Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work (13 page)
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Authors: Chuck Sambuchino
- When I realized that Amanda’s protagonist was an orphaned North American, I thought I might be able to relate to her culture shock issues.
- The letter didn’t overwhelm me with tons of details; it could have gotten bogged down with the story’s complexity and left me too confused to request the full. Instead she concentrated on giving me the main aspects of the story: characters, conflict, genre, and setting.
- This was the line that really got my attention: “… and something always goes wrong.” I was intrigued by what that meant and wanted to discover more. The key here is that Amanda had plenty of specifics but still left me with questions that I wanted the answers to.
- Amanda also had some good writing credits behind her.
Agent commentary from Barbara Poelle of Irene Goodman Literary Agency
Dear Ms. Poelle,
I’d like to tell you about my mystery novel, UNTOLD DAMAGE, complete at 73,000 words (a).
Mark Mallen was a great cop—before he succumbed to the needle. Driven from the narcotics division and run off the force, Mallen’s been surviving day to day in the gritty world of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district (b). But just when it looks like his life will end in addiction, Mallen learns that his best friend from his police days, Eric Russ, has been murdered—and Mallen himself is named as the prime suspect. The former cop hidden deep inside the addict is prompted to action, as Mallen sees an opportunity to redeem himself and reemerge (c).
However, staying clean turns out to be the least of his problems. As Mallen struggles to find Eric’s killer, a couple of enforcers from his undercover days come after his head, along with a growing number of people that seem to want him dead the deeper he dives into the tangled threads of the investigation.
I am writing to you because I read online that you’re passionate about mysteries. I am hoping that mine is one you could also feel passionate about. My short fiction has been published in various online literary journals (d), including
Pindeldyboz
,
Cherry Bleeds
, and
Word Riot
. I am also a produced screenwriter with another script currently under option (e).
Thank you for your time.
Best wishes,
Robert Lewis
- Genre and word count right away. Good.
- Atmospheric locale, if done well. I know the Tenderloin will be both the setting
and
a character in its own right. - I am a fan of the unlikely hero, and Robert probably knew this as he researched me heavily before querying.
- His work has been deemed publishable already, so I know he has the basic grasp of craft.
- Without the specific names of the production companies, I can be wary, but this also generally lends itself to the idea that I can expect to see a well-paced, tight narrative.
Agent commentary from Alyssa Reuben of Paradigm Literary
Dear Ms. Reuben:
Two adventurers from New York City embark on a worldwide journey through the urban underbelly, taking them from the catacombs of Paris to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Moses Gates, a bookish urban planner, meets Steve Duncan, a frenetic adventurer obsessed with the underground of New York City. Soon the two become immersed in the worldwide subculture of Urban Exploring. This subculture rejects prepackaged “tourist adventures” in favor of exploring the urban environment on their own terms—terms which are often dangerous and always completely illegal (a).
Venturing through three continents, Gates and Duncan find a world of people who create secret art galleries in subway tunnels, break into national monuments for fun, and travel the globe sleeping in centuries-old catacombs and abandoned Soviet relics rather than hotels or bed-and-breakfasts. Together they discover ancient underground Roman ruins, party with mole people, and sneak into Stonehenge—until finding themselves under arrest on top of Notre Dame. It’s a journey of discovering what can still be seen and done in today’s world of terrorism scares and “no trespassing” signs, as well as a story of an enduring friendship forged in the strangest of places.
The author, Moses Gates (b), is an urban planner and licensed New York City tour guide. His explorations of New York have been featured on the History Channel and in
The New York Times
and
Guardian UK
(c). His website is
www.allcitynewyork.com
. The other main character, Steve, is a photographer and historian. His adventures have been featured on the Discovery Channel show “Urban Explorers.” He is the star of the short documentary
Undercity,
which has over half a million views on Vimeo. His website is
www.undercity.org
.
HIDDEN CITIES: INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF URBAN EXPLORERS is a 50,000-word true adventure and travel story, as well as a subculture exposé. Despite documentaries, reality TV shows, and numerous magazine and newspaper articles about Urban Exploration (d), this would be the first true adventure or subculture exposé published about the subject.
I’ve written an extensive outline and approximately 20,000 words. The first five pages (1,366 words) follow. If you’re interested, I can follow up with other sample chapters and a table of contents.
Thanks for your consideration,
Moses Gates
- This query had a lot of qualities I want in a book: action, adventure, friendship, personal growth, and travel. It was polished and concise, and it conveyed a personal story with an intriguing narrative arc that was set against the fascinating world of urban exploration. To me, it read like fantastic back-cover copy.
- His use of the third person to pitch a memoir and travelogue might have been off-putting to other agents (most of these types of queries are done from the author’s perspective), but I thought it was fine.
- I thought Moses’s professional credentials lent themselves to the book’s subject matter and would therefore give the book added depth. Also his perspective would be more credible.
- I also liked that he illustrated a real public interest in the story, asserting that his book would be the first of its kind to delve into this subculture in the way he was intending. Needless to say, I was immediately interested in reading more.
Agent commentary from Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency
Dear Ms. Nelson:
I met you last weekend at a pitch appointment at the Chicago Spring Fling conference. You had spoken with Sherry Thomas earlier about my historical romance,
Proof by Seduction
. You asked me to send you the full, which is now attached.
As one of London’s premier fortune-tellers, Jenny Keeble knows all about lies. After all, the fastest way to make money is to tell people what they want to hear (a). It works—until Gareth Carhart, the Marquess of Blakely, vows to prove what he and Jenny both know: that Jenny is a fraud.
