#literary-agents

[authortirrell]

2024, a year in review

Another year is coming to an end. It’s time to look back and see how far we’ve come (or not). I’m rounding up my fourth year on this self-publishing journey. It hasn’t been a rocket, more like an air balloon, but I’m hopeful that 2025 will be a good year in my writing world. First, let’s examine my output. This year, I completed two full novels: The Novice of Thanatos, book 1 in The Order of…

[blumoonfiction-blog]

National Writing Project (NWP): Empowering Young Writers Through Camps and Workshops

National Writing Project (NWP): Empowering Young Writers Through Camps and Workshops The National Writing Project (NWP) offers young writers opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their skills through writing camps, virtual workshops, and contests. With a focus on various genres, NWP supports young authors in finding their voice and honing their craft. Recommended Reading and…

[nondelphic]

This draft is fantastic, it just needs work on pacing, character development, plot cohesion, emotional depth, world-building, scene transitions, tone consistency, theme integration, conflict resolution, dialogue realism, and staying focused for more than 2 chapters.

[pangur-and-grim]

BRO I GOT A FULL REQUEST! HEHHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHHEHEHEHHEHEHEEHHEHEHEH

[honeydewmelan]

so the line “Will you live to see tomorrow or die another day” always puzzled me a bit, because the implication is that both live through the day. I chalked it up to just. Convenience on the part of the writers, until I realized that this line actually refers to Owen and Curt. They live through the event, but in markedly different ways. Contrary to what he says in One Step Ahead, Owen really didn’t “move on” from that day, or from Curt. From the time of his “death” he has just been going after curt, his only mission to destroy his life and get revenge. He has nothing to live for after the mission where his lover betrays him, so he really is just waiting to “die another day” as the line says, however, Curt’s arc throughout the show is really learning how to move forward and live in order to see tomorrow, because now he has something to look forward to in the future.

arguably both of them went through a metaphorical “death” at that point and the line is a really interesting mirror to the narrative.

[theliterarymess]

For more information on the drama regarding author Cait Corrain rn.

Corrain has a debut novel coming out next year entitled ‘Crown of Starlight’. It was under consideration for Illumicrate. It has just recently been revealed that Corrain has been creating burner accounts on Goodreads to rate her competition 1-2 ⭐️ and boost her own book. She of course denies it but a lot of evidence has been revealed. It has been noted that she is mainly targeting marginalised authors. It’s very sad because their book wasn’t doing bad! Many people were getting excited for it but this author still chose to sabotage their peers.

The doc exposing burner accounts of her review bombing other authors here. The evidence dates back to April this year

Apparently the author was friends with another recent debut and asked for their endorsement for her book, only to secretly review bomb them too

Author Xiran Jay Zhao is providing lists of other 2024 debut authors you can support here

Goodreads has currently disabled users from interacting with Corrain’s book due to the breach of guidelines which I worked out while trying to remove it from my TBR

[storybookprincess]

The way you write is alienating and wildly unpleasant

look ma, i finally made it!!!!!! i got real, genuine anon hate!!!!!!!

[novlr]

I've often seen many publications and publishers often require a cover letter for submissions along side the work itself. Do you have any advice on how to make a decent cover letter when submitting fiction?

Query letters can be intimidating, but they’re completely manageable if you approach them in three easy steps. We’ll walk you through each one:

1: The introduction

This part’s pretty simple. You say hi to the agent; you get their name right (v. important!), you scatter in some personalisation, and you state your cause: to secure representation for your book. 

A few important things to remember:

Address the agent by their first name — not by “Sir or Madam,” and definitely never as “Sirs.”

If you open your query letter with “Dear Sirs” and send it to an all-female agency, your letter’s going to get chucked in the shredder. If the women of this agency are particularly vindictive, they may then take the shreds and make them into a voodoo doll.

Open with a quick note about why you chose this agent in particular. It might be that you heard them speak at a conference, you loved the books they listed as influences on their website, or you noted that they represent one of your favourite authors. Even though agents know that you’re querying several dozen others, they want to feel like you’ve chosen them for a reason.

2: The pitch

So now you’ve got their attention and made them feel special; it’s time to introduce them to the headliner. In this section, you state the novel’s word count and genre. Then you describe, in just two or three sentences, what the book’s about. Finally, you throw down a few comparison titles or authors that encompass your target audience. 

This is the trickiest part, because these are the lines that’s going to make the agent interested in reading your book. You may find it helpful to get some feedback on your pitch from other writers before writing your query. In your pitch, you’ll need to strike a delicate balance between writing in a literary tradition and writing something new. If your book is too weird and progressive, the agent might not feel confident it will find an audience. But if it’s too similar to titles that are already out, the agent won’t feel like you’re offering anything fresh. 

