Location: Books & Such main office; Santa Rosa, Calif.

On Saturday, after a long day of appointments, I was waiting outside of the appointment rooms to introduce myself to an editor I had never met face-to-face. I love making these connections at conferences! We had spoken on the phone the week before and arranged to make a connection.

Unfortunately, two writers decided I was fair game for pitching because I was sitting there. Conference organizers always warn that you aren’t supposed to pitch to agents and editors in the bathroom, but hallway pitches are just about the same. I listened and had a little advice for both writers, but removed my name tag after the second writer walked away. I was practically brain dead after such a long day of appointments. I didn’t want anyone else to recognize me as an agent.

Now, I understand the writers paid a lot of money to attend the conference and they weren’t guaranteed an appointment with me. I understand their disappointment if they wanted to meet with me. But I was not in a receptive spot when they approached me and very tired.

My suggestion for those tempted to do the desperate hallway pitch (or airport pitch) is to instead email that editor or agent after the conference and explain you were unable to get an appointment, but ask if they would please take a careful look at your query letter.

You may or may not get a response, but I prefer this approach and I assume other agents and editors do as well.

Your other option is to sit with the editor or agent at a meal. I always ask the writers at my table what they’re writing and will pass out business cards. My lunch table the first day was not full, so there was opportunity for a few more writers to talk with me about their projects then.

I love it when people come up to introduce themselves to me, but pitching in that situation really is different.

I hope my suggestions help you for future conferences!

Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office, CA

A couple of weeks ago one of my clients wrote to ask the following of me:

“As I’ve observed and visited with many unpublished authors who attend conferences, I find that the trend increasingly leans toward an editor and/or agent asking them to send their mss or additional work for review. No matter what else they may be told during that appointment, they hear NOTHING but the fact that someone has asked for their manuscript and they believe they are now going to be published.”

“Weeks, months, and sometimes more than a year will pass and they hear nothing. They don’t know whether to send to someone else, ‘bother’ the agent/editor they’ve sent it to for they fear that will anger them, or continue to pray and believe it’s going to all happen in God’s time.”

“During my earlier years at conferences, editors and agents frequently sat people down and said, ‘You show some promise, but you need more work.’ Or ‘Your writing skills aren’t quite up to snuff—how about considering some additional classes and mentoring.’  Anyway, you get the idea—they took it as their responsibility to tell these hopeful authors the truth. And, believe me, I know that’s a hard thing to say to someone. But is it not better to speak the truth in love than to let these folks sit for months on end thinking they’ve just been given a golden ticket?”

Gulp!

That’s a tough indictment, but nonetheless valid. I decided to try to decode some of these unspoken agent signals this week. Let me first offer a disclaimer which I will repeat each day of this series. Disclaimer: These observations are based largely on my own practices and those I’ve observed from the many agents I know and admire. But each agent is different (just like writers) and has different strengths and weaknesses. When it comes to your experience with agents YMMV. (Your mileage may vary.)

So. . . what does it mean when you’ve emailed a query to an agent– or mailed it, depending on their stated preference– and you get a response that says “send the proposal,” or even “send the whole manuscript?”

Here’s how I would decode that request: The agent is sincerely interested, based on your query. When an agent works through his or her queries, he has set time aside, is focused on finding excellence and is in peak analysis mode. He doesn’t do this when he is stressed, tired or overwhelmed; which is why it sometimes takes a while to hear back. So if you get a request for further material, consider it a sign of solid interest.

Many agencies, like Books & Such, do not reply if uninterested. Those agencies usually give a specific timeframe. “If you don’t hear back from us by [date] you’ll know we are not interested.” Books & Such, for one, makes sure to honor the stated date. All queries are read so, if the time frame passes without word, the writer knows. Why do agencies do this? It’s because of the sheer volume of queries. It is not possible to get back to everyone who queries. Few of us have sufficient staff to accomplish that task, even if we only used a form response which would tell the writer nothing anyway.

Writers often bemoan the fact that they never get any feedback. “How do we know why our query didn’t interest you if we never get any feedback?” If you’ve been in this industry– reading blogs and attending conferences– you already know the answer.  It’s a limited resource issue– agents simply do not have the time or staff to give feedback. Those of us who love to interact and mentor hate that aspect of this system but it’s reality. Besides that, we’ve been trained by the few bad apples who don’t understand the realities. In our early years as agents many of us tried to give a little bit of feedback which invariably opened a stream of dialogue– either vitriolic anger, prolonged argument or request for clarification. We’re fast learners. It didn’t take long to realize it was safer to refrain from any specific comment.

