How To Get An Agent
Etiquette, practical considerations and timelines from an author's point of view
Note - this is the kind of newsletter you can expect in the future if you join my paid subscriber list. It’s a deep dive into how to get an agent, a subject I’m asked about all the time in my fiction workshops. I’ll be doing these types of newsletter weekly, but they’ll be pretty eclectic, so I’ll be putting them out to the free list for the whole of August so you can get a flavour of the kind of content I’ll be making. Always, always, email with any questions and I’ll try my best to help!
How To Get An Agent
Once you finish your novel, if you want it to be traditionally published, the next step is to get an agent. This is one of those things (like writing a novel) that is difficult, sure, but perfectly possible with a lot of application and a bit of luck. The process itself is straightforward. You simply follow these steps -
Finish the novel - even though you won’t need to send it to them in the first instance. I know! Annoying! But this is nevertheless the first step.
Polish the first three chapters - this is what you’ll probably be sending out. Polish and polish and polish. Get your friend who’s a pain in the bum about grammar to look through it. Polish again.
Write a synopsis - this, again, will probably be required. Many writers hate doing this, a LOT. I am one of them! But you need it, and you need it to be easily understandable, so again, get some feedback from friends.
Write a cover letter - this is the third ingredient of the typical submission pack. In your cover letter you will want to talk about your book, including a one line summary, the genre and a few comparison titles. You will want to talk about yourself a little, highlighting any relevant prizes, courses or life experience (like, if you work as a lion tamer and your book is about circuses, say so).
Find some agents you like - Next you need a spreadsheet of potential agents. There are a few ways you can hunt for agents. A classic is to look up who represents the authors of your comparison titles. You could look through the Writers and Artists Yearbook to see who’s representing your genre. There’ll be websites offering agent databases that allow you to filter by genre for a small fee (this is what I did). Check carefully that your agent is currently open to submissions and represents your genre before you put them on your list. Only one agent per agency.
Choose 10 and look up their submission guidelines - there may well be more than 10 possibilities (at least, there should be! If not, find more!). Choose your 10 favourites, or 10 at random. This will be your first wave. Now look carefully at the submission requirements on all of their websites. They will GENERALLY be what I’ve outlined above, but there may be small variations. Make a note on your spreadsheet.
Send them all personalised submission packs - now put together a submission pack for everyone based on the criteria listed on their website. Finish all the cover letters off with a couple of lines about why you want this agent in particular (for instance, because they represent your favourite author).
Wait - for ages. And ages. See below for the kinds of responses you can expect, and what to do if you get an offer.
Repeat - its possible you won’t get any offers from your first round. This is fine ad normal and says nothing about your work - just go again! If you’ve had nothing but silence and short nos from 10 agents if might be time to get someone (a friend or someone who does manuscript assessments (like me)) to have a look and see if there are tweaks to be made. If you’ve had a couple of emails with more detailed feedback and they agree, and it’s actionable, it might be time for a redraft. If not, pick your next 10 and go again.
You will receive one of the following responses from your submission -
No response - tells you nothing.
Short no, or obvious copy and paste - tells you nothing.
Long no, with personalised feedback - YES! Tells you something! This is great! Read, note down, absorb, and thank the agent. This is a good result - you interested them enough for them to give you some precious precious time. If you don’t get an agent with this book, put any long no responses as your first round for the next novel.
Full manuscript (ms) request - best response, hurray hurray! They want to read the whole book. Exciting! They still may not want to rep it, but this is definitely a win. When this happens you get to email everyone on your list who hasn’t responded yet to tell them that you’ve had a full manuscript request but you’d still love the opportunity to work with them, so let you know by the end of next week if they’d like to request too. This should prompt a response.
When you’ve sent out your full manuscripts to anyone who’s asked for them, you just wait a few weeks for a response, which will, this time, be either “no and here’s why” (again, so useful, note down, thank) or “let’s go for a coffee”. Going for a coffee doesn’t mean it’s definitely definitely a done deal but we’re really getting close now. Again, if you’ve booked in a coffee with an agent, email everyone who has the full ms to tell them and give them the chance to meet you too.