3: The humblebrag

Now that you’ve sold the agent on your book, the next and final step is to sell them on you. At this point, you can mention any writing you’ve published in the past (including short stories or related articles), any training you’ve undergone as a writer, and any biographical trivia that directly relates to the book you’re pitching. 

You may not have a huge amount of professional history to share at this point, and that’s okay. The agent just wants to see that you’re serious about embarking on a career as a writer.

Then, you thank them for their time and sign off. See? Easy!

Want some more detail? You can read the full post in the Reading Room at the link below!

[broodparasitism]

Everything I've Learned About Querying from Talking to Agents (And Traditionally Published Authors)

Disclaimer: I'm UK based, as was everyone I spoke to. I didn't include any country specific advice, just what I think is applicable regardless of where you live, put it might be useful to know this is from a UK lens.

As part of my course I was able to go to a lot of talks with literary agents (a mixture of literary, genre and nonfiction) and I picked up a lot of useful information - a lot of it not quite so bleak as I feared! - and thought it might be helpful to compile it for anyone looking to query agents in the future, so, here goes, under the readmore:

Querying

Remember that agents want to find and publish new authors. They're not at odds with/out to get aspiring authors. They want to work with us. This is someone you're working with, so don't pick an agent you won't get along with.

Manuscripts should be queried when they are as close to finished you are able to manage. There are a few agents that are open to incomplete manuscripts, yes, but many more that flat-out refuse unfinished work. Manuscripts generally go through about ~15 rounds of edits before landing an agent.

Send query letters in batches - around five or six at a time. There is no limit to how many agents you can contact, but you can't contact more than one agent from the same agency, so make sure you've selected the most suitable one from each.

In most cases you can't submit the same manuscript to the same agent twice - so having it be as finished as possible is all the more vital.

Some of them will take a long time to respond. Some never respond at all. If it's been three months of nothing, it's safe to assume that's a rejection.

One agent said she took on about two new authors a year, which likely isn't true for them all but is probably a reasonable average. For all of them, the amount of queries they get can be in the three digits a week. I can't emphasis enough just how many they get. I take a lot of authors to mean that means it's a 0.001% chance and despair, but that assumes each manuscript has an equal chance, and they don't. Correct spelling and grammar, writing in a genre that appeals to the agent, quality sample chapters and respecting the submission guidelines (more on this later) improve the odds by a significiant amount.

One agent said he rejected about half of his submissions from the first page due to spelling and grammar mistakes and cliches, for perspective.

You'll need to pitch your book. If your book cannot be pitched in three sentences, that's a sign it has too much going on and you'll need to do some pruning.

Please don't panic if you cannot come up with an accurate pitch for your book on the fly - you're not supposed to be able to do that. A pitch takes many edits and drafts just like a manuscript.

Send your first three chapters and a synopsis (this should be a page, or two pages double spaced. It should not include every single plot point though, again, if major things end up not there at all, question if they're necessary for the manuscript).

Three chapters is the standard - as in, if the agent web page doesn't specify how many, that's what to opt for. If they say anything else, for the love of God listen. If there was a single piece of advice that the agents emphasised above all else, it was to just follow each submission requirement to a T.

There needs to be a strong hook in these chapters. If your manuscript is a bit of a slow burn, that's fine, but you can cheat a bit with a 'prologue' that's actually a very hook-y scene from later on.

Read the agent's bio page throughly and make a note of what they like, who they represent, and what they're looking for, and highlight this in the query letter.

Your query letter has to say a little about you. It doesn't have to be really personal information (but say if you're under 40, because that's rare for authors and they like that), and keep it professional but not stiff, they say. If you have any writing credentials, such as awards won or creative writing degrees, include them, as with any real life experiences that pertains to the content of your book. But no one will be rejected on the basis of not having had an interesting enough life.

Apparently one of the biggest mistakes for debut authors tend to be too many filler scenes.

In terms of looking for comparative titles, think about where you want your book to 'sit'. Often literally - go into bookstores and visualise where on the displays you could see it. It's really helpful if you can identify a specific marketing niche. Though you want to choose comparisons that sell well, but going for really obvious choices looks lazy. A TV or film comparison is fine - as long as it genuinely can be compared.

Do not call yourself the next Donna Tartt. Or JK Rowling. They are sick of this.

Don't trust agents who request exclusive submission.

Or any with a fee. Agents take a percentage of your advance/royalties - you never pay them directly.

In terms of trends (crowd booing), there's been a boom in uplifting, optimistic fiction, but more recently dark fiction has been rising in popularity and looks to have its moment. Fantasy and Gothic are both huge right now. Publishers also love what's called upmarket/book club fiction - books that toe the line between genre and literary.

