# Literary Agent Networking



## rhuneke (Jun 4, 2020)

Hi All,

Have a finished coming-of-age novel, query, synopsis, bio and pitch. Actively looking for literary agents. Have had a few rejections so far and of course expecting more because that's the reality of the business. My question is--for those of you out there who have been successful acquiring an agent--what are some good agent networking techniques. So far I've been following agents on Twitter, joining Facebook groups, etc. The idea is to target as accurately as I can. I expect to get rejections, but if I can target effectively perhaps I can mitigate this most painful reality of publishing. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks and take care. Stay safe!

Russ


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## luckyscars (Jun 5, 2020)

I wouldn't necessarily bother targeting your querying too much. I mean, don't be sending your novel about an ax murderer to an agent who specializes in commercial women's fiction, obviously, but in the days of email it doesn't make much sense to limit yourself to a choice handful. 

Search for agents who are (1) Actively taking on new clients (2) Representing the kind of books yours could sit next to on a shelf and (3) Reputable. Find those, pool them into a list linked to their contact info and submission requirements. If you want to, sort the list by who is closest aligned to who is a little further where the opportunity would be a little more speculative. 

Once you have done that, make sure you do your research on each person on the list. I don't actually believe many agents care as much about how well you know their work, and certainly aren't childish enough to be seduced by some obvious buttlicking...but where possible, sure, personalize the query. At least make sure you can spell their name correctly and have some basic familiarity with them. Twitter is a good place for that.

Attending literary festivals, conventions and other events where you can meet and talk to agents face to face can be effective, but (1) Covid and (2) Costly in time and money and (3) Tend to be a little oversubscribed and I'm not sure how many people actually land agents that way. Still, if you have time and money to burn, they could be an option in the future.

I like the manuscript wish list tag-search on twitter. Another good resource is https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/ <--Submission Grinder. You can also get various books released yearly that have huge lists of agents with their information but I have never used them (Despite buying them) and feel they're a bit dated.


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## Bayview (Jun 5, 2020)

I got my agent the old-fashioned send-a-query way. No networking. And I had a couple agents interested that I got to pick between, so it wasn't just a weird fluke.

Now, that was... I don't know, probably five years ago, at least. Things may have changed.

But assuming my past experience is still useful - I used one of the big sites (QueryTracker, I think, but I've lost my log-in information so I can't check to be sure) to figure out a list of agents who worked in my genres. I also subscribed to a couple months' worth of Publishers Marketplace "deals" access (expensive, but lots of great information) that I used to sort of rank the list I complied from QT. If an agent had big, recent deals that sounded similar to what I was selling? I put them at the top of my list. I also put agents who represented my favourite authors near the top of the list.

Then I polished my query and sent it out in batches to about ten agents. I made sure there were a couple "top" agents in each batch, but not ALL the top agents at the start. If my query wasn't working, I didn't want to burn through my favoured agents before I had a chance to fix it. I personalized queries to some extent - made sure I was giving them exactly what they'd asked for, for example. But I didn't have a "personalization" element to each query unless there was something relevant to say. Like, I didn't say "As we discussed when we met at X conference" because I don't go to conferences, but I did, when possible, say things like "I read your X interview in which you said you were looking for Y, and based on that I think you may be interested in my work."

As I recall I made a few tweaks to my query based on early responses, and then I just kept going. I did two batches of ten queries each week, for about a month, and then I started getting interest. (My first agent contact was from a query I'd sent out weeks earlier, and then once I had that I sent out all my other queries in one big batch, and then a couple days later sent an e-mail to all my "top" agents who hadn't already rejected and told them I was talking to an agent and hoped they'd have a chance to look at my query before I made a final decision. That got me calls from a couple others who were interested. I know the agent I eventually went with was from my list of "top" agents, but I can't actually remember whether she was the first one to contact me or one of the ones who responded when prodded.

So. That was my process. No networking, just lots of queries. No idea if it's the BEST way to go, but it worked for me.


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## luckyscars (Jun 6, 2020)

Another thing I have found is that it's not really necessary to do the whole vetting-of-the-agent thing before submitting to them. It's not like most agents will ask for an entire manuscript so there's nothing really to lose in just shooting off the query + synopsis/first couple chapters to them with minimal time and emotional investment and then IF they show interest you can start to do more research. I would still do the basic checks though, because you don't want to poison the well by making people think you're just spamming them. But if they check the basic boxes? Send it.

Obviously if you get to the point they want to sign you, that's when you'll want to really scrutinize them, but for the initial round of submissions, it always struck me as strange people would feel the need to cherry pick or believe they are in a position to be choosy.


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## Bayview (Jun 6, 2020)

Yeah, I agree with luckyscars.

Once I got offers from agents I read up on them, checked their numbers, contacted current clients for references, etc. But there's no point doing all that before they even offer.


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## rhuneke (Jun 7, 2020)

Thank you both for the great information! I'm still tinkering and researching. It's definitely something that takes a lot of patience, time, and persistence!


