Hi, guys.
Kat Clay here today I want to talk to you about something that I get asked a lot
about as a writer, and it's how to get a literary agent.
Now I've got literary representation and
it's one of those big milestones for authors in their writing life.
It's something that does open doors for you.
There are a lot of publishers in the US and the UK which don't take unsolicited
submissions, which means you do need an agent to get your foot in the door.
But there's only so many agents to go
around and so many authors are trying to find one.
So I want to take you through some of the steps that I did to get my literary agent.
But also to remind you that getting a
literary agent is not the be all and end all of your writing career.
But while I've got you here, if you do
want more writing videos, more writing tips and advice, please hit subscribe and
let's get into how to get a literary agent.
Now, the first thing is that you're going to need three things to get a lit agent,
and the first thing is a finished manuscript.
Now you can't really get an agent unless you have a finished product.
So whether that's your novel managed
script, if you're a nonfiction author, it is a different matter.
But for fiction authors, a first time
author with probably no reputation, you're going to need to have a finished product.
Now, there's a common saying in publishing that the only thing you can control in the
publishing business is the quality of the manuscript.
So it's good to make that as best as you possibly can.
And for me, in my process, you know, I had a finished manuscript and
I started submitting that UK agents, but I wasn't getting a lot of responses.
And for me, one of the best things that I
did was I actually went back and re edited that book one more time.
When you think that the manuscript is
done, it probably still needs another pass.
So make sure the manuscript is as polished
as you possibly can before you send it out to agents.
The second thing you're going to need is a kick ass cover letter.
So the cover letter is short and sharp to the point.
Agents do not have a lot of time in life,
and you do not need to write an entire essay explaining your life story to them.
You just need to say a short cover letter on why they should read the manuscript,
why it might be interesting to them and what the thing is about.
So I go through kind of three to four paragraphs.
The first should be this is my manuscript, and here's what it's about.
The second is where it fits on the market.
Maybe some things that the book taps into.
The third is your qualifications.
Now, one of the most common questions I
get asked is I don't have any qualifications.
I'm a first time author.
What do I do if you don't have a lot of qualifications?
Don't feel like you have to make things up.
If you've had a few short story
publications, if you've won a couple of local competitions, that's great.
Put them in the letter.
But if you don't have those, you can just say that you're a writer.
Like, works. If your book is about a specific topic,
such as, like Astro geophysics and you just happen to be an Astro geophysicist.
I would certainly put that in your cover letter, but you don't need to include
every single job that you've had for your cover letter to an agent.
Now, one of the things I've been asked is when you're approaching an agent with your
cover letter, should you personalise the cover letter?
So the answer to that is absolutely, yes.
You should absolutely use their first name, personalise it.
But you don't have to go to the extent of reading their entire agency back catalogue
and listing all the author's books you've read.
I mean, if you have that's great.
If not, I mean, if there's a certain point
of connection, like, I thought you'd be interested in this because I see you like
horror novels that's also personalising the letter.
The third thing that you are going to need is an actual synopsis.
Now, the synopsis is a one to two page
summary of everything that happens in your novel.
So this is not the time to put in a big
cliff hanger ending because you're like, oh, look, the agent will request more
because I've put a cliff hanger in the end.
The agent wants to see that you can create
a story and have a story arc that resolves itself or doesn't resolve itself, but it
needs to have everything that happens that's meaningful from start to finish.
You need to keep this in active present tense.
You might have, like an epic fantasy novel that's 120,000 words.
And you're going like, how do I fit that into two pages worth of content?
Let me tell you, it's really quite hard,
but what I would say to you is to actually just focus on the bones of the story and
the key character and the key characters are.
So I've written books that have, like, three character point of views, but I
actually just focus the synopsis on the main character and his transformation and
what happens to him once you have those three things.
I mean, you're probably going, Where do I actually find agents?
Well, the Internet is your friend.
When I was looking for an agent, I compiled a huge list of them in Excel, and
this was using a whole bunch of different methods.
So one was your bog standard Google search.
I looked for agents in my genre and compiled them into my spreadsheet.
Then I looked on Twitter as well.
Now, #Pitmad was another great example of places to find agents on Twitter.
It's a Twitter pitching competition and I
have a whole separate video on how to pitch at Pitmad.
