Literary agents receive a barrage of unsolicited queries from hopeful authors looking for representation. I’m one of them. Agents are salespeople. Their job is to sell the works produced by their clients. They get ten percent of the money each book brings in. They have to convince acquisition editors to buy their clients’ books. The publisher has to forecast how well a manuscript will sell.
I’m at the first step. I’m trying to convince a literary agent to represent my book. There are thousands of literary agents. Only a small number represents books in my genre. Of them, an even smaller number has recently sold a title relevant to me. My job is to locate those agents and convince one of them to represent me.
It’s nearly impossible to do this. To make matters worse, there are tons of services for sale that claim to improve the odds of landing an agent. It’s unethical for an agent to charge money to evaluate a book. Writers Digest University has Agent Boot Camps where a reputable agent will evaluate a query letter, synopsis, and the first ten pages of a book. They charge $199. I did this twice. The agents were with legit agencies. The first boot camp was useless. I didn’t get any actionable help with my presentation. The second was helpful, and I got very good feedback.
The second agent is closed to unsolicited queries but invited me to query after the boot camp. Of course, I’m delighted to do that. She is a respected agent who is part of an excellent New York agency. I don’t believe she participates in the boot camp as a way to get paid for reading author queries, but it is a way to get a top agent’s attention.
The difficult reality about getting that first book published is that the first pages determine if the novel ever sees the light of day. Agents typically want the first ten pages of the book with an author query. They also want a query letter that excites the agent enough to read those ten pages. I’ve struggled with my query letter as well as the book itself. I’m happy about the novel. I’ve gotten good feedback from beta readers. The query letter is more of a problem for me. If you’re curious, here’s mine.
I am writing to seek your representation for my first novel, THE WOMAN WHO DIED TWICE (83,000 words), a light mystery set in suburban Westchester county New York.
ANNA PETERS (33), fired from her latest dead-end job as a Macy’s salesgirl, is desperate for money. She convinces her cousin, LEW WARREN, a retired cop who owns a one-man detective agency, to hire her for an assignment. She follows a client’s wife to a seedy motel and photographs her kissing a man as she leaves a room. When the couple starts their cars, one of the cars explodes, killing the cheating couple. Anna knew the woman she followed and is determined to learn who killed her friend. She bumbles her way into stolen diamonds, a conflict with the Russian Mob, and an angry husband willing to kill to protect his secret as she tries to solve the mystery behind her friend’s death.
THE WOMAN WHO DIED TWICE will appeal to readers of Addison Holmes, Swamp Sweets by Jana DeLeon, and of course, Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels.
Thank you for considering my novel.
This is what I’m sending to prospective agents, along with the first ten pages and sometimes a synopsis of the book. I have no idea how much interest it will generate. Wish me luck!