Gareth only wants to extricate his naïve young cousin and heir from an unhealthy influence. The last thing the rigidly scientific marquis expects is his visceral reaction to the intelligent, tenacious, and—as revealed by a wardrobe malfunction—very desirable fortune-teller (b). But she enrages him. She tempts him (c). She causes him to lose his head entirely and offer a prediction of his own: He’ll have her in bed before the month is out. The battle lines are drawn. Jenny can’t lose her livelihood, Gareth won’t abandon logic, and neither is prepared to accept love.
I am a finalist in Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart competition for unpublished romance. I currently work as a lawyer. My romance-writing interests may seem rather different from my daily writing, where I focus on law issues. But all good lawyers are, at heart, just storytellers, and I find the two writing practices balance each other. Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions, and thank you for taking the time to consider my manuscript.
Sincerely,
Courtney Milan
- At first I thought the whole fortune-teller angle was a little contrived, but she puts a different spin on it with her insight into how well it works in terms of telling people what they want to hear. It struck me right away that this author might be using this plot setup for a different purpose. I was right.
- I’m completely won over by the time I read the second pitch paragraph. Courtney does a great job of outlining the opening plot catalyst that launches the story (removing the heir from her clutches), of giving character insight (rigidly scientific marquis), and adding an amusing touch with the wardrobe malfunction line. I sensed this work would be witty, and it didn’t disappoint.
- The use of the words
enrages
and
tempts
leads me to think it will be sexy, and I kind of like that in historical fiction.
Agent commentary from Tina Wexler of ICM Partners
Dear Mrs. Wexler:
My name is Brian Klems. I am the newsletter editor and social media keeper for Writer’s Digest (255,000 newsletter subscribers, 270,000 Twitter followers). Please consider my humor book,
Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl
.
Oh Boy
is a nonfiction humor book that walks dads through the early stages of having a daughter. It covers Baby Name Bracketology to The Pink Phenomenon to questions like “Hey Dad, where are your boobs?” (a) It pokes fun at some of the bigger challenges guys face in raising girls but also stands as a reminder that one day you’ll probably miss emceeing her fashion shows.
From changing dirty diapers to surviving those epically long dance recitals,
Oh Boy
mixes tongue-in-cheek advice with humor and heart to help psych dads up for the scary, yet incredibly awesome journey of raising a girl. It also sheds light on rules for taking her into public restrooms (Do you layer the seat up with toilet paper or awkwardly hold her hover-style above the toilet so she never comes close to touching it? The correct answer is both) and helps you navigate tough situations, like making sure she doesn’t date until she’s fifty.
My parenting humor blog,
TheLifeOfDad.com
, receives more than thirty thousand page views a month (b), while my new Writer’s Digest blog is one of the fastest growing in the writing industry. I’m on the writing speaker circuit, giving talks at conferences in Chicago, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Houston, Buffalo, Minneapolis, and other major cities. Also, my work has appeared in dozens of print and online periodicals, including
Family Friendly Cincinnati, OC Family, Southern MOMentum
, and more.
Thank you so much for your consideration!
Brian A. Klems
- In this query, Brian succeeds where it’s hardest: He shows off his sense of humor while maintaining a level of professionalism, and he pitches the content of the book while giving me a taste of how that content will be presented. Too often I receive queries for humor books that are humorless. Or they’re funny, but I don’t have a clear sense of what the actual book will be. Brian strikes the perfect balance.
- He also demonstrates his business savvy by showing off his credentials—that’s a lot of subscribers, followers, and page views!—and in a way that doesn’t feel off-putting. In short, he comes off as a person I’d like to work with: someone who has a strong idea for a book, is fun and funny, and has a growing platform.
QUERY LETTER FAQs
The query process isn’t as simple as “Just keep e-mailing until something good happens.” We’ve gone over the basic sections of a query letter, studied the differences between pitching nonfiction and fiction, and seen successful examples with commentary from agents. But, believe it or not, that doesn’t cover all the ins, outs, strange situations, unclear scenarios, and plenty of what-have-you that block the road to signing with a rep. With that in mind, I’m tackling some of the most common and trickiest query letter FAQs.
No, unless an agency says otherwise (though I know of no agency that says this). A rejection from one literary agent means a rejection from the entire agency. If you query one agent and she thinks the work isn’t right for her but that it still has promise, she will pass it on to fellow agents in the office who can review it themselves. Agents work together like that.
You can, though I’d say you have about a fifty-fifty shot of getting your query or pages read. Some agents are open to reviewing a query or manuscript if it’s undergone serious editing. Other agents, meanwhile, believe that a no is a no—period. In other words, you really don’t know whether the agent is open to it or not, so you might as well just query away and hope for the best.
No. An agent will only want to read the first book. There is no point in fully composing sequels before the first book gathers momentum. That said, feel free to draft an outline or synopsis for yourself if you have scenes or a plot in mind.
When I taught at a conference in Edmonton, Canada, I was surprised to learn that many Canadian writers believed American agents weren’t open to their work. I talked to two U.S. agents about this (one of whom was my own agent, Sorche Fairbank), and they both said this is simply not true. Plenty of American agents are certainly willing to take a look at the work of Canadian authors. You never know who is open versus who will shy away, so your best bet is to query all possible targets.
However, there are some caveats. First of all, if you’re writing nonfiction specific to Canada (or any region, for that matter)—such as a book on the history of Montreal fashion—you are better off using an agent based in that country. Furthermore, the answer to this question really depends on the tone and content of your book. My agent told me that if the story was “a quiet tale set in Canada—all about Canadian themes and sensibilities and happenings”—then it does not cross over and interest American agents. So if your story is based in the U.K., with a U.K. protagonist, and all U.K. characters, even U.K. spellings (
humour
vs.
humor
), then you should query a U.K. agent. But what if the book is set in the U.K. but has an American protagonist or vice versa? Then it spans both worlds and could spark with agents in either location—query both.