How I Found A Literary Agent - T4L
T4L (“Thanks For Listening”) marks real stories and random rants, exaggerated for laughs (and because I have a poor memory). Don’t worry, it’s all true… mostly.
You’ve probably heard it before.
When you’re looking for something, you never find it. Only when you stop looking, that’s when it finds you.
Of course, this sort of logic breaks down when you start to think about it. If Christopher Columbus stopped looking for a new path to the East Indies, would the East Indies have found him? I don’t think so.
Then again, Columbus never did discover the path. Instead, he found the Americas—yet, totally missed the actual North American continent and landed on a few scattered islands (on 4 separate voyages!). So, maybe if Columbus did throw up his hands and shout, “I’m not looking anymore!” the East Indies would have found him.
You might be asking, “Jamie, what’s all this stuff about Columbus have to do with you?”
I can sense your concern, especially since Columbus doesn’t have the best reputation—to say the least. Maybe this isn’t the best metaphor.
Let me explain.
As a writer, I’ve been looking for a literary agent for nearly 14 or so years—around as many years between Columbus’s first and last voyage to the Americas. Now, I’m not saying writing is anything like Christopher Columbus finding the Americas (it’s more like Magellan finding whatever it is he found). I’m saying that after so many years looking for an agent, I threw up my hands and shouted, “I’m not looking anymore!”
I had a polished query letter and a polished manuscript. I went to several writer’s conferences, met and pitched multiple agents. Yet nothing happened besides some terse feedback and a hole in my wallet about the size of Hispaniola.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the process of finding a literary agent is sort of like finding an island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. There are a ton of agents and it takes time to find one that matches your specific genre and taste.
Once you do find an agent to submit to, you have to personalize a query letter, which is a letter of introduction that briefly pitches your story. This takes a lot of time.
In addition, it takes time for the agent to respond to you (if they ever do). I’d say about 20% of agents actually sent me a response. To be fair, agents receive a ton of manuscripts. Some estimates are thousands of queries a month. If anyone ever gets overwhelmed opening their inbox after a long weekend, imagine how an agent feels opening their inbox after a short one.
Now, I didn’t stop submitting queries but I stopped hoping for immediate results. I was just sending them out there and not expecting much. I stopped overly complicating the process and stopped personalizing queries. I just made sure they were looking for my manuscript’s genre.
I also started using QueryTracker. It’s an amazing way to find agents and track submissions. I heard about it during my research on submitting. The paid version is only $25 a month and is totally worth it.
I tried for years submitting without a tool and keeping track of a spreadsheet, but QueryTracker makes everything so easy and seamless. If you are a writer, check it out. I don’t get paid for singing its praises—I just am that impressed by the tool.
I kept submitting once or twice a week. Finally, years later, I had a bite. An agent was interested.
The process was fast. He responded within about a day of my query… I missed his response because I use my iPhone’s inbox and if anyone has ever used the iPhone’s built-in Mail app… I’m truly sorry. I reached out a few days later and he was understanding.
We did an initial phone call. He was animated and passionate about my project, telling me how he could pitch it. He asked for a quick revision. I revised my manuscript and sent it back. And we were connected.
Now, I am currently on submission. This means my manuscript is in the hands of publishers. It’s like querying all over again, except this time it’s the agent who’s doing the querying. It’s a waiting game. Some estimates are that it can take up to a year to even longer.
But I’m going to focus on the win. After years, I finally got a literary agent.
Submitting your work is like a sea voyage. You aren’t really sure where you’re going or how to get there, but the journey is part of the adventure.
Set your sails to the winds and let fortune be your destination. There may be slight detours. You may end up on an archipelago or Calypso’s island—maybe you never end up where you intended (like the East Indies), but if you take a step back from the helm and stop stressing—keep to the work—you’ll find your way.