So, you’ve written a book…
If this is the case, first of all–congratulations! Writing a full-length manuscript in any genre is a daunting, all-consuming, audacious task. Be sure to treat yourself to a well-deserved reward.The act of sitting down and doing the thing–writing!–is in some ways the hardest part of being a writer. But then…what if you want to share your work with the world? There are many avenues through which you can do this, ranging from sharing your work via a blog or through other forms of self-publishing. What if you want to go a more traditional route, though? What if you want to swing for the fences and see if a big publishing house might be interested in the great American novel you just penned?
Enter, Literary Agent
You can try to get your work directly into the hands of an editor, but in most cases this is a next to impossible task, as most editors will only consider manuscripts that are “agented.” Okay, so then how does one find an agent? This is the question! There’s no one perfect way to find the agent that’s right for you, but here are a few ways to get your process going.
Find a Website You Trust
The internet is full of dark corners and dodgy claims, but if you take a little time to explore, you may find a page that gives you in-depth agent info all in one place.
I’m pretty partial to this site: Literary Rambles. I’ve found it to be an invaluable resource, as it has frequent, in-depth interviews with agents so you can get a good sense of who they are and if they’d be a good fit for you (not to mention, you can get up-to-date information about what an agent is looking for and where they work, as the publishing business is perpetually in flux). Plus, you can filter your search so you only see agents who represent your chosen genre. As a YA novelist, this saves me a lot of time and hassle, so I don’t have to comb through each post to see if they only represent work intended for adults (Though I still believe that YA is also for grown-ups, and yes, I. will. die. on. this. hill.).
Read the Acknowledgements
Do you ever read the back matter in your favorite books? I must confess, I enjoy reading the acknowledgement sections a) because I’m nosy and I want to know just who they’re thanking (and as of this posting, I believe I myself have been thanked twice in published novels!) and b) because I’m always curious how they’ll say thank you. There are only so many ways you can say “My sister is my rock”, and I think it tells you a lot about the writer if they’re able to show off even more writing chops in this often-overlooked section. But I digress! The point I’m making is that you should look at this section in the books you love and admire, books that you think might share some affinity with your own, and see who is representing these authors. Find out who their agents are and add them to your list.
Ask Google
I’m actually not joking. Once, feeling frustrated and not wanting to dig through the usual places, I simply searched something like, “literary agents who represent YA fiction”, and boom, I actually found a few agents I ended up querying, one of whom ended up requesting to read the entire manuscript. Ultimately, it wasn’t a good fit for her and she passed on it, but it was a valuable experience, and having someone want to read the entirety of my work gave me quite a boost to keep going.
I’ll come back to this topic periodically, as I’m in the throes of this process right now, and because there are still so many more parts to explore (how to know if your work is ready to go to an agent, writing a fabulous query letter, what to do if an agent asks for a revision, etc.). If you’re more interested in submitting smaller pieces, I recommend checking out our previous post, The Art of Submission.
Happy agent hunting, Plumesters! Also, we’ve extended our deadline to order the March edition of Plume by 48 hours! (Because life is bananas right now, and also because we love you and want you to have nice things). You still have until the end of Wednesday, 2/27 to order. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook,too!