How I got my literary agent
One of my favourite things to do when I was an un-agented writer was to trawl through Google, searching for posts about how other writers got their literary agents. I think I read almost every single one out there. These posts always gave me so much hope and joy, lifting my spirits when I was doubting myself.
I hope anyone reading this takes heart in the fact that it didn’t happen overnight for me — it took years! I had many near misses and lots of days where I wanted to throw my manuscript in the bin. The only thing I can really say is don’t lose heart — it sounds cliched, but it really does take just one ‘yes’.
This is a loooong post so grab some tea.
The first query:
2015: The start of my querying journey was a little different because I’d taken a writing course with Curtis Brown Creative. One of the perks of doing the course was that our works-in-progress were circulated to any agents seeking new talent. If anyone expressed interest, the course director would let us know.
I was fortunate that two agents said they’d like to read my MS once it was completed. CBC is really supportive and were so, so helpful throughout the entire querying process. I hadn’t finished my MS, so I said thanks and got to work.
It took me 2 years to finally come up with a draft I felt comfortable sharing, which brings me to my first point: writing takes a long time. Some people write books in six months. I am not part of this group. It takes as long as it takes, so don’t beat yourself up if you see everyone around you finishing their books faster — just focus on making your work the best it can be.
2017: I spoke with the team at CBC and agreed to submit to an agent there. (It’s generally best practice to only submit to one agent at an agency at a time. If they decline, you can re-submit to another.) I wrote a letter (more on that below), crossed my fingers, and hit ‘Send’.
Researched other agents to query:
While I was waiting to hear back from the agent above, I began researching other agents to submit to. This is because you never really know what is going to happen. The querying process can take a long, long time — it’s not uncommon for agents to take 8-12 weeks to reply. It’s not intentional — literary agents are incredibly busy. They do most (all?) of their reading in what little spare time they have.
Here’s a quick summary of how I did my research:
Read the ‘Acknowledgements’ section of books I liked - I don’t think enough prospective authors do this! I can’t think of a single section where the author hasn’t thanked their agent. If it’s a book in a similar genre to yours, you can easily find the agent info and submission requirements online. The downside is that if it was a best-selling book, they might have a full client list. But you never know!
Used QueryTracker - QueryTracker is like an agent database. They have a pretty great free version that you can use to find agents who represent your book genre, and a way for you to keep track of who you’ve queried. They’ll also alert you to new agents seeking talent. They do have a premium version that costs $25/year and that gives you access to things like agent response times, what their genre break down is, etc.
Used AgentQuery - Similar to the above, AgentQuery is another agent database. I filtered for ‘Historical fiction’ and found a bunch of agents that way. I then went to each agent’s page on their agency website and copied and pasted their submission requirements and what they were interested in receiving into a spreadsheet.
Used Manuscript Wishlist - MSWL was actually how I ended up finding my lovely agent, Thérèse Coen! What I love about MSWL is that you can search by books that agents love. One book that is sort of comparable to my novel is ‘The Night Circus’. So on MSWL I searched for agents who liked ‘The Night Circus’. That was how I first came across Thérèse’s profile. Then, when I saw that she also liked ‘All the Light We Cannot See’, I got very excited. I then visited her agent page on the Hardman & Swainson website and decided I wanted to query her.
That was essentially how I found all the agents I ended up querying. It is worth noting that while databases are helpful, they should be a starting point. Always, always, always check the agency website and the specific agent’s profile. Check their Twitter page if they have one. Check their blog if they have one. They’ll often update with what they’re looking to read, whether or not they are currently open to queries, and more useful information.
Made a short list and wrote my skeleton letter:
Once I’d finished my research, I made a shortlist of about 10 -12 agents I wanted to query first. I also wrote a skeleton query letter. This letter had the main info about my book and what I’d done as a writer. For each agent, I made a copy and personalized it. And I didn’t just insert their name. I read all of the agent profiles and really made an effort to express why I was querying them personally, either by mentioning a book we both loved, a client with similar work, or a city we both lived in. These things matter.
I triple checked EVERYTHING before hitting send because the worst thing is when an agent gets a letter addressed to someone else.