So what does it mean if I don’t hear back? It could mean the agent is saying:

• “Scary! Really scary. Make sure to block sender.”
• “Writing doesn’t seem to be quite there yet.”
• “Umm, nope. I don’t think so.”
• “Good idea. If only I weren’t so full.”
• “Good idea, but, unfortunately, the writer doesn’t have the platform to interest publishers these days.” (nonfiction)
• “Good idea, but I have [client's name] who is already filling this slot.”
• “Good idea, but not for right now. Sadly, the market’s not there at this time.”
• “Interesting writer but not a fresh idea. I’ve seen this same idea/plot too many times recently.

I know, I know. That doesn’t help you decode a no or a non-response. You’ll have to look for other clues. I’ll talk about what it means when an agent begins to informally communicate with you on Thursday which addresses some of those clues.Tomorrow we’ll answer my client’s initial concern when we talk about what it means when an agent requests your proposal or manuscript at a conference. Wednesday we’ll discuss what it means when you never hear back. And on Friday we’ll talk about what it means when an agent offers representation.

VENT WEEK: This is vent week in the comment section. The process of finding representation is so exasperating that it frustrates us all– writers and agents alike. Here is your opportunity to vent and be heard with no repercussions. What makes you hate this system. Any suggestions for fixing it? Let’s talk about it together.

Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Today’s assumption is: Because my manuscript was requested, I should expect to hear back from the editor/agent immediately because he or she has been waiting around to read my submission.

In our office, we received two types of emails that reflect this assumption. The first type goes something like this: “My submission is attached. If I don’t receive a reply by May 17, I will assume you are not interested.”

Giving a date for a response is more than likely to get you an immediate rejection rather than a chance at publication/representation. It shows a lack of understanding of the editor/agent’s busy schedule. The only time I can think of that this kind of deadline is appropriate is if the submission is from the president, a movie star, or someone who is going to garner a WHOLE lot of interest based on his or her name.

The second is this: “I sent my manuscript two weeks ago and haven’t received a reply. I’m just checking to see if you’ve had a chance to read it yet.”

Now, I want to clarify that, if you are writing to check to make sure a submission arrived on the editor or agent’s desk that’s completely acceptable, but checking in so early to see if your manuscript has been read is inappropriate.

Most of the time, when an editor or agent requests a project, it’s because there’s a small chance the book will be a good fit for that agent or publishing house. The idea sparked interest. The editor/agent requests the project and hopes the author will send it in, but if the author doesn’t, the editor/agent probably won’t even notice. The sheer number of submissions received makes it impossible to keep track of everything that has been requested. Now, every once in awhile, editors/agents run across THE BOOK. These are projects that stick with us, and we will follow-up with the author to be sure we receive that project proposal, but these are few and far between.

Your requested manuscript could be my next favorite book; it just might take me awhile to read it. Even if I’m really excited about the idea, it still usually takes time to work looking at it into my schedule. I know I run the risk of losing the projects to other agents, which is why I try my best to reply in a timely fashion, but my current clients and interactions with publishers must come first.

All of we agents, and editors too, appreciate your understanding and patience. If you haven’t heard anything in 6-8 weeks, I encourage you all to check in, but before that it’s best to hang tight and wait. Something we all do a lot of in this crazy publishing industry!

Little note of apology: I’m so sorry to those of you whose projects I have had for a very long time! I’m behind in my reading and am working toward catching up.

What do you do while you wait for responses from editors and agents?

Location: Books & Such Midwest Office, IL

How many errors do you find, in this sentence; both puntuation, grammer, and spelling errors.

A lot of hard work goes into preparing a stellar proposal for submission. You need to come up with the perfect wording for your hook, a compelling short description, the best choices for your list of competing books, and all those other details that will communicate the worthiness of your manuscript and your knowledge of the industry.  Whew! You feel brain-dead by the time it’s complete.

But you’re not done yet. Not until you have given your proposal a thorough proofreading. You can produce the most impressive content, but grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors can betray you. Agents and editors will see persistent errors as a poor reflection of your professional writing ability. When I read a proposal that is fairly interesting in content, if the writer did a quick proofread, it could make the difference between my continuing to review it or deciding to decline the project.

Don’t rely on your computer’s spell check. Arm yourself with a recent edition of a good grammar book. Also include the 16^th edition of Chicago Manual of Style, which was published last August. There are numerous changes since the 15^th edition. Familiarizing yourself with these resources will communicate that you are up-to-date and professional.

If you don’t feel confident, hire a professional proofreader to do the work for you. Even if you do feel proficient, it is worth having another set of eyes review it. Your proposal represents your one chance with an agent or an editor. It must be a sampling of your publication-ready book. The investment of adequate time and money spent for the final proofread will either add icing to the cake or reveal that it’s under-done and in need of additional “baking” before an agent will take a serious look.

