the craft. where to find agents.

So much of the agenting process is shrouded in mystery, so in this four-week series, we’ll dive into the process of not only finding an agent, but Finding the Right Agent. It’s true that it's better to not have an agent at all than to have the wrong one. So though I am no expert, I’ll be sharing from my own experience.

With the news of New Leaf Literary Agency dropping a whole roster of authors floating around the interwebs, I don’t think this series could have come at a better time. Writers who are hoping to publish traditionally covet the idea of having an agent, but it really is important to know exactly what you’re looking for to set yourself up for success in your publishing journey. And that starts with finding the right agent for your particular work.

Let’s start with why you need an agent in the first place. The reality is that most presses do not accept submissions from writers without agents. There are some independent presses that will though, but you should also vet those. More specifically, any imprints associated with the big five publishers which so desperately want to become four. But in the interim, these are Penguin/Random House, Hachette Book Group, Harpers Collins, Simon & Schuster and MacMillan. Now, there are so many other subsidiaries of these companies, however, they all ladder back up to these. So, if that’s the goal (and it doesn’t have to be), you’ll need to find an agent before an editor at one of these presses will consider your book.

Yes, it is gatekeeping. But if you think about the amount of random people who think they have the greatest book idea ever, you start to understand that something has to be in place to help manage these editors’ time. And that is an agent, friend.

So, before we even get into writing the query and such, which we’ve touched on a bit before, it starts with research. Once you are done with your full manuscript for fiction or your book proposal for non-fiction, it’s time for you to find which agents even make sense for your project. I will say this, I think a lot of the agents I started querying in the beginning were not the right fit for my manuscript which resulted in a lot of unnecessary rejection. To spare yourself, I would say, it’s better to really aim versus shooting all over the place, in my humblest of opinions. I would have queried an agent that was marginally connected to my story, only to later find another agent at the same agency that may have been a better pitch. Most agencies only allow you to query one agent with the idea that if your book is good enough it’ll get to the most appropriate agent, but I'm not sure that’s true, personally.

With that being said, with the knowledge I have now, it would have helped to be a bit more intentional in my research phase. So here are a few places that are super helpful to begin your search so you can compile agents you’re interested in querying.

The first and most obvious place to start for me was the book acknowledgements of other authors. If you notice, most authors thank their wonderful agents for their patience and diligence somewhere in those book acknowledgements. Since you’ve already been thinking about comparable titles, start there. That agent may be looking for more stories in the genre and may be a good place to pitch your book.
Twitter pre-Musk was a wonderful place to also follow agents. Now, it feels like a ticking time bomb, but before it implodes, I’d say it can still be a good resource. Agents are there and they’re often talking about the types of books they’re interested in. Add those folks to your list as well.
Manuscript Wish List is not only its own site, but it’s also a hashtag you can follow as well. #MSWL. This is a directory of agents and editors, again, talking about the types of books they’re interested in reading.
Last and certainly not least because this is not an exhaustive list of places to find agents, but there’s this real life, in-person thing that we’ve gotten back to now. This really depends on your market. If you’re living in a more remote setting, it may not be realistic for you to get out to literary events. But, if you are able, going to book events is not only great because it’s a gathering of people who love words just as much as you do, but you can meet agents. And I don’t necessarily mean having to pay additional money for pitches to agents. Not saying they’re bad, but that is not my experience, so I can’t speak to that. But simply getting some facetime.

I’ve mentioned before that while attending the Well-Read Black Girl festival, I was able to see a couple agents I’d queried in person. I was able to get their cards and follow up so that they could fish my query out of their slush pile. Now those didn’t necessarily pan out for me, but they definitely got back to me after meeting them. Which meant that little bit of facetime raised my work up out of the pile.

Now, sometimes these wish lists from agents get really specific which can leave you feeling like, does my project fit? I’d say, if it’s in the ballpark, shoot your shot. You know if someone is interested in a single parent adoptee story and yours is a two-parent adoptee story, they may still be open to your book. I would maybe highlight in your query that you understand it’s a little different than their call, but it’s like job descriptions, if you’re hitting like 75% of the mark, you apply anyway!

The research is a daunting task. Believe me. Which is why I made a spreadsheet to track my efforts. I’ve made it available on the resources page. I remembered reading that an author had queried over 100 agents and I thought, how would one get that deep in the numbers? That was until I started my own journey and my list quickly got to about 75. Everyone’s journey will be different. You may hit the jackpot on your third query. Just don’t be discouraged if it takes a little longer than you might anticipate because you only need one yes.

Ultimately, I’m saying take your time with this part. I know that you’re likely excited to finally get to the finish line with your proposal or manuscript, but good work is timeless. You don’t have to rush and I believe it’ll make for a more streamlined query process. I was figuring it out as I went, so essentially this is advice I would have given myself. Ha!

Next Week: We’ll talk about the query for fiction. L’Oreal Thompson Payton has given great insight on the non-fiction query.

Writing/Job Opportunities

Electric Lit is accepting submissions for Creative Nonfiction. Essays 2000-6500 words. June 1-15. https://electricliterature.submittable.com/submit

Tiffany Kelly is accepting pitches for essays/features for the Daily Dot. If you're extremely online & want to write about internet culture, email tkelly@dailydot.com. ($300-$400). Here is a pitch guide.

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