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mree — How to Get a Literary Agent
Published: 2006-03-02 19:38:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 34125; Favourites: 1455; Downloads: 6555
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Edit: Whoa. I *definitely* did not expect to see THIS in the daily favorites. O__O Thank you so much, everyone!
Part II!
Thanks for all of your wonderful replies to Part I [link] . It's always encouraging to know that there are so many aspiring writers out there. Sorry this image is so..........long......... O_O But really, this was the minimum amount of info I could put in about finding a literary agent. There are alot of books out there on this topic as well, so if you want to know more details, look for them online or at a bookstore. I hope this helps you out, if you are an aspiring novelist!Note: For poets, nonfiction, and short story writers, this tutorial is unfortunately not applicable..... The process of submission for those forms are vastly different!
Thanks again.
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Comments: 331
this is so useful, thank you so much!!! i'm definitely going to hang onto this! i have one question though about the 3 chapter thing: the first book I intend to send out is in epistolary form, it's written entirely in letters and there aren't any chapters dividing them. So would I have to make this clear in the query letter? And how much would I send out when they ask for the sample?
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The general rule is to send either the first 3 chapters, or (in your case) the first 50 pages. Stop at a reasonable stopping point (so, I mean, it doesn't have to be *exactly* page 50).
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It is, I plan on writing a children's book, but I had no idea how what to do afterwards. Thanks again for the info.
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Again, thank you for this resource. I'm glad this hit a daily top fav or I would never have noticed it. It's nice to hear this presented in a simple way with none of the 'omg getting published is SO HARD' overhead. (seems all the material I've read has a negative feel to it with a 'but it does happen so cheer up!' thrown in at the end as an afterthought)
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Haha, very true.
I'm so thrilled that you found this helpful!
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I do have a question - you say to format sample chapters and full manuscripts in Times New Roman, Arial, and a few others. I have read from Jim MacDonald and Teresa Niesen-Hayden (Tor editor) that the format is to use a monospace font like Courier New OR by the guideline given specifically by the agent or publishing house in question. Much of their information focuses on the writer sending the manuscripts/sample chapters directly to the publisher - do you know if there is significant variation in submission format, or is it more of a matter of "Check the individual guidelines of the agent/publishing house in question"?
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Yes, it depends on the individual in question.
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Augh, sorry for the late reply - thank you for answering my question.
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A tutorial on real life! Who would've thought? *gasp* and with incredably realistic pictures! o0;; Life tutorials with pictures!! How novel. <3
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Yay! I made somebody glad about something! ^^
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this is perfect! becuse~ *drum role xD* me and my friend are writing a book xD ok so I still gotta work on the storie on what do to next after this part, and then i still have to work on our girl's atititude XO (as in at first she was perfect, but then she was overly shy, and now she's overly stright X'O) thank you~ T^T
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WOW this will definitely help me. I aspire to get a novel published so well WOW
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This is very helpful for people, like my self, who are aspiring writers.
Thank you its been most helpful
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Thanks for the hard work on this and for sharing your experiences with us. This is very good advice and I intend to use it to my full advantage when I need it. (I have to finish my book first
Anyway, instant
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=RetroZombie made it for me. I had the idea and he did the animation and everything.
I agree, its real smooth looking and all of its under the 15k limit, so thats even more impressive!
On topic, I really hope I get to use your advice soon, but that means finishing one of the two books I'm working on right now. One S/F and one fantasy. Plus I just came up with another descent storyline that could go book length. 
Thanks for sharing your experience!
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Man... I'm writing a book now, wanting to get it published, and I was so nervous before I saw this! ^^ Thank you. And the art at the bottom is stunning
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Aww, thank you!
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Awesome tutorial
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Thanks a lot, man. This will definitely come in handy.
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I found this very informative, but do you have anything to add to self-publishing. What are your thoughts on that? I would realyl like to hear something since it is a direction I think myself and my spouse might be taking with a literary work of our own once it is finished. We were looking into a self-publishing agency called AuthorHouse. Do you know anything about them?
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I have divided thoughts on self-publishing.........Lemme see here....... (and yes, I have indeed heard of AuthorHouse, as well as iUniverse and several other self-publishers)
It highly depends on what you're aiming to achieve with your book. For example, if your book is something that applies to an extremely specific niche or topic, then it wouldn't be very easy to find a regular publisher for it because it caters to a small, very specific audience (i.e. a guidebook on....um....how to assemble a crane....). Also, if this is a book that you are really intending your close family, relatives, and friends to see and use, or co-workers or another small group, or if you just want it done exactly how you picture it to look like and are not really aiming for sales, then yes. Self-publishing is definitely the way to go, because it gives you so much control.
