The Agent Search - Where to Begin
As promised, this is the first blog in my series on finding an agent.
Let me get something out of the way right here and now--it's not easy. Luckily, there are a couple of ways to make the process at least slightly less painful.
Granted, I just sent out my first batch of queries this afternoon, so I'm still very much in the beginning stages of the Agent Search. It did, however, take some work to get to the point of sending out queries, and any writer worth her salt knows that the most important step in finding an agent is research.
My first step was probably way back in high school (okay, so it isn't that far back, considering my ten year reunion isn't until next year, but it feels like way back) when I took note of an author thanking their agent, Steven Axelrod, in their acknowledgments. At that point I was already pretty serious about writing and being published, and had already begun to pore through the Writer's Market, Publisher's Weekly and other magazines and books. I knew how important having an agent was--why else would all these authors thank their agents in their acknowledgments time after time?
Skip ahead to two years ago when I enrolled in the Seton Hill Writing Popular Fiction program. All of a sudden, I had this wealth of information around me. Writers--published and unpublished--who were more than willing to share their war stories with all of us. My very first residency, and here I was rubbing shoulders with published authors, agents and editors.
After just one week, I knew that having an agent was important.
How?
It was something that came up time and time again. During lunches, on the message boards, in chat loops, in modules during residency, in conversations with my mentors and my friends.
Now, I'm not saying that everyone should go enroll in a graduate program--unless you want to (I love the WPF program and already miss it dearly, even though I only graduated a few weeks ago). I am saying, though, that establishing a network is so very vital in this business, and not just for finding an agent.
Through my network, though, I've heard the good and the bad when it comes to agents and editors. I've had friends suggest agents to me. I've had mentors and friends give me tips on my query letters, my summaries, etc.
I cannot say this enough--a network is important. Vital, even.
But what to do after you have a network? After you have suggestions? You still need addresses, right?
Right.
Furthermore, you need know if that agent is accepting unsolicited queries, what they're looking for, who they're with, what authors they represent, etc. There are two great websites where you can find a lot of this information:
Query Tracker
Agent Query
Of course, the best place is the agency's website, but you can get a pretty good initial feel from the two listed sites.
From here, what works for one person won't necessarily work for another. My process, however, was this:
Using Query Tracker, I selected agents I was interested in learning more about. I took those names and looked them up on Agent Query, where they have more detailed information. I printed out the full bios of the agents I wanted to query and put them all in a binder (teal, I might add--no reason to go with boring).
Then, I developed this.
A few of those categories might need some explanation. *g*
So, a quick chart.
RWA=RWA Recognized (if you're an RWA member this is available in the member's only section of the website)
AAR=Association of Author's Representatives
R=Romance (Does the agent represent this genre?)
WF=Women's Fiction
CL=Chick Lit
E=Erotica
Accepting Unsolicited=Self-explanatory, but I think this bears repeating--make sure they're accepting unsolicited queries
Special Interests=Well, special interests. What are they searching for in particular? Romantic suspense, erotica, romantic comedy, women's fiction, a strong voice? This helps you to better target agents.
Preference=Mail preference. Snail only? Email only? What do they want you to include?
Query=Simple yes or no
Date=The date I sent a query to the agent
Response Time=How long the agent usually takes, according to the method with which you queried
Heard Back=Date I hear back (so far, this row is blank on mine)
Response=The response you get back. No? If it's a rejection, was it a form letter or a personal rejection? Any suggestions from the agent? Did they request a partial or a full?
Notes=This is a personal place for you to write notes, like what authors that agent represents, if they have a soft spot for a genre you don't write in, if they're actively building their client list, etc.
I've found this spreadsheet to be an easy way to keep track of agents and their information, and it--combined with the binder--really helped me to narrow down my top 5 agents.
As I mentioned, I queried six agents this afternoon. Next week I'll talk about the selection process, and how I narrowed down my list of 48 to the initial six (it wasn't easy, believe me).