When have you been surprised by what a proofreader found in your proposal or manuscript?  What habitual errors do you have to watch out for that you can alert the rest of us to? Oh, and how many errors did you find in my opening sentence? (Don’t tell us what they are or it will spoil the fun for others!)

Blogger: Wendy Lawton

Location: Books & Such main office or at the courthouse for jury duty

This year at the Writing for the Soul writers’ conference, I was surprised to find on the first day of appointments that I only had two morning (15-minute) appointments in the first two hours of my day. The afternoon was full and my second day filled up, but I was shocked to have free time. It’s not usually like that!

During the two days of the conference, I noticed that editors and agents were often just sitting at the tables alone during meeting times. This should not be happening! These industry professionals are there for you! Tip #2: Take advantage of the one-to-one time with industry professionals. It’s a rare opportunity to talk with these people and enjoy “face-time” with them. Sometimes the personal connection you establish during a meeting is what you need to tip the scales toward publication or representation.

If the conference  has a rule about the number of appointments a conferee can line up and the sign-up time already has occurred, stroll by the sign-up sheets anyway. If you see openings on the sign-up sheets, it’s appropriate to ask the conference staff if you can make an additional appointment. The editors and agents are there to meet with authors during appointment times, not to sit behind tables alone.

Another piece of advice: Even if you don’t think you’re ready for publication or an agent, you can always ask questions about what’s unique about a publishing or a literary agency or what a publisher or agent is looking for in a writer, a project, etc.

How many of you have benefited from one-to-one appointments with editors and agents?

Location: Florida, participating in author-agent-publisher meeting

So, once you’ve assembled your right idea with the right title and done your homework on making a proposal that pops, it’s time to write your  query. Note the order in which these elements have been pulled together. Rather than jumping into writing a query, you’ve taken your time to force yourself to define the project. You know so much about it because you’ve made sure you have a unique idea; an enticing title; and a strong concept of the book’s structure, audience, and even given thought to how you’ll promote it. Now you’re ready to write a winsome query.Your first sentence is important because, like for your book’s first sentence, it sets the tone, highlights a strong point, and launches all that follows with a great ta-da! Not over doing that sentence yet not being bland is the challenge.

I don’t respond well to promises of becoming rich by representing the project or to queries that suggest the book is the most stupendous story since Dickens. Never oversell!

But do:

• Start out with your strongest point. If you’re an authority on a topic, tell me so right up front. If you’ve self-published the book and sold 15,000 copies in six months, I’ll want to hear about that. If your novel has a unique twist, tell me. For example, “Intertwined is a modern re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.” Do you see how quickly I can decide if that idea interests me?
• Show you are capable of writing a cogent argument for the reasons your book should be successful.
• Present yourself as intelligent and authentic. Avoid all appearances of being a snake-oil salesman. Agents want to work with people they genuinely like. Sometimes we can tell by the query that this is a person we’d enjoy meeting. Obviously, we’ll want to make a more substantial connection with a writer to confirm that sense, but this is what you’re striving for in your query.
• Don’t apologize. Don’t start out with, “I’ve never been published,” or “My agent just dropped me,”  or “I’ve submitted my project to every publisher I can imagine, and they’ve all turned me down.” Now, if an agent involves you in conversation about your project, you do need to be forthcoming about these issues, but you don’t need to address them in your query. These confessions come later.
• Tell what the book’s hook is; who the audience is; how you can reach that audience; and a brief paragraph about who you are and why you’re qualified to write the book.
• Be sure to tell what genre or category your book fits in. (Shows you understand what you’re writing and for whom.)
• Tell me the word count. (Informs me as to whether you understand how long a book in your genre or category should be.)
• Don’t forget to mention the title. If that seems obvious, just guess why I’m mentioning it…

Now, just for fun, tell us the first sentence in your query.

Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office, CA

Thanks for hanging in with me this week as I gave you the inside track. It’s not always easy to hear the realities of this business/art we have chosen. Or has it chosen us?

To close this series I want to encourage you to employ some common sense strategies in attracting an agent. Some of these should probably go without saying, but. . .

Do your research. Don’t contact an agent until you’ve done a Google search, read the agency website, followed their Twitters or any blog they may have. You need to talk to other writers. There be some scary people out there calling themselves agents. You should know about an agent before you make a career-long commitment. Believe me, I do some serious research–some serious due diligence–before I ever call a writer offering representation.