Sat back and waited:
2018: Waiting to hear back from agents was pretty agonizing. By early 2018 I still hadn’t heard anything from the agent at Curtis Brown. I queried a bunch of agents and got a few full manuscript requests, but didn’t get any offers.
Finally, I heard back from the agent at CB. They had liked my book but felt it needed work and asked if I’d be willing to rewrite it? The fact that I hadn’t received an offer of representation from the other agents told me it probably did need work. So I agreed and said I’d be in touch when I was done.
At this point, I felt it could benefit from another set of eyes. I found an editor on Reedsy who kindly read through and offered me constructive criticism.
Life intervention:
Then life threw a wrench in my plans. I had some fairly difficult health challenges for most of 2018 and had to take a bit of a step back from writing. I didn’t write or edit anything for months. I kept thinking about my book but my health took precedence and I had to focus on myself.
I’ll be honest, it was really hard to step away from it. It’s tough when we have to stop working on things we love and when we feel like we are so close. But your book will be there when you’ve finished dealing with what you’re going through. For me, I had a very intense surgery and I needed time to rest. You can’t write and bring your best to the table if you’re not physically or mentally healthy. If your body or mind is telling you to step back, do it. There is no shame in rest.
Editing, editing and more editing:
2019: Are you bored yet because I am. Seriously though, I hope this gives you an idea of how hard querying can be, how much waiting there is and how you really shouldn’t be afraid to make changes if you think it will help your work in the end.
By 2019 I was finally feeling stronger after a pretty rough 2018. I got back on the editing bandwagon, got more feedback on the MS and reworked it. In March, I sent it out to a bunch of other agents. I got more full MS requests, including one from Thérèse. I also sent it back to the agent from Curtis Brown.
Then I waited some more. Luckily, my patience with the manuscript was beginning to wane (yours would too after four years), and I had gone back to school, so was really busy studying and had many distractions.
By early summer, a bunch of agents had come back to me and asked me to ‘R and R’, which is industry lingo for ‘Rewrite and Resubmit.’ I also had a really wonderful phone call with Thérèse. No one offered representation.
Rewrote my manuscript again:
In June, I settled in for another round of edits. I did this round pretty much alone, slogging away at night after coming home from work. It was painful. I was at my wit’s end and was getting very frustrated. But something about this book kept me going. I still believed in it, for whatever reason. I think any sane person would have stopped at this point, but writers aren’t really known for being rational, are we?
Resubmitted to all the agents who asked me to R and R:
In October of 2019, I started sending the reworked version back out to the agents who wanted to see it. I queried a few new ones. Got another round of full MS requests.
The Curtis Brown agent got back to me and ultimately passed. They felt it wasn’t right for them and seeing that they had now read three versions of the MS, it was obvious that it likely wouldn’t work. I was pretty disappointed and also felt terrible. This person had given me their time and energy and had treated me with nothing but the utmost respect. On some level, I really felt like I had failed.
I got in touch with the course director and let them know that one agent had passed but would the second one who’d expressed interest four years ago (!!) be keen to take a look. Once again, CBC proved to be worth every penny. They got back to me and I was able to submit my book to another agent there.
So at this point I had a lot of irons in the fire. But then….
I wrote another book.
Talk about a plot twist.
But it’s true. I wrote an entire other book in a totally different genre. Because at that point, having slaved away over this book for years, I was done. I had accepted that it would never find a home and that the only way I was going to get an agent was to write something new.
I signed up for NaNoWriMo and wrote most of my second novel on my phone, commuting to and from work. I used the Evernote app and each night when I got home, I’d copy and paste the days’ work into a word doc on my Mac, and reformat it a bit. I loved this new book. It felt so amazing to write something new and live in a different world. It honestly kept me going through the whole waiting process, knowing that I had another book to ‘fall back’ on.
When Nov 30th rolled around, I did a happy dance. I had finished another book! It needed editing, badly, but it was done. The story was there, my new characters were there. And I was really excited about it.
I hadn’t received any offers of representation on the other one, although a few rejections did trickle in. I was due to head out on holiday a few days after I finished my new book and resolved to get back to editing it in the new year. Juggling writing with a full-time job and all of the other things I do was beginning to get exhausting and I couldn’t wait to switch off.
