How To Get An Agent

I agree with you, Lin. The point you made about credentials was a valid one and needed to be made. I was in a difficult position because I posted on the Making Light blog and I was very badly treated by the owner of the blog. I have made my feelings clear about this on another thread. I even posted the information on Wikipedia:

2 An agreeable solution. Aha! (copied from Talk:Disemvoweling/Archive 20 June 2006)



You will need to scroll down to "-- Mark, Shelagh's case is a very unusual one, according to Nielsen Hayden's own words:"



I did not want to participate in the argument about credentials or content. Chris knows how I feel and if he posted here to get a rise out of me, he wasn't going to get it.

Getting an agent can be the most exhausting, ego-busting experience in a writer's career, but it can also be the most exhilarating. I’ve actually signed contracts with two.

I’ve waited as long as five months to hear from a particular agent I wanted and as little as fifteen minutes.

I’ve tried the standard query as well as one I wrote ‘from the heart.’ I’ve waited in the halls to give my ten-minute pitch while attending a writers’ conference and have experienced palm-sweating, heart-pounding stage fright while waiting. I’ve rewritten sections of my manuscript to please a certain line of a major publishing house because I wanted that contract and felt the devastation when they decided to discontinue that line.

But after a long, soul-searching time of indecision, I rewrote my manuscript to please me. Beyond the Quiet has just been released with an indie, Vanilla Heart.

Would I go through all the ‘horrors’ of trying to get an agent for my next novel? In a heartbeat, because I want what they can offer. So yes, I’ll go through it all again.

You got spunk, Brenda. The determination and persistence to stand up for what you believe and make it happen.

Thanks, Abe. I'm not so sure it's spunk as much as my determination to make it to the majors. That makes me willing to learn everything I can. If an agent comments that they like this about my writing but I'm weak on that, I work to learn.

You'd think I'd have the knowledge of a master by now, but there's always something else to learn.

Wow. I was just getting ready to start posting (it will probably take more than one post to cover various aspects of the subject) and bopped over here to see if there were any new posts.

Then...urk!

Does this mean I should post my credentials before starting to discuss agents? I usually do not do that kind of thing. It annoys some folks, credential posting does.

Guidance from Shelagh on this, please?

-Ann C. Crispin

Hi Ann,

I think we are all in agreement that, while credentials are important, what people have to say is of far greater importance. Please go ahead and post information about agents: finding the right agent, how to submit work to an agent and what to do if offered a contract. Or anything else that would help authors to acquire an agent.

Marie Pacha wrote:

How long have you been writing Brenda?

Marie, I've been writing so long that it's almost embarrassing.

I began to write seriously when my husband and I had a bookstore in the '80s. I critiqued writers' manuscripts, then decided to write my own novels and enrolled in the first of a series of classes. I had such confidence that I told my husband that we'd travel on what I made from my novel.

About five years went by, five years of writing, talking to agents at writing conferences, sending queries, and in that time, I kept taking classes and kept writing.

It took, oh, I'd say about two or three years of working on that first novel, rewriting when I'd learn a new technique and sending more queries, for agents to comment rather than return form rejections. And each time an agent would offer suggestions and advice, I'd study that particular technique. A lot of work, a lot of heartbreak, during those years.

Just as I finally acquired an agent, my mother's illness became terminal. As an only child, I became her caretaker and all writing came to a standstill for several years. Then, just as I began again, another personal blow happened and I couldn't write again for another few except for some short stories and articles for the newspaper, but my goal was and is, novels.

When I began again, about five years ago, I took more classes, but when I reached the point where I was teaching the teacher, I quit.

So how long have I been writing? A long, long time.

Thanks, Marie. But since I have a particular goal, I'll consider myself a success when I sign with a major publisher and my books are on the shelves at all the bookstores.

I have to say, tho, I'm very proud of Beyond the Quiet. That was one story I completed after some major struggles and decisions, and I love it. It's with a small indie, but I'm still very proud of that book. So I guess you could say I'm successful in a small way.

I have several how-tos on writing a query, and it's been discussed again and again at conferences. Some writers passed out samples of what worked for them, and of course, everyone would try it.

Then, when the different agents would speak, they'd each have their own likes and dislikes, and we'd all try to make sense of that.

I have several versions of my query for Beyond, including the final one that got the attention. I'd be happy to post them if anyone is interested.

If so, it'll have to be later today, as I have to leave for an appt.

First of all, Marie, it is not necessary to have your credentials as you have already posted your beautiful poetry here.

Second, Ann, I've read your credentials, and if you post what you have to say I will appreciate it. However, I want your views and not someone else's that I don't know.

Thirdly, Lin, I like your directness, and don't always agree. I don't feel the problem was about credentials, as much as someone coming on and telling us what someone else said we should do.

And Brenda, I feel like you did, that getting personal rejection letters is progress, and I want to make sure you know I take all suggestions to heart and put them in my manuscripts, and am already doing so, but without taking out the good stuff.

And Shelagh, I appreciate all you do: the research, the directness and the expertise.

Carol

Wow, Ann, that was great. And I'm sure I'm not the only who appreicates you taking the time to do it.

I'd love to see that post as the first of a "sticky thread". Maybe Shelagh can do that for us?


I think the introductory "do you need an agent" bit is very good thing to have.

I would add to it that the rather obvious, but often non-comprehended concept that anything that would work on small specialty publishers like Samhain or Black Rose would not need to have agents.
Also toss SciFi publishers like Tor in with Romance as an area where transom submissions are accepted, though they will also linger in the slush there for months or even years.

One other thing I'd add to something it's good to see in this primer: using google instead of specific sites to check up on things. So many people say, "Check on AW" or "Check on P&E" but you are much better off using google, which will pick up the name across the board. There are many agents not really rotten enough to make the Preditors hit list, but you run into red flags all over them on google.



But of course, you still have to live in New York. Or, for some reason, North Carolina.

Ann's post has been moved to the top of the Agents Board:

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