Cheers!
Aubrey
Let me get something out of the way right here and now--it's not easy. Luckily, there are a couple of ways to make the process at least slightly less painful.
Granted, I just sent out my first batch of queries this afternoon, so I'm still very much in the beginning stages of the Agent Search. It did, however, take some work to get to the point of sending out queries, and any writer worth her salt knows that the most important step in finding an agent is research.
My first step was probably way back in high school (okay, so it isn't that far back, considering my ten year reunion isn't until next year, but it feels like way back) when I took note of an author thanking their agent, Steven Axelrod, in their acknowledgments. At that point I was already pretty serious about writing and being published, and had already begun to pore through the Writer's Market, Publisher's Weekly and other magazines and books. I knew how important having an agent was--why else would all these authors thank their agents in their acknowledgments time after time?
Skip ahead to two years ago when I enrolled in the Seton Hill Writing Popular Fiction program. All of a sudden, I had this wealth of information around me. Writers--published and unpublished--who were more than willing to share their war stories with all of us. My very first residency, and here I was rubbing shoulders with published authors, agents and editors.
After just one week, I knew that having an agent was important.
How?
It was something that came up time and time again. During lunches, on the message boards, in chat loops, in modules during residency, in conversations with my mentors and my friends.
Now, I'm not saying that everyone should go enroll in a graduate program--unless you want to (I love the WPF program and already miss it dearly, even though I only graduated a few weeks ago). I am saying, though, that establishing a network is so very vital in this business, and not just for finding an agent.
Through my network, though, I've heard the good and the bad when it comes to agents and editors. I've had friends suggest agents to me. I've had mentors and friends give me tips on my query letters, my summaries, etc.
I cannot say this enough--a network is important. Vital, even.
But what to do after you have a network? After you have suggestions? You still need addresses, right?
Right.
Furthermore, you need know if that agent is accepting unsolicited queries, what they're looking for, who they're with, what authors they represent, etc. There are two great websites where you can find a lot of this information:
Query Tracker
Agent Query
Of course, the best place is the agency's website, but you can get a pretty good initial feel from the two listed sites.
From here, what works for one person won't necessarily work for another. My process, however, was this:
Using Query Tracker, I selected agents I was interested in learning more about. I took those names and looked them up on Agent Query, where they have more detailed information. I printed out the full bios of the agents I wanted to query and put them all in a binder (teal, I might add--no reason to go with boring).
Then, I developed this.
A few of those categories might need some explanation. *g*
So, a quick chart.
RWA=RWA Recognized (if you're an RWA member this is available in the member's only section of the website)
AAR=Association of Author's Representatives
R=Romance (Does the agent represent this genre?)
WF=Women's Fiction
CL=Chick Lit
E=Erotica
Accepting Unsolicited=Self-explanatory, but I think this bears repeating--make sure they're accepting unsolicited queries
Special Interests=Well, special interests. What are they searching for in particular? Romantic suspense, erotica, romantic comedy, women's fiction, a strong voice? This helps you to better target agents.
Preference=Mail preference. Snail only? Email only? What do they want you to include?
Query=Simple yes or no
Date=The date I sent a query to the agent
Response Time=How long the agent usually takes, according to the method with which you queried
Heard Back=Date I hear back (so far, this row is blank on mine)
Response=The response you get back. No? If it's a rejection, was it a form letter or a personal rejection? Any suggestions from the agent? Did they request a partial or a full?
Notes=This is a personal place for you to write notes, like what authors that agent represents, if they have a soft spot for a genre you don't write in, if they're actively building their client list, etc.
I've found this spreadsheet to be an easy way to keep track of agents and their information, and it--combined with the binder--really helped me to narrow down my top 5 agents.
As I mentioned, I queried six agents this afternoon. Next week I'll talk about the selection process, and how I narrowed down my list of 48 to the initial six (it wasn't easy, believe me).
Cheers!
Aubrey
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