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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!

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I have been busy trying to be a novelist. I’m starting to think it is one of the worst choices I have ever made. My writing may be improving. I sent queries to several agents and one publisher. I got an email from an editor at the publishing house. She wanted to know why I chose to write my specific female characters. I answered and asked if she was interested in my book. She said she wasn’t. She also said that if I wrote in the voice of a male character, my manuscript would be more marketable. I then asked why she wanted to know about my choices of female characters. She ghosted me. This communication was based on a query letter and the first ten pages of the manuscript.

I sent a similar query to an agent who replied that he didn’t like novels that spoke directly to the reader. Since mine did, he passed on representing me. These replies came within hours of my sending the queries. My experience with querying agents has been from letter rejections received a month or more after I queried.

Those earlier attempts were sent based on Google searches for literary agents. I’ve gotten smarter this time. I use Publishers Marketplace to find deals for books similar to mine and query the agents that sold them. It’s a short list but much more likely to produce results.

My current manuscript is the woman Who Died Twice (my working title). It’s written in the first person POV. I’m much happier writing this way. I thought a lot about the editor’s (Sara J. Henry) advice to scrap this story and write from a male’s perspective. This isn’t advice to take lightly. Maybe the fiction market is oversaturated with female protagonists.

My decision to write from the point of view of a woman struggling to start a new career as an investigator was driven by my love of this genre of mystery books. Given how much time I’ve spent writing this manuscript, I think I will keep trying to market it. I know I’m prejudiced, but I have to say that I like the story a lot. I don’t always love what I write. I hope Sara is wrong this time.

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After over a hundred rejections, I abandoned my first novel. Maybe I needed the warmup. I realized that I had a good story, but it lacked heart. I wrote it in the third person. I kept the point of view focused on my protagonist. I paid some professional editors to read the first pages and offer comments. The response was neutral. No one said that my writing was bad. They also didn’t say it was good. Beta readers liked it. I think they like anything that they’re paid to read.

I reluctantly decided to start again. This time, I used the first-person POV. It felt good to write. My protagonist is a woman who loses her job and ends up freelancing as an investigator. I know. It’s not exactly original. What can I say?

When I was about 30,000 words in, I signed up for a writers’ boot camp. It’s a program offered by “Writers Digest.” A professional literary agent reviews your first ten pages and offers suggestions on how to improve the project. This wasn’t the first time I did this. The comments on my first book were neutral. The agent offered some general suggestions on how to improve the work.

My expectation was that I would get a similar response to the new story. My not-so-hidden agenda was to try to decide if I should continue trying to write fiction. I knew that the agent wouldn’t tell me that my work was crap and that I should give up. I figured that if I got the sort of suggestions my first book generated, then I would quit.

I was offered a choice of several literary agents from a very reputable agency. I selected the agent whose bio included a past job as an acquisitions editor for a large publisher. I was looking for real feedback. I figured that she would be most likely to set me straight. I submitted my first ten pages. Her response blew me away:

“This was a very fun read. You have a very strong and engaging voice and that is half the battle. Bravo!”

Holy crap!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Positive feedback! She went on to suggest I change the opening a little. Ironically, I revised the opening after viewing a video she made with tips on strong book openings. I restored my pages to the way they were before I saw her video and resubmitted them. The bootcamp allowed this additional submission. The agent was to provide brief feedback about the changes the writer makes. Here’s what I got back:

“Nicely done! You’re an excellent writer, and you are a good storyteller as well. Keep at it!”

She doesn’t say that to all the guys. This was my first positive review. I know. It was for the first ten pages. Still, it was encouragement. She had no reason to be so positive. I know. My prior experience showed me that.

I’ve been writing every day. I’m about three-quarters done with the book. Maybe this time, I have a chance to get an agent and a publisher. Wish me luck!