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## Cephus (Jun 7, 2020)

My way wouldn't work, I'm sure, but I got to know my agent, many years ago, because they represented one of my friends who was a well-known author and we got introduced. We got to be friends over time. He knew that I was a writer, but I had no interest in being traditionally published. Then, my friend, who he represented, sent him one of my books and his son, who was 11 or 12 at the time, read it and loved it. He became one of my biggest fans and still is to this day, even though he's married now and has kids of his own. I started sending books to his son and my agent started reading them and said that if I ever wanted to go the traditional route, he'd be happy to represent me.

Ultimately, in this game, it's about who you know. I've been lucky enough to get to know a lot of well-known authors over the years. It really does help.


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## luckyscars (Jun 8, 2020)

Cephus said:


> Ultimately, in this game, it's about who you know.



 I don't think ''it's about who you know'' is good advice. Not least because that kind of message can be interpreted as networking (or, if we're being unkind, ass-kissing) being the only way to get ahead. 

I know several writers who have gone to tremendous lengths to buddy their way to fame and have not been successful while I also know several writers who have agents simply through...writing good material and sending it in to somebody who thinks it'll sell. I like to think that ultimately _most_ agents are professional marketers who prioritize the quality of output in making a decision, regardless of whether it's from their own son or Sam Snot in Saskatchewan.

I may be misinterpreting your meaning, of course. If what you mean is 'having a friend in the biz helps', then sure I agree, but that is not the same as 'it's about who you know', right? It also, obviously, is not necessarily something within an author's ability to affect, so I'm not sure what kind of help it could be to the OP, nor anybody else who doesn't have that advantage upfront...

I am aware most reputable agents have wannabe authors toadying to them nigh on constantly via social media and you can't exactly go and knock on their door and ask to be their friend, so such forms of getting a foot in the door probably serve to waste time and come across as desperate more than anything. I'm not saying it's a bad move IF an opportunity to get to know an agent is there, but that's not how most writers get agents. Your case would most definitely be an exception...

I think the evidence is fairly clear that most authors get agents simply through (1) Writing a really good story (2) Writing a really good query (3) Sending it through the usual means to as many potential agents as possible.

Of course, I would be happy to be further enlightened.


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## Kyle R (Jun 8, 2020)

These days, most literary agents are active on Twitter.

Twitter also hosts Pitch Madness, a tweet-based query event, which allows writers to mass-pitch to agents, and encourages agents to tap _LIKE_ on any queries that they'd be interested in receiving.

The most common way to interact with agents, though, is through querying. That's the staple of their job, and it's the primary way in which they expect to be approached by authors. :encouragement:


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## Cephus (Jun 8, 2020)

luckyscars said:


> I don't think ''it's about who you know'' is good advice. Not least because that kind of message can be interpreted as networking (or, if we're being unkind, ass-kissing) being the only way to get ahead.



It has nothing to do with ass-kissing and everything to do with getting introduced to the right people by other people that you know. You still have to be competent at the end of the day. You still have to earn your place by your own hard work. It's just a lot harder to get anywhere if you insist on hiding in your house, never talking to anyone, and expecting that sending around queries blindly is going to work as well as having a foot in the door. That's not how anything in life actually works.


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## luckyscars (Jun 9, 2020)

Cephus said:


> It has nothing to do with ass-kissing and everything to do with getting introduced to the right people by other people that you know. You still have to be competent at the end of the day. You still have to earn your place by your own hard work. It's just a lot harder to get anywhere if you insist on hiding in your house, never talking to anyone, and expecting that sending around queries blindly is going to work as well as having a foot in the door. That's not how anything in life actually works.



'Blind' querying does work for so many people, though.

Again, I do agree that it's better (as in, a faster process and a less stressful one) if you have an opportunity to foster a personal connection with people in the industry, no question. But it's not a controllable factor (you can't network your way into meaningful relationships that are sure to benefit you) so as advice it doesn't seem very reliable. Additionally, saying 'it works better if you know people' isn't the same as saying 'it's about who you know'. The first one speaks to the optimization of a process, the second one speaks to its validity. 

So I wanted to clarify that, because it sounds a little discouraging otherwise. It makes it sound like Sam Snot in Saskatchewan has next to no chance of getting his novel places unless he makes regular flights to New York to buy lattes and play squash with Jonathan Safran Foer.

I always remember the story of how Cormac McCarthy got his big break. He sent his first novel to Random House because it was "the only publisher he had ever heard of" and they published it. He didn't even have an agent. Granted, that's a crazy extreme example of screw-the-networking and I don't think it would work now (not least because Random House wouldn't read an unsolicited manuscript these days) but it _does _speak to the core philosophy behind this stuff, which is that _a__ great product will sell._


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## Psychosurrealism (Jul 23, 2020)

I'm totally new to this and I have a few questions:

Where would I even start to look for an agent? Is it just a case of searching Google for literary agent and getting in touch? (I don't use Twitter) I found this which is 18 month old but looks a good place to start. https://www.tckpublishing.com/horror-literary-agents/

If possible, is it best to find an agent that works with similar authors, in terms of style and genre?

Would they want to see the whole manuscript or is a chapter enough?


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