But publishers aren't clairvoyant and writing to trends is a futile effort, so don't let them shape what you want to write. Some writing advice I got that I loved was to not even THINK about marketability until draft three or four.

If any agent requests your full manuscript - this is crucial - email every other agent you're waiting to hear back from and let them know. This will take your manuscript from the slush pile to the top, and you are more likely to get more offers of representation.

The agent that flatters you the most isn't necessarily the best. Be sure to ask them what their plan for the book is, and what publishers they're planning to send it to - you want them to have a precise vision. It might be that their vision misses the mark on what kind of book you wanted to write, and if so, they aren't the right agent for you.

Research like hell! A good place to start is finding out who represents authors you love (the acknowledgements pages are really helpful here). if you can, getting access to The Writer's and Artist's Yearbook is very helpful, as is The Bookseller, the lattr for checking up on specific agents. (I was warned the website search engine is awful, so google "[name] the Bookseller" to see what they've sold. That said, only the huge deals get reported, so it's not indicative of everyone they take on.

I also want to add Juliet Mushen's article on what makes a good query. I owe a lot to it, and I feel like it's a useful template!

Once Agented

Agents send a manuscript to about 18-25 publishers, typically. Most books will end up having more than one publisher interested.

It can be hard to move genres after publishing a debut novel, especially for book two, not only because it means it takes longer for you to establish yourself, but the agent that may be perfect for dealing with manuscripts for book one might not have the skills for book two.

Ask the agency/publisher about their translation rights, their rights to the US market, and film and TV rights. Ask also what time of year the book is going to come out, if being published.

It's less the book agents are interested in than it is you as an author. You will be asked what you're going to write next, so have an answer. Just an answer - you don't need another manuscript ready to go. One author said she flat-out made up a book idea on the spot, and she got away with it - just have an answer. (This is also useful to put on the query letter.)

Caveat that this is, of course, not a foolproof guide to getting a book deal, nor is it in any way unconditional endorsement of how the industry works - I just thought it would be useful to know.

[gawrkin]

We should talk more about these guys. These are the guys who serve as the Literary agents of the Arthurian Romance Narrative, specifically for the Lancelot prose cycle.

Supposedly, they're the reason the stories of Lancelot, Galehaut, etc. manage to reach thw modern day. They're also how the french writers could deviate from previous material, insisting on premise they accurately recorded the happenings and deeds of the heroes not mentioned by Robert, Chretien or Geoffrey.

If you are to write an arthurian story but with your own spin and changes, you can attribute the difference to "they were totally wrong/super-biased/skewed the facts" and say "this is what really happened"

Or, more ambitiously, make up own own "source material and authorities"

[princesskealie]

taking my mom to the doctor again tomorrow~ please send any good vibes/prayers/thoughts her way that all goes smoothly! 🙏🙏

[softgrungeprophet]

therapy adventures... cozy horror... loving revenge...

[itsawritblr]

Querying.

[upismediacenter]

LITERARY: Lapastangan

[krytus]

"ian short for lesbian" is still one of the funniest name things ive considered. should my pen name be ian....

[aritany]

hi! i saw your posts about being not being thrilled with your previous agent -- it seems to me like you were saying you didn't feel like they really understood/appreciated queer stories, and also felt like they were relying on the author-as-influencer phenomenon for marketing. these are both hurdles i anticipate with querying/publishing; do you have any advice? red flags to look out for, questions to ask?

yeah! we outgrew each other professionally and creatively since the time i signed with her. i came out publicly and gave myself the freedom to start telling primarily queer stories, and that just wasn't where her passion and expertise lay (and that's fine!), so parting was was less of a dramatic breakup and more of a natural end to this chapter.

i think the author-as-influencer phenomenon is becoming more and more common as publishing accelerates the way it has been the past few years, and since i haven't started querying again yet, i haven't had the opportunity to speak with other agents about it. i just couldn't get behind the almost frantic time to hustle energy - i really don't need more things to panic about.

in terms of advice: see if you can speak to other authors about their experiences with agents. all people change, and all agents will shift perspectives as they gain experience, but writers are usually more than happy to share their stories. i've heard rumour of a blacklist going around, but i haven't seen it myself, so i can't speak to its credibility.

here are a few examples of questions you can ask when you get to the stage of querying where you've got an offer and are having an interview:

why do you think this story is important?

why do you think queer stories are important in general?

do you believe that social media presence is essential in traditional publishing? is the onus for marketing on the author?

would you ever encourage an author to push past their comfort zone for the sake of selling books? if so, why?

further reading that might interest you:

Red Flag Warnings: How to Spot a Shady Literary Agent

r/PubTips: agent vetting

writer beware: literary agents