Writers online and print magazines. In researching agents, it was important to make sure each agent selected for my list represented not only memoir but the type of memoir I had written. Most agents will clarify the types of books they prefer. You can read their bios and really look around the agency to get a feel for what kinds of books the agency tends to rep.
Once I had a pretty good list of agents, I arranged them in order of preference. I would contact my dream agents first. Reach for the stars, right? It was a confidence boost to send my query to a top agent at a prestigious literary agency and get a response, (even if it was a no.) I ended up with a list of about 120 agents, arranged in descending order. Before I sent the query, I did a deeper dive into the agents I was considering first. I looked for interviews they had conducted. I looked at their history, how many agencies had they worked for in the past, if they had moved from editing to agenting and the different kind of experience that gave them and just connected with the individual as best I could.
When I felt I knew them as well as one can know an internet person, I drafted an email. I kept my introduction as simple as Dear Mr./Ms. followed by their last name (properly spelled by the way). I copied and pasted the query into the body of the email and end with “I look forward to your response.” I followed the agent’s guidelines to the letter.
I decided to pitch 3-5 agents at a time. For every rejection I would send out the query to another agent so that I always had between 3 and 5 queries floating around the literary universe. I received a request for the full manuscript within 24 hours of my first pitches. And then one by one the rejections arrived. I was somewhat prepared for them but those first passes hit me in the gut pretty hard anyway. I was grateful for the list of agents that I had made and the excitement of sending out more pitches. Every no meant another new opportunity. The hardest part of the process for me was waiting. The silence of no answer from many, many agents was a lot harder than a direct “no thank you” or “I am going to pass on your project.”
Results
I pitched for two years. I sent my query out to 86 agents.
I received 13 requests for full or partial manuscript.
I received 27 personal and form rejection emails and the rest were silent rejections where I didn’t hear back after the time suggested on the agent’s bio. (I understand why agents opt for this method. “If you don’t hear back in six weeks it’s a no from me.” They get SO many queries and sending out emails to each one is another thing to do when they are already overwhelmed. But from a writer’s point of view, I found it the most disheartening part of the process. The waiting that turns into a no. It felt like I was sending my query out into a black hole.)
I did eventually receive a contract and signed on with an agent. (There’s more to that story for another time.)
Takeaways
- You can learn a lot from a personal rejection about your query, your manuscript and your writing in general.
- Don’t take things personally. You’re not selling you, (even though it totally feels like you are) you are pitching a product for the book market.
- Don’t sit by your computer and wait for responses from agents. Get on with your life. Pitching agents is just part of the writer’s life.
- Some people can land an agent quickly or through a referral but those instances tend to be rare. Prepare for the process to take a long time. A bit like dating, it can take a while to find a good match.
- Don’t look at querying agents as “a means to an end.” It was a great experience and I found it richly rewarding and also challenging. I learned a lot and gained much needed experience. I made great connections and felt afterward that I was more truly part of the literary world as a result.
