Waiting on agents

[Madhairday]

I wondered whether anyone else is in the pit of submissions and might like to join me. I was on a thread like this a couple of years back when I wrote a YA (I had some interest but it didn't end up going anywhere) - and now I've written an upmarket commercial fiction (up lit) book and just about to start submission rounds. Part of me wonders if I am mad, going through that hell again, the rejections and the waiting, but I know I'd be cross at myself if I never gave it a try, especially as I've had extremely positive feedback from readers so far.

So here I am, collecting myself up, trying to craft a synopsis that simultaneously sounds alluring and yet reads as a plain old synopsis, and a covering letter that sings. Then there's the researching of the agents. I have just one in mind so far, so a long way to go with that.

Anyone else want to join the ride?

Hi, @Madhairday - I've been submitting my latest novel for a couple of months but getting nowhere.

I too was on a previous thread (the 'how to stay sane' one) with a previous book, and like you I had a little interest in it but nothing that was ultimately taken forward. That's more interest than this one has garnered, though I was hopeful it was a much better novel.

I'm starting to wonder if I should carry on putting myself through this. I understand the time-constraints agents have, and that their responsibilities must primarily be with existing clients, but it's so disheartening to spend hours, sometimes days, researching and crafting a submission only to hear absolutely nothing.

I've recently started using Query Tracker but I think it's just another tool for driving myself insane!

Hello Weetabix! I'm so sorry it's been hard going for you and completely understand that, from my prior experience. It's a tough one, that working out whether it's worth keeping on putting yourself through it. Have you had beta readers? What genre is yours?

I've heard agents are getting more subs than ever due to lockdown so that won't be working in our favour. But I still think it's worth cracking on with it. Have you had mostly form rejections or any 'nice' ones?

Haven't come across query tracker - how does that work? Sounds stressful!

Anyone else in submission hell or thinking about going there?

Is it OK if I crash in on your support thread? I'm not really there yet - I'm 10,000 words into a WIP but I have a full plot figured out so I'm working fast and having read the staying sane thread I'm trying to get up to speed with the whole agents/submissions process as I go.

I'm envisaging the book I'm working on as the first in a series of crime novels and I've got plots roughed out for the first three plus an overarching arc for the main character, so I'm feeling confident about what I'd be offering but beyond daunted by the whole process of finding an agent I want to work with, not to mention finding an agent who wants to work with me!

I'm on the autism spectrum, so working relationships can be quite a big deal for me and the chemistry has to be right for them to be productive. I think I'm more nervous about that than about the actual writing tbh!

Hello @MissingInActon!

@Madhairday My novel is a suspense thriller. Beta readers - yes and no! In other words, I have, but only friends and family who have made some useful suggestions but probably aren't objective. Just form rejections and no-responses alas.

Query Tracker is a database authors can join (the basic version is free) which collates submission information from users - so you can see an agent's average response times, for instance, and how often they respond positively to queries.

Downsides to using QT are that it's international so has an American 'weighting' (simply by volume of users) and the data is only based on what users put in (so may not give a true picture) and if you are waiting for responses, knowing that agent X' s average response time is 9 days but they once took 87 days to request a full is not necessarily going to aid your sanity.

Missing I've seen a lot of agents express enthusiasm for series books so I think that will be a good selling point when you come to start submitting.

While an agent is essential for a traditional publishing deal, some independent digital publishers will accept unagented submissions, so try not to let the question of finding a suitable agent daunt you while you are still at the writing stage. The most important thing at this stage is to get your manuscript as good as you can make it.

When you have a manuscript you are happy with it can be tempting to send it out straight away to every single agent you like the look of - don't. Send it out in small batches and see what sort of response you get - you may want to revise your submission package as you go, or even your manuscript.

Good advice Weetabix - small batches at a time makes sense. I love a suspense thriller - is it your first novel or have you written more?

Hi @MissingInActon - well done on getting well under way with a novel, and yes I think some agents do like the potential of a series so that's a point in your favour. It's just about getting the right agent as you say.

Query tracker sounds interesting but I wonder if it would stress me out too much, I'd always be watching and then sink into the slumps when it's been longer than QT says it should be! But one of the worst things about submissions is waiting. In recent years I think it's become more common for agents not to reply at all if they are not interested, and then we're left hanging and wondering. I have a non fiction book out in submissions at the moment and I'm just at that point, though I've had a bite of interest from one. It's such a slow process.

Any tips on synopsis writing? I'm really struggling to condense the book down and still sound interesting... With my genre as well it's character driven to an extent so writing a plot synopsis is a little bit more of a challenge than it was for my YA which was very plot driven.

The whole agent thing feels like it's a bit of a dance somehow. I mean, the idea of not contacting your favoured ones first in case the submission needs tweaking makes sense, but then, what if you get an offer and there are other agents you would like to have targeted and now don't have time to contact? Which I know is unlikely, but then again is perfectly possible if what you're sending out is high enough quality. Short of contacting everyone potentially appropriate, it seems as though finding an agent you're right for, and who's right for you, is always going to have an element of randomness to it that's a bit more like dating than it should be imo!