Pitmad is a great way to cut through the
slush pile and get to contact agents directly through Twitter.
So I had some contacts from that and I put them in the spreadsheet.
Another place to find them is a website
called Query Tracker, which has lists of agents who are looking for submissions.
Likewise, I had a hot tip from my friend Sam Hawke's.
An author is to get a subscription to Publishers Marketplace.
And now this has lists of all agents and their sales records.
And that's a really handy place to see who sold what when in what genre.
Another place after that I recommend is
the Publishing and Other Forms of Insanity Email newsletter.
If you haven't signed up to it, I highly recommend it.
It's a great email and they always have lists of
agents seeking different types of work each month.
And that's a great place to also have a look for agents.
It's another great place to find literary
agents is to actually look at your favourite authors.
And if you write in a similar genre,
have a look at who their agent is and say, Look, I really enjoy this person's work.
Would you be interested in representing me?
Likewise, you should always query a
literary agent according to the guidelines on their website.
So if they say they want a manuscript
submitted by their Submittable portal, do that.
If they want an email, do that.
Always do it to make life easy for them.
And it goes without saying submit your
manuscript in proper manuscript format, which I have a video on as well.
So check that out if you need a bit of help formatting your word document.
It's also important to approach agents that represent your genre.
So don't waste your time and their time by
querying someone who represents YAromance novels if you've got a psychological
thriller, it's just there's no point in doing a scatter gun approach like that.
Now I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice.
It's important that you do your due
diligence when researching agents and approach reputable agents only.
So have a look at the SFWA Writer Beware website.
Also see what kind of clients they have.
So if they have big name clients, it's
probably a sign that there are more reputable agency.
And alongside that, make sure there are a
member of their National Agents Association.
So it's really important that you do your due diligence.
Once you've got that big spreadsheet of
agents and your three things put together, it's time to start sending them out.
One thing I found really helpful when I
was querying because I'm a chicken and I will just pike out at the first rejection
was that I would query five agents at a time.
That meant that if one rejection came in, I would send another query straight out,
and that really helped me get over the fear of rejection.
Queried my first agent ten years before I
got my agent, and one of the reasons for that was I queried once on an old
manuscript and then never sent it out again.
I got too scared from one rejection that
actually stop in querying for a very long time.
This process is really hard and it can be a bit soul crushing sometimes to get so
many rejections, but know that everybody gets rejected.
I had about 20 rejections before I actually got my agent.
I know people who have I've tried for years and had hundreds of rejections, so
just don't give up if that's something you really want to do.
If you do find you're getting a lot of form rejections, it probably is time to
sit back and have a look at that manuscript, get some more beta readers on
it, get some more feedback, and make sure it is the best it possibly can be
if you have received an offer of representation.
Congratulations. That is so exciting.
And I remember when I got my offer, I was on cloud nine.
I was just so exciting for me.
It's really important to have a meeting
with the agent and also asked lots of questions about how you work together and
figure out if you would have a good working relationship with this person.
Likewise, this might sound counterintuitive, but if a person didn't
feel right for me, then I wouldn't be afraid to say no.
And I feel like sometimes you might don't need to hear that advice that you
shouldn't be afraid to say no if it's not right for you.
I live in Australia, so I have to take
business meetings at weird times of the day when I might be a bit tired.
So it was important for me to to take some
time to make that decision, so I took a few days to go.
Is this right for me to think about it when I wasn't half asleep?
Because you're making an important
decision, so it's important to be clear headed when you're doing that.
Once you had that offer as well, make sure
you email all the other agents that you have your manuscript out with.
Not only is it a courtesy thing, it's
important to say, look, this manuscript will be out of submission after the end of
the week, but it can also mean that the agents will hurry to look at your work and
you may end up with more than one offer on the table.
So that's essentially the process of how I got my literary agent.
And I really hope this advice helps you in
your own search and your on querying process.
Like I said before, getting a literary
agent isn't going to solve all your writing problems.
You're still going to need to produce
great work, and you're still going to need to work hard in order to get published as
well, I'm Kat Clay, and that is my take on how to get a literary agent.
If you have more questions, as I'm sure
you do, hit me up in the comments below, I'll try my best to answer them.
And likewise, if you enjoyed this video,
you want more writing content, please hit subscribe.
And thanks so much for watching.