7 Tips for Choosing an Agent to Query
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- Querying is hard. Only thing harder than querying? Finding/choosing which agents to query. In this video, literary agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan sat down to discuss how you can go about researching and choosing the right agents to query. With 7 categories to narrow research.
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds UA-cam channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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Since interning at BookEnds as an undergrad in the summer of 2015, James has (basically) never left. He's just continuously level-up-ed inside of BookEnds. Now he is the Literary Assistant and Social Media Manager for the team. He’s been a reader since his mom gave him the first A Series of Unfortunate Events book and ordered the sequels regularly through Scholastic book orders.
James is currently growing his own list and is actively seeking submissions in adult literary and upmarket fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense. He is also actively building his picture book list.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
Personal connection -- hey, it would be nice to find a new friend, but what I'm looking for is a productive working relationship. It is a relationship, and it's definitely a problem if one of you cringes at the thought of talking to the other, but we don't have to want to take our vacations together. If we respect each other and feel comfortable trusting and dealing with each other professionally, that's the ice cream sundae with toppings. Anything north of that is sprinkles and a cookie on top. Yes, I'm hungry at the moment, but thankfully, no one can tell.
I've watched all your videos and I feel I've taken a marketing 101 class in getting my book out there. Thank you! By the way, my 5 hens and one rooster have told me they love James too.
I like to check UA-cam to see if the agent has been interviewed. That way I get a sense of what they are like in-person and if our personalities are compatible. Some agents I love on paper aren’t as compelling in person.
Yeah, both of you just rejected my latest murder-mystery query letter last week, (although they did it nicely, and Ms. Faust wrote that I had 'written a solid query letter'.) Nice to put faces to my rejection letters.
Luv the style, banter, optimism, and tough-love. Best of all, you don't talk down to us
This was very interesting. I especially found the section when discussing agents selling to the big 5 and to the smaller publishers.
Thanks so much for putting out these videos at these difficult times. They are immensely useful and informative.
Three good ways are boolean phrase searches on Google (ex. "Romance AND Literary Agent"), listicle articles of literary agents per genre, and from the acknowledgment section of a published book...shows you who is actually getting published. Hope this helps! Great video :)
Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome :)
Love Query Tracker and mswl. Additional options = aaronline.org, Publishers Marketplace, and checking profiles on the Literary Rambles blog.
Ouu this came at the perfect time! I spent last week making a spreadsheet of agents from PM, Query Tracker, and author friends recommendations. I can't wait to dive into this video! 😍
What do you mean by "PM"?
Ani Val publishers marketplace
HAHAH. sorry it just sounded like James was censored by a car-horn
LOL
Query Tracker is pretty great.
Agreed.
I've been loving your ongoing series of videos. Thank you!
Quick question - how can I find out who the agent was for a particular book? Thank you for your time.
Hello! Many authors will thank their agent/agency in their acknowledgements. if not, Publishers Marketplace would be the best place to check, though not *all* sales are actually listed there.
QueryTracker has a "Who Represents Whom" list.
Another cool video, but what was that horn?
How about I identify the agent(s) I like and then write something that matches their preferences?
Opening lines:
Henrietta nearly tripped a she hopped onto the Barnyard Express Bus. She was distracted by thoughts of fame and fortune, and maybe a certain handsome young rooster she had met on the PoultryWeb.
The bus driver, a bespeckled old goose, stared at Henrietta’s ticket and then looked down her beak at her. “I don’t know why a chicken would want to go to Alaska,” she clucked.
I am about to query. I have been first: looking at the agency website to view the wishlists. Second: I've been looking at their social media because sometimes they will Tweet new info that is contrary to their website, such as they are closed to Queries through October for example. But then I will try to understand a little bit about the character of the Agent. I was very interested in querying a particular agent and she had my exact genre and setting on her wishlist. But then on Twitter, I found she's been going absolutely off the rails lately about current events and social issues. I mean, she was really banging the drum about Kyle what's his name and telling everybody F you, F you, and she'd been posting and sharing literally hundreds of comments DAILY. And I was kind of put off by her personality, and also thought well, if she's just screeching on Twitter all day, how is she going to find time to read my query, much less read my manuscript and do her job as an agent? Other than that, I've found many delightful agents on Twitter who aren't necessarily asking for my type of book, but that I've found to be to lovely people and I was actually getting into nice chats with them about other subjects. It's at least good to go on their social media and get to know people in the industry.
Same here. My dream agent currently mentions being a ‘person of faith’ in interviews. When I read that initially, I wondered how that intersects w my genre (queer YA). I did a deeper dive and find her to be brilliant and one of the best strategists I’ve seen. Her brand of faith is inclusive, too.
Thank u, Regarding "Comparative Titles":
My pic book does not match other books in every element, how can I choose my comparative titles?
Mine is (fantasy & concept book & funny & magical reality)
How can I choose other books with the same exact elements?
You're never going to find a match in every element, so identify what does match about the other books. "My book combines the zany humor of [Book 1] with the magical adventure of [Book 2]."
Hey James if I send my query via carrier chicken will you take my book?
Hey quick question. Ive been querying and the response ive been getting is loved the premise but cant relate to the characters. Is this a subjective thing or is there something I need to fix? I know agents and beta readers are different and my betas have told me they love the voice opening tone etc but.so.far agents no. How do you fix something like this? or is it fixable at all? (this is other agents not bookend agents who have said this)
You should introduce the characters carefully without being excessive. How do you think your character will hit the reader? Colorful sentences, paragraph sequences, point of view and chronology cues, pacing, metaphors and tropes? You have to assess what you know well that you do well and what you haven't. Frequently to rewrite well you have to learn to make space by eliminating words, sentences, sections that you once loved.
I have to written books of poetry have been told that poetry doesn't sale, I am a 51 year old Black woman. Been rejected by pretty much every one, I also write plays!!
Even if you were a 51 year old White male, I think you'd still find the market for poetry is pretty limited. Also, it is "sell" not "sale".
I also check if an agent has a diverse list of clients (if they do have one). I'm a speculative fiction writer from Brazil and I want to be represented by an agent that not says s/he wants diversity, but also represent diverse authors. And if you're a query trenches veteran, like me, it never hurts to pay attention to how an agent rejects you. I'm OK with an auto-reject, but I'm not OK with agents who are rude. For instance, I refuse to query a particular agent who wrote "not for me" as his answer. Not only was it incredibly rude and unprofessional, it also showed he wasn't all that bright. If he had an auto-reject, he could have saved himself the time it took him to write down his answer.
Querying sucks. I sent eight queries 2 weeks ago and still have heard nothing.
I’ve heard it’s crazy slow. Agents reading at home with kids and stuff. I did the same thing two weekends past and I got my first rejection today.
we hope you have good news soon!
From what I've seen, 2 weeks isn't that long... you probably don't need to really worry for another couple weeks.
Check their website and see if they list how long it will take to get back to you. btw, "longer" usually means they are more likely to be considering it.
Should an author query more than one agent at a time?
always
Ok ty