Follow each specific agency’s submission protocol. You can’t believe how many queries I get at my business email. Our submission guidelines clearly state that all queries go to: representation@booksandsuch.biz. Why is this important? Each agency has carefully designed a protocol that allows them to handle queries carefully and efficiently. At Books & Such queries that go the correct address get logged in, processed and passed on in a timely fashion. If a query is addressed to me in the subject line but, for one reason or another, I can’t consider that author, the other agents at Books & Such get a chance to look at the query. We do not take queries by mail, queries with attachments, proposals that have not been requested, etc.

Lately, believe it or not, we’ve been getting Twitter queries and Facebook message queries. We’ve also received queries that include a link and ask us to go look at a website. Really? Those are all wastes of time– yours and ours. It’s not the way we do it and we have no system in place to track these or respond to them.

In these complicated days what agent would take on a writer who can’t follow simple instructions? It doesn’t bode well for a long term, reciprocal partnership. And it’s not about our being hard-nosed or controlling– we just want to be efficient and to give each query the careful consideration it deserves. We don’t want to lose queries because they arrived in some wonky way.

Strategize. When you are seeking a literary agent you certainly could contact Nicholas’ Sparks’ agent but what are the chances she could take on a new writer? She has a handful of high profile clients whose careers take an inordinate amount of time to manage. A better strategy would be to query a new agent in a reputable firm. That agent is probably in the process of building his list and may be more open to new clients. In our agency we have two agents with pretty full client lists– Janet Kobobel Grant and me. That’s not to say we are not open for some amazing author who may come along. I’m jus’ sayin’ we have to be ruthlessly picky. But we have two newer agents who are building their lists. Both of these agents are exceptional (or they wouldn’t have been chosen to be part of the team).

Rachel Kent is a twenty-something genius who specializes in books for her own demographic– YA and twenty-something books. Her very first sale was a three-book fantasy series to a prestigious house for a not-yet-twenty-year-old author. Amazing! She is building her list slowly because she has a very discerning eye but if you have a book that fits her demographic you’d query her at Representation@booksandsuch.biz and put “For Rachel Kent” in the subject line.

Mary Keeley is even newer to agenting but she is a publishing veteran. We used to pitch our clients’ work to her when she was a nonfiction editor at Tyndale House. She’s also worked with a number of authors during her tenure at Christianity Today. Janet recruited her because she definitely has the eye! We were delighted when she agreed to join the team. If you wanted to query Mary you’d write to her at Representation@booksandsuch.biz and put “For Mary Keeley” in the subject line. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)

This strategy could be applied to any agency. Find the agent who’s newer and actively searching. If those agencies are anything like ours you need not be worried about a too-new agent. We are highly collaborative and Janet systematically mentors each agent. You get the power of the full agency behind you. It’s a great strategy. An insider’s secret.

Attracting your perfect agent is much like an executive job search. What other strategies might you employ?

Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office

Judging by my inbox, a record number of writers have decided that 2011 is their year to publish-or-die. Is that your New Year’s resolution? Sad Truth #1: Getting published is akin to making it as an actor in Hollywood, being a singer selected for American Idol or a musician who gets a big label record deal. In other words, it’s an uphill battle. Sad Truth #2: Established agents have very few open spots for new writers. While we are all looking for the perfect new talent, we have to balance our lists between stars, rising stars, steadily published writers, newly published writers and unpublished writers. Sad Truth #3: When considering new writers talent is a big part of it but there’s so much more.

That said, with the right stuff, you can make it. Writers break in every day. Many go on to have long, successful careers. A few skyrocket to success beyond their wildest dreams. One of the first things a writer needs to do on his way to being published is find a literary agent who believes in him and can open all the right doors.

This week I’m going to offer you the inside track on what moves a writer out of the pack and into contention. Before I begin, let me remind you that there are a number of workarounds to getting an agent. The traditional query process is not the only way. I wrote about those workarounds here, here, here, here, and here. Also, getting an agent is not the only way to reach your publishing goal. I shattered that myth here.

But if you are looking to find an agent let me use this week to let you in on a few secrets– the things that make me sit up and take notice.

The first thing I look for in a potential client is knowledge of the industry. I want a client who is a professional and has invested the time to become familiar with publishing. When I first started as a writer, the internet was barely up and running. I bought books. I read everything I could get my hands on. I studied the craft but I also devoured books on publishing and marketing. I joined writers’ organizations like CWFI and SCBWI. These days it is so much easier. The information, the organizations, and the connections are all available online. Editors, publishers and agents blog– giving you the inside scoop on everything from getting published to marketing your book. There is no reason to be clueless.

Because you are reading this blog I realize I am preaching to the choir. You are already one step ahead of most of the queries I receive.