Once you’ve been for a coffee with all your prospective agents, if they offer you representation, it’s time to make a decision. You will base this on what changes they see for the ms and if you’re excited about them, their ideas about your future career, and (primarily) their vibe. Do you like this person? They absolutely don’t have to be your best friend, but you will be attending many parties and meetings with them over the years, so it helps to have someone you find pleasant to be around and, crucially, that you feel you can come to trust.
FAQs
What is a slushpile?
“Slushpile” refers to all the unsolicited manuscripts an agent gets sent. Imagine what that looked like in the days all correspondence was postal - a massive, messy pile! It’s the agent’s job (or their assistants) to read through all these submissions to see if there’s anything they want to represent.
Do agents really take on clients they find on the slushpile? Surely you need personal connections?
Yes they do. No you don’t. I had no personal connection with my agent at all, or with the vast majority I queried. I’m not pretending an existing network doesn’t help in the publishing world, but if you don't have it, you don’t have it, so don’t worry about it. Obviously if your best mate’s wife is an agent get her to look over your submission pack before you send it out.
Shouldn’t I go and hand deliver my manuscript, maybe with a gift or something, to make myself stand out?
NO. Do not do this. Never approach in person, always always just go through what they say on the website. This is a business relationship and the quality of your writing is pretty much all they’re interested in. They honestly won’t read a submission any faster if it comes with a Starbucks gift card.
How much does an agent take?
About 15%. Check the contract before you sign. If you’re worried about anything in it, the SoA (Society of Authors) offer a free contract checking service to members.
Do I pay them?
NO. Never pay agents or publishers anything, the money flows to you. The sole exception to this is a competition where the prize might be an offer of publication or representation.
Do I need to make them sign an NDA?
No. A reputable agent will never steal your idea or your manuscript. As long as they’re a legit agent from a legit agency (one that has a proven track record and a website that doesn’t look sketch) you have nothing to worry about here.
What about self publishing?
No idea, I’ve never considered it. I used to work in marketing and it is a slog and a ball ache and I didn’t want to do it for my books. Plus, I wanted my books to be in, like, Waterstones, which is extremely hard when they’re self published.
Are there any circumstances where I wouldn’t need an agent?
Self publishing is certainly one. The digital first imprints will take unsolicited manuscripts and so will some smaller publishers (such as Canongate, who I love). These smaller and digital publishers will also work with agented authors, it’s just possible without. You wouldn’t then have an easy way to sell foreign or film rights though.
How long should I wait for an agent to get back to me?
It’s generally considered acceptable to send a nudge after about six weeks, or if you’ve had a full ms request from another agent.
What about getting published?
This is the true beauty of agents - once you have one this is ALL their department! They will probably ask you to make changes and definitely work with you to add elements to their submission pack, but from here on in, you don’t need to know anything - your agent guides you through the process and you can ask them ANYTHING.
What if everyone rejects me? I fear my heart will break.
Yes. Your heart might break. This is one of the emotionally roughest stages of a notoriously emotionally rough industry and it is perfectly possible that no one will want to represent you, on the first round, or the second, or the third, or… well, until you give up. It seems a ridiculous thing to say, but this is actually okay. My first novel was unsellable. It happens. I wrote another one, with an actual genre this time, and that one sold. It's a long game and a hard game. Celebrate every little win. Cry to your friends when you lose. Keep the joy of writing for its own sake. Try again next year.
I would be remiss not to mention at this point that I offer submission pack reviews as a paid for service - do email me if you’re interested - but I must state that I didn’t do this when I was querying. I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t pay for anything and I still got an agent, and then I got a book deal. It happens! Keep the faith!
One day I will show you an extract from my first, unpublishable novel (that WILL be behind a paywall, I do not want it floating about the public internet) and the submission pack that secured me an agent and, if I can get permission, some examples of real responses I got from my submission pack, so you can see how this works in real time. Until then, if you’ve finished a novel, be bold. Put together the pack, and just send to five agents. Let me know how you get on, and if you have any other questions!