How I Got My Agent

Once upon a time I was not a multi-published author.   Indeed, it was as little as 6 years ago.  I had written a book, Compromised, but had no idea what to do with it.  I had no notion of what I needed to do to get it published, knew little of the ins and outs of the publishing industry (truth be told, at the rate the industry changes I'm not much better informed today) – but the one thing I did know was that I needed an agent.  Someone who would know all the stuff I didn't, and who would have faith enough in my writing that they would be able to guide my career.

But, you might ask, how does someone who doesn't know anything about the publishing industry get an agent?

Well, everyone's story is different.  Here's mine.

HOW I GOT MY AGENT

There are three components that I credit with getting me an agent.  And as always, the first step is:

1. Research

Google works! As you can see, it taught me to cook a chicken.

Research is always my first step for anything.  Rarely do I dive in willy-nilly into anything, be it learning to drive or how to cook a chicken, or how to treat a third-degree burn, I will google how to do it first.  So quite naturally, I googled "how to get a literary agent."  The amount of information out there is overwhelming, contradictory, and can you trust it?  There are sites that advertise people you can pay to represent you or read your work (note: NEVER DO THIS.  An agent never gets paid up front.  They don't make money until you make money.)

The best thing I did was I bought a book called The Writer's Market for Novels and Short Stories.  They put one out every year, and for a variety of different publishing interests (there's a Writer's Market for Poetry, and for Children's Books and Illustrators, for example).  You can get this book out at the library, but I recommend purchasing it.  You're going to want to mark it up.  In it is a listing of all the literary agencies out there, what they are looking to represent, and what their submission requirements are.  (note: nowadays, most of these agencies will also have websites that will tell you not only their submission guidelines, but who their client list is, so you can see if who they represent is in your vein.  But I still like the idea of having all of the agencies listed in one place, aka, the book.)

This was an invaluable resource, as I meandered through figuring out who to submit to, and how to do it.

2. Patience

I chose the agency I wanted to submit to.  I wrote a cover letter.  I rewrote it.  I rewrote it again.  I wrote the required 15-page synopsis.  I printed out the first few chapters of my novel, after checking and double checking the grammar, I submitted.  And I waited.

After waiting a few weeks, I got back a standard form rejection. So, I went to the second agency on the list I wanted to submit to.  And the third.  And the fourth.  I rewrote my cover letter again.  One agency wanted a 10 page synopsis.  So I wrote one.  Another wanted no more than 7 pages.  I wrote that too.  I submitted.  And I waited.

And I collected rejection after rejection.

Admittedly, this stage was the most trying.  Rejection letters get you down, especially when you can't tell if your submission was even read.  And there are a million reasons they are rejecting you:  their client list is too big, your genre isn't hot right now, and yes, they might not like your writing.  But patience is the ultimate submission requirement.   If I had stopped submitting, I wouldn't be telling this story right now.

3. Join RWA

There are writer's organizations for almost every genre – mine happens to be romance.  And the Romance Writers of America are incredibly organized and welcoming to aspiring writers.  Through them, I began submitting to chapter contests, which taught me to take criticism, of nothing else, and had me rewriting the first three chapters of my novel a dozen times.   But the biggest thing RWA ever did for me was it gave me an opportunity masquerading as luck.

One of RWA's many benefits is that at conferences, they often have editor and agency meetings, wherein unpublished authors can pitch their manuscripts to said editors and agents and get instant feedback.  Well, I never did that.  I'm too chicken.  But I did attend the New Jersey Romance Writers Conference one year.  I was about 20 submissions in at that point, and starting to get discouraged.  I had to leave early, and in the rain, caught a cab to the train station with someone else waiting for one, who happened to be a junior agent at the Jane Rotrosen Agency.  Now, this was an agency that I had already submitted to, and received a rejection from.  But, trapped in a car for a few minutes was too good an opportunity to miss.  Thus, looking like a bedraggled cocker spaniel, I told her who I was and what I wrote.  I didn't pitch her my story, just mentioned what I was doing at the conference.  She mentioned to me that they had just gotten a new agent who had come over from the editor side of things, and was looking to build up her client list.  She gave me the new agent's name and suggested I submit to her.  And at that point, what's one more submission?

To this day I am represented by the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Like I said, everyone's story is different.  Some pitch verbally at a conference and walk away with an agent and a four-book contract (note: I am endlessly jealous of these people).  Some people have the business savvy and connections to get read because they know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody.  Some of us buy a research book and submit, and play the patience game.  But the one thing everyone did who ever got an agent – and then got published – was not one I mentioned above.  And it's not a big secret:

You have to write the best book possible.  Once you've done that… the rest is easy by comparison.

That's all for this week, sweets!  Happy Reading!