When you accomplish what so few people do, which is to write and edit a book, you’ll likely start to wonder what’s next. Well, it’s a dream for most writers to get their books published and sold in bookstores. To do this, you will most likely need what’s called a literary agent. This blog is designed to get you thinking about the next steps after you finish and polish your manuscript and what materials you will need to realize this dream.
How Does a Beta Reader Help You Get a Literary Agent?
Beta readers can improve your chances of landing an agent. A literary agent is someone who represents or champions your manuscript to publishers with the goal of getting it sold. They negotiate deals and pitch your project to some of the publishers out there who may have a spot in the market that your book might fit. An agent will read queries sent from writers all around the world and decide which of them they think they can sell to one of the big publishers. The “big five” publishers include Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.
Agents will also often serve as editors. They might help their writers improve their stories in various ways. They also generally coordinate and organize other people to help with the book, such as a cover artist or editor. You should know that agents don’t charge upfront fees. They work on commission, generally 15%. So, they only make money when you do.
What is the Process Like for Agent
Here is a rough breakdown of what the process looks like from acquiring an agent to getting your book published. By no means are you guaranteed to get your book published if you acquire an agent.
You send out a round of queries. You likely receive a bunch of rejections. Sometimes, an agent will ask to read the rest of your manuscript and if you’re lucky and have an excellent manuscript, they will send you an offer of representation.
You accept the offer. The actual terms will sometimes vary but generally, the contract will spell out things like the parties involved, termination, renewal, commission, and the terms of representation.
You do edits with your agent. Sometimes many, sometimes few, or none at all.
After completing edits, you go on what’s called submission, which is where you and your agent submit your project to editors. This part is kind of like querying but can be even more painstaking and onerous. This is where your agent submits to a list of editors at imprints and presses. You will likely receive more rejections at this stage and there isn’t much else to do besides wait. The actual length of this process varies also; months can go by without a word.
If an editor is interested, they will show your manuscript to their colleagues to get confirmation that it is worth pursuing.
Once an editor accepts, you proceed to acquisitions meetings. These involve discussions of sales, design, and marketing aspects.
Your book will either make it through acquisitions or it won’t. If it does, your agent will receive an offer. Your agent will contact other publishers saying that your manuscript has been given an offer and if they would like to counter, they have to reply by a certain deadline.
Assuming no one else makes an offer, your agent might negotiate the offer and you may accept it or decline it. But if other offers are yielded, then your manuscript will go to an auction. All the publishers submit offers and counter-offers that you can accept or decline.
You accept a final offer and your book will very likely get published at this stage.
How do I Find the Right Agent?
Finding the right agent can feel overwhelming because there are so many in so many agencies. First, there are two sources that can really make this process a whole lot easier: ManuscriptWishList and QueryTracker. Both of these sources allow you to search for agents, publishers, and editors based on the genres they specialize in. Query
Tracker actually shows things like if the agent is currently open to queries if they accept queries through email, and if they accept queries through QueryManager. If you pay for an upgraded version, it shows other data and more extensive search tools.
I use both of these tools. But the process I’ve used to search for an agent starts with knowing what your genre is. You need to know your genre to start querying, as generally, you will sort through agents based on the genres they specialize in. I record an extensive list of agents who specialize in my genre and then I sort through these agents based on the agencies they work for. When I look at the agencies, I will look at the titles they represent. I ask myself: can I see my book among these? Do I like the aesthetics? Do I like what the agency is about? After I’ve answered these questions, I might look through the other agents at the agency and read what they’re looking for. I repeat this process for all the agents I found in my initial search and record a second list of agents I will query.
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