You're both right that I should focus on the writing, but right at the moment that seems to be taking care of itself. I just don't want to leave thinking about what comes next until it's upon me. I've started following agents on Twitter just to see who comes across in a way I can relate to but there's an awful lot of them! Most of them seem to be 20 years younger than me too, which is a bit depressing.

@WeetabixComesAtAPrice Would your suspense thriller fall within the CWA's area of interest? They offer a good range of beta reading reports: thecwa.co.uk/debuts/criminal-critiques

I would also be interested in some tips on synopsis writing @Madhairday. Perhaps it's just my genre (though I've done some romance writing in the past, so perhaps not) but I find myself feeling that the best way to keep someone interested is not to tell them too much in advance, so I find blurb style teasers easy to write, but a proper synopsis not so much...

I've written several novels in a few genres over the past 20 years or so but none have got further than the 'full request' stage unfortunately.

I'll have a look at CWA - thanks for the tip!

Synopsis writing - the only advice I can offer is to get other people to read it and see if they understand what your novel is about! I tend to start with a chapter--by-chapter summary and then just keep condensing until it's the right length.

what if you get an offer and there are other agents you would like to have targeted and now don't have time to contact?

You don't have to accept the first offer you receive there and then - a decent agent would give you time to think. You could then target your dream agents from a very strong position - 'I've had an offer of representation for my novel but I wanted to give you the chance to look at it before accepting. You'd be my ideal agent because (x, y, z)"

'I've had an offer of representation for my novel but I wanted to give you the chance to look at it before accepting. You'd be my ideal agent because (x, y, z)'

Omg, that's excellent.

I need to hive off some time to listen to podcasts and stuff to try and figure out who would be my ideal agent, because I really have no idea atm, over and above someone interested in my genre who's looking for new talent.

Are you guys trying to do full-time jobs as well as this?

Have you trawled through the Query Shark archives? I’m getting so much valuable information on there. She’s a literary agent who shows what to do and what not to do. The archives are getting old but the advice is gold.

May I crash this thread too? I've been writing my current WIP for almost a year, but the first 8/9 months were taken up with world building and planning and all that. Finally onto writing the book, and I'm only about 12000 words in, but hoping to get it finished and start on the submitting trail by the end of the year.

I'll have a look at the Query Shark website, it sounds interesting. I'm trying to read around a lot of advice at the moment to perfect my submission. Hoping to send the first batch out in the next couple of weeks.

Missing, I work part time as a freelance writer/editor and also do some publishing services eg formatting for books and ebooks, so I can fit it all around nicely. I'm also living with chronic illness so just coping day to day. It's not always easy to find the time but I do write quickly and that's a bonus - but it's the editing stage that takes forever and I find it quite dry and tedious at times.

Welcome @themalamander - what's your genre? Sounds like YA/sci fi/fantasy if you're world building. A lot of work to that.

I just have a bit of editing to finish before I finish off polishing the covering letter and synopsis and then need to spend some proper time researching agents. I'm filled with nerves just thinking about all the rejections to come!

@Madhairday

It's fantasy aimed at 8 to 12 year olds and at the moment, the plan takes it over 3 books. Bit if a difficult market but I'm enjoying the writing process!

I work full-time. I don't have children, though, so there aren't too many demands on my free time.

@MissingInActon If you're on Twitter, it's worth following some agents as you can get a good idea of their tastes - they often tweet about books they're keen on. If you're not on Twitter, you can still check out their recent feeds.

A good place to start is the agent bios on the agency websites, as these will give you a general idea of what they are looking for and you can easily rule out agents who have no interest in your genre. Then, as you say, look for podcasts and interviews to get a clearer idea of what floats their boats.

I use a spreadsheet to list promising agents, together with their submission requirements and any useful info about their tastes and wish lists. You can then use the same spreadsheet to track your submissions once you start.

This is all excellent advice. Thank you so much Weetabix and thanks for the Query Shark tip, kitchensink.

I'm glad you're here @themalamander - it sounds like we're at a similar stage. I think all the prelim work really pays dividends when you come to write, or I certainly found that anyway. Not the same genre, but I have family and geographical backgrounds and personal histories all plotted out for my characters. It takes a lot of the dithering out of it. When I was getting ready to start writing, I read this and found it really helpful. The larky prose style put me off but I found the advice excellent - for me, at any rate. I thought I was a bit of a freestyle writer, but nailing everything down in advance has paradoxically been very freeing.

Another tip - if you read a book that's similar to yours, look at the author acknowledgements - they nearly always mention 'my brilliant agent so-and-so'. You can then use that book as a comparable title in your submission.

I'm filled with nerves just thinking about all the rejections to come!