Along with that knowledge of the industry I look for writers who are connected. If you are writing fiction, I look to see what organizations and critique groups you belong to. I like to see queries from writers whose names I recognize because they Twitter with other writers, they comment on writer blogs or they follow a number of my writer/agent/editor friends on Facebook. (And yes, we all notice names that appear regularly.) It’s a time investment in the writing community and it bodes well. A connected writer is a writer who has a network of people to help on the journey.

You might ask: How would an agent know I’m knowledgeable and know I’m connected? Those hint are available to us in your query. First off, there is no excuse these days for not knowing how to write a query. There’s probably more information on writer’s sites about query-writing than anything else. A query with an attached manuscript or too much information or too little information is a dead giveaway that someone hasn’t invested any time in learning about the process. But the clues to a knowledgeable writer are evident as well. If you are a children’s writer and you mention that your picture book is  32-page book and that you are a member of SCBWI, those are keywords that let us know that you know what you are doing and you are connected. The novelist who nails the genre perfectly, knows her potential audience and mentions something she read in the blog or on my website is a dead giveaway.  The nonfiction writer who tells me why he is the go-to person for his particular subject shows he knows what the industry requires these days. We agents become very good at ferreting out clues from queries.

When we ask for a proposal and sample chapters it becomes simple to identify those writers who are knowledgable and invested.

Now it’s your turn: Why do you think it’s so important to know the industry and be invested in it? After all, you are seeking an agent. Can’t your agent handle all the industry/ business stuff so you can go off somewhere and write? What happened to the age-old hermit/ writer?

Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office

If you frequent agent blogs or follow agents on Twitter you’ll see plenty written about the many ways writers fail. From terrible queries to brash behavior, from craft errors to marketing omissions, from lack of skill to lack of ideas– all have been skewered online. I figured turnabout is fair play. Last week I attended a question and answer session at the Sierra Foothills Christian Writer’s Conference. Several of the questions form the basis for this series of blog posts.

The first four days of this week I’m going to open the curtain to let you see how we fail. Consider it my personal mea culpa. Today and tomorrow I will talk about how we fail those of you who are not yet our clients. Wednesday and Thursday I’ll talk about how we either fail our clients or inadvertently hold them up.  And on Friday, by contrast, I’ll talk about bad agents. (Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as a bad agent.)

So let’s get started. . .

In a perfect world a literary agent would not only be a talent scout but would help develop that talent. She would spot potential and mentor that fledgling to soaring heights. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world. Let’s talk about the sad realities.

• Talent Scout. Here’s where we do the best we can with the time we have. Honestly? I’d have to take a failing grade here. There’s so much talent out there we can’t even begin to scratch the surface. I’ve talked about the broken query system in post after post, but we use queries to see if we spot that combination of brilliant concept, engaging writer and above-average skill. If you think writing a winning query is hard you should try to predict potential success based on a query. In that aforementioned perfect world we’d forget queries altogether and just read the manuscript and meet the writer. But here’s the truth: If we have a full client base we barely have time to look at queries at all, let alone get into the meat of potential project. I hate it! The writer wants to know why we can’t at least give him a little feedback or even an answer to his query. Again, the truth: there is no time.  The upshot is that we miss out on some wonderful books and amazing authors and there’s not a one of us who doesn’t mourn this loss.
• Talent Developer: I was at the San Francisco Writer’s Conference when a writer pitched her idea to me. The title alone sold me– high concept with enormous commercial possibilities. I took a look at her writing and immediately saw that her skills were no match for the idea. There was no way she could pull it off. In that perfect world I would have taken her on, helping her develop her skills. But when I’m already having to turn away ready-to-publish authors, is it fair to my clients to take on an author who will require that much time to develop? Sadly, that book will probably never be published. Give me a #fail on this one as well.

You can see that I keep defaulting to a lack of time. That’s the sad reality. An agent needs to spend the bulk of her time working for her clients. The more successful clients an agent has, the less time an agent has for those writers who are not yet clients. Here at Books & Such we’ve made a commitment to try to help mentor non-clients by our commitment to daily blogging and by attending writer’s conferences. A writer who follows agent blogs can often get his question answered by asking it in the comment section. And, as he comments, he begins to get his name known as well.

Insider Tip: A writer stands a much better chance with a new agent who is in the process of building a clientele. Here at Books & Such we have a brand new agent, Mary Keeley. She’s got a depth of experience in publishing. In fact I used to pitch client projects to her when she was a nonfiction editor at Tyndale. If you have one of those fabulous projects, you can reach her with a query at representation@booksandsuch.com. Put “For Mary Keeley” in the subject line.

We talked about that perfect world. If you were to design your perfect agent, what would he/she be like?