But as usual, life had other plans.
The call:
So it wasn’t a call for me. It was an email. And I remember it very, very clearly. I was sitting in a booth at a coffee shop before work. I would often go into work early and write from a coffee shop. (I absolutely love writing in the mornings. It always makes me feel like I’ve accomplished a little something for myself for the day.) I was scrolling through my emails and saw I’d gotten one from Thérèse.
She was offering me representation.
Literally I spat out my coffee (and managed to keep doing this as the months went by any time she emailed me with good news). I was flummoxed and stunned. Shocked, to be honest. It’s not that I didn’t think I would get an agent, I just didn’t think I would with this book.
We went back and forth a bit, I mentioned I was going on holiday and could I have some time to contact the other agents who were interested? She said that was fine. She also put me in touch with some of her lovely, amazing clients, who only had good things to say about her. I always recommend authors do this — it can feel a bit odd, I know, asking for references, but this is a partnership you’re entering into and you want to make sure you’ve done your homework. A friend of mine had a terrible experience with an agent who asked her to pay her to represent her and then ghosted her. Luckily it doesn’t look like this agent is working anymore, but it is very demoralizing to have an experience like this. 99.9% of the time, you will only hear good things from clients, but it’s important to check.
Heard back from other agents:
When I let the other agents know who were still reading my work, they were all so nice and supportive. Honestly, I don’t understand writers who moan about agents being mean or not ‘understanding’ them. Agents are some of the most hardworking, kind people in the publishing industry. I guess I’ve been sort of lucky but every single agent I dealt with was professional, positive and understanding.
At this point I was still on holiday and my wi-fi was quite spotty (I was in a desert for part of my trip!) But just before Christmas, I very happily let Thérèse know i would be thrilled to sign with her.
Signed my contract:
I have dreamed of signing my contract for years. Years and years and years. It was one of the best moments of my life. I will never, ever forget reading through each line of the contract she sent me, beaming from ear to ear.
After I signed my contract, Thérèse and I talked. I’d decided again based on some other feedback that I needed to make one last big change to my book. It required a leap of faith on both mine and Thérèse’s parts, but I’m very fortunate that she trusted me.
Did not tell many people at all:
I didn’t tell many people after I’d signed with my agent. I told my closest writing friends and a few of my other close friends but other than that, no one. I didn’t even tell my parents. I’ve noticed lots of writers who are active on social media like to announce things and I applaud them for doing so — it’s a huge achievement and a milestone in any writer’s career! But I had been trying to get a book published for so many years and felt like I had disappointed everyone around me. I didn’t want to get too excited.
Something I’ve learned over the years of working away at an author career is it’s best to stay in the middle. I actually learned this from watching one of my favourite athletes, Fred VanVleet, in a press conference. The Toronto Raptors were in the middle of a championship run in 2019 and they were coming off a win. A reporter had asked him if he was really excited and he’d said something about ‘just hovering in the middle.’ That really stayed with me.
Yes, your life can change on a dime, but you could just as easily not sell a book, ever. You could sell one book and then have three tank. You just never know. Even authors with agents don’t sell books and actually loads of people don’t sell the first book they go out on submission with.
I am very careful to keep the focus on myself and my work, which is all I have control over. I don’t listen to what other people say, I barely engage with stuff on social media. If someone says something nice, I’m grateful. If they say something bad, I’m grateful. Good or bad, you have to remember it’s one person’s opinion. And opinions are not facts. Read that again: Opinions are not facts. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have confidence in your work — absolutely, you should, but I also think it’s really important to continuously cultivate humility.
For me, I never want to forget that writing is something I do. I’m eternally grateful for finding something I am so passionate about, but it’s not who I am. Me being an author is just one side of me. I have many other facets to my personality that I am so proud of. It’s an incredible, amazing career, but it is just one thing at the end of the day.
TL;DR: It took me 2 years to finally sign with a literary agent. If you’re reading this and you’re tired of querying, I understand how you feel, probably better than anyone else. Some words of advice: Rest, but don’t quit. Your life can change when you least expect it.
Oh and write another book while you wait!