@Madhairday, it's easy for me to say and when my time comes I'll probably be a wreck, but I don't see why we can't all do this. It came across loud and clear in @CakeRage's thread that a lot of this process is luck and much of that is stuff you can't control - like what mood someone is in on the day your submission arrives - but the other main ingredient seemed to me to be persistence. Anyone who has conceived and executed a whole book, and edited it to their professional satisfaction, is capable of pulling this off on way or another imo. I've got about another 75K words to write, so I reckon by the time I'm sending out my first query letter you'll have signed with an agent.

• one way or another (will double check for typos when the time comes, honest )

I’d highly recommend the Honest Authors podcast for advice and also motivation, they have a lot of guests from the publishing world and you’ll pick up loads of tips.

Thanks, @MissingInActon - it's definitely about persistence. I've been reading the Writers and Artists Yearbook again, the section about submissions and that's incredibly helpful - an agent giving all the common pitfalls authors fall into and what they actually want to see, which is a personalised letter with evidence of research about the agent and knowledge of the book's place in the market, then a compelling hook/blurb to pull them in as well as a little about yourself. Never say you're the next JK Rowling or that your book will make them millions

I'm getting to the editing stage now where I can hardly 'see' my book anymore - it's really hard when at that stage to edit so closely because the words start to swim and you wonder if it's actually any good at all, even when readers assure you it is!

I think one obstacle is the crowded nature of the market. An agent might get 100 submissions in a week of which 20 or more are well-written, perfectly publishable novels - but the agent only has capacity to take on two or three clients a year, so the decision-making becomes quite subjective.

If you look at manuscript wish-lists, sometimes they are incredibly specific - 'a novel set in London, 1915, about a Scottish female chauffeur who's secretly a suffragette' [invented example!] and it really is a matter of chance that determines whether your submission happens to strike a note with the agent. Much as it can be difficult to pinpoint, as a reader, what differentiates books you love from books you like.

That's where following and researching agents can give you an edge. There was the inspiring example on Cake's thread where the poster happened to see an agent who was looking for exactly the novel she'd written - the poster got signed really quickly!

I used to manage the slush pile for an agent (sadly no longer with us) many years ago and I can't overstate how bad most of it was. There was some shocking statistic on Cake's thread about the odds of acceptance being 1 in 100,000 or something (made-up number) but honestly, if you saw most of it, let's just say it would be very confidence-boosting. The trouble is the volume, of course, as many of those authors had paid for typing and proofreading (this was in ye olden days) and their mss looked as professional as anyone else's. With submissions being electronic now, I'm sure all the dross gets zapped very swiftly these days (I was super nice and at least used to try and jot cheering things on compliments slips!). The important thing as I see it is not to do anything that will get your book zapped in error for momentarily seeming like dross to the inattentive eye for any accidental reason, because they do need to actually read it before they can make you an offer.

I'm well out of touch with all that now, though, and publishing has changed a lot obviously, so maybe I'm talking out of my arse. I'm also on an upbeat roll this week, which is probably a bit annoying.

@MissingInActon

That looks like a great resource and I've got kindle unlimited so giving it a skim through now!

I was the same to be honest. All my short stories were totally freeform; no planning. But they were every small, contained worlds and it worked. For this big one, I used the snowflake method and it really did focus my mind, and brought out little links and ideas between characters which I'm not sure I'd have stumbled upon another way. Then just had to get into all the world building around it. It really is a lot of work!

There's this part of me that feels slightly put out that most of the work will never see the light of day; it's all background. But then I remember it will create a better story because I've got a good foundation to build on.

Thank you for that book rec; I'm sure it will help.

And sorry OP; sort of hijacked your thread here! Hope you're getting on well with your editing process. Sounds very intimidating; having to critically look at your work.

You haven't hijacked at all, I love a thread talking all things writing and hopefully this can be a support thread for writers at all stages whether in submissions or thinking about it in the future :)

MIA that's very interesting about the slush pile - that must have been both fascinating and tedious as a job! I can only imagine some of the submissions agents must get - they must get pretty jaded with it all and I guess they must look on subs with an eye to deletion as soon as possible to move on, which is why you have to stand out so much...intimidating!

Hello, may I join, please? I lurked on the earlier thread some of you have mentioned but didn't feel qualified to join in as I'd barely sketched out my novel. Now it's 75% written, and I'm starting to wonder what happens next. I'm a complete novice but my idea was brewing for years while I had a third child and a career change. It's YA, contemporary/speculative.

Hello @Drybird2020

Well done on completing 75% of your novel! The threads here should give you an idea of what to expect when you start submitting.

You'll need to prepare your submissions package - I mention this as it can be a good thing to work on while you're at the final stages of editing and polishing, a way of doing something other than reading your MSS for the billionth time or biting your nails while someone else is reading it to give you feedback.

You'll find all agents want slightly different things but in essence you'll need: a short synopsis (under 500 words); a full synopsis (around 1500 words); a pitch/blurb to include in your covering letter (the sort of thing you'd expect to see on the back of the book); two or three comparison titles and a short author bio. You'll then have the basics on which to build your tailored submissions once you have researched some agents.