*However,* a lot of people I know want to self-publish their book because they don't want to go through the publishing industry. If your book is meant to be commercial, and you want it to sell and be seen by the mainstream audience (i.e. horror, fantasy, literary, mystery, romance, etc.), then self-publishing is very likely to kill the book. First of all, self-published books never get reviewed. They don't get promotion, and bookstores like Barnes & Noble don't stock them (except maybe 1 copy, lost somewhere in the back shelves). Of course, there are many *wonderful* books that are self-published, but the truth is that most self-published books are not very high-quality. Also, self-publishing a book does NOT look good to a real publisher. For example, if later on you are submitting a manuscript to a New York publisher and you list your publishing credential as having a self-published book, this will not only not help you, but it will hurt you. Publishers really don't like self-publishing companies. So, to make a long story short, self-publishing is ideal for small specific audiences and horrible for if you are just aiming to be read. It's definitely not an easier road to publication by a NYC house.
I hope that helps!
(p.s. Of course, there are always exceptions. People like Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon, had his fantasy novel self-published. HOWEVER, his advantages were that his parents were both publishers, he didn't go to a regular school or college, and he could afford to spend a year with his parents touring the nation selling his book. He had a great deal of luck behind him.)
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I see. I was interrested in authorhouse because they use ingram(I think that is how it is spelled without looking at reference) to get your book into stores. I have heard that ingram is a popular tool for this. What are your thoughts on this? The book is a dark fantasy...and we were thinking of self-publishing so that we could have more control over the characters and what was going on as the theme. We wanted to be able to keep all the rights to the characters and have the story read the way it was intended without rewrites and the like. I have done some research on the sibject, but more knowledge is power no? I appreciate your time with this, and I am taking in your words hungrily since I have yet to find someone that would talk about this one on one. Its usually advertising and names of people's books that do oh so well and yet I have never heard of them. I have heard of the fantasy novel you mentioned, and see it everywhere, so that was the first example I actually could recognize.
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I remember going through all of that when I sent my m=novel out... it was rejection after rejection until I got the majic letter "I can't see what your story is from just a synopsis... send me the whole thing!" - Thats a direct quote.
So... 1000= printed pages and £16.00 later, my book was on its way. Unfortunately, it didn't stand up to the mark, but I did get a whole heap of really important advice and now said book is being re-written.
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Good for you!
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Yup... One can do nothing but continue trying, and one day that magic letter will come through... Though I have to admit... it does get a little disheartening to find published materials that are complete crap: No plot, basic characters, twenty spelling and gramatical errors on the first page... and a bunch of fan girls/boys who lap it up and call it great...
(Not that I'm bitter or anything like that.)
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Oh wow! Heaps of info!
This should be useful for saying ive dropped outta High skool to be a novelist.
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Holy Cow! This was really helpful to me; thank you for taking the time to do this.
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Really interesting. I find this to be one of the most helpful things I have seen yet.
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The first tutorial didn't help me much, but this one is extremely convenient.
You explained it very well.
Thanks ^^
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! 
Seriously, I've been looking for something like this for a while and this is just absolutely rocking my world big time. ^_^ TY!!!!!
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Thank you 
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Now that I'm nearing the end of my book (and I'm working on polishing it up) this is SO HELPFUL. THANK YOU.
*worships the ground you walk on*
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Ah, thank you so much. It impresses me how much you put into these two tutorials, and I really appreciate the work you did. I'm amazed that you wrote them out, since it's such a cut-throat field. o.0
But major props to your efforts! This will really help me out once I finally get my book(s) finished.
I just have a few questions....
a) What if you're writing a series, or your novel is too long to be one book and has to be cut up and made into more than one?
b) A full manuscript is....the entire novel?
and
c) Are you going to write a more detailed tutorial on how to write a query letter?
Gracias!
~Kay
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You're very welcome!
To answer your questions:
a) If you are writing a series (which most fantasy writers and mystery writers do, of course), you can pitch your 1st finished book. You don't need to have the entire trilogy/series/whatever finished. In this case, a publisher would buy your finished 1st book, and then offer you a three-book deal. Under this plan, they publish your first and while you're waiting for that to come out, you write the 2nd book under contract. (Does that make sense?.... O__o)
b) Yes, a full manuscript is the entire novel. (Or the entire 1st book of a series.)
c) It's a thought--although there's not too much else to say about a query letter. Every query is different, so it's hard to give a specific formula for writing a winning query letter. It's also heavily dependent on each individual agent's taste.
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Ah....thank you. (And yes, it does make sense. )
Now that my mind's decided to work, time to write! Wh00t.
But for the query letter. Would you be able to give an example or be able to recommend a book that would help me? I won't need it for awhile, but it would be nice to know what to do when I need it. ^ ^;
~Kay
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Hmm........
I can give you a website that's awesome (although it requires a 1-time subscription, I believe). It has the most amazing writers forum I've ever seen, and there are whole threads there devoted to writing the perfect query letter. They also post samples of successful query letters and about half of the posters there are professional authors:
[link]
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Yes! Thank you so much, this will totally help.
<3!
~Kay
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woow amazing thanks ......... i loved the tutorial and i love the way u make it look really pretty and nice ... thanks again
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Thanks a lot for posting these, Marie 
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I have a question about the First 3 Chapters thing. I've read alot of books with prologues- and want to know if you've any idea how that'd be handled. Does the Prologue count as one of the chapters (so you send Prologue, and chapters 1 & 2), do you not include it, or do you send that as well as the first 3 actual chapters?
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Ah yes, the ever-tricky Prologue!
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