Anatomy of my query process Part 2

Back to the story of how I ended up signing with Chris Richman at Firebrand. Here's the funny thing: Chris wasn't even the agent I queried.

Chris was a new agent and only had one client at the time. I'm pretty sure he had either just made his first sale or was about to, but he didn't have much of a track record at that point. So why did I end up signing with him?

Let's assume that you've crafted the most kick-ass query letter out there to do with your amazing story of a boy and his magical flying hippopotamus. You've got nine out often agents reading and you've got four or five offers of representation. How do you make your decision?

The first thing you have to do is take a HUGE breath and keep your cool. Signing with the first agent that offers representation just because you're excited is not the best way to make a decision. What you need to know is that you can sever your relationship with your agent at any time (with the proper notice) if you find that the relationship isn't working, but taking time to do it right at the outset is preferable.

Here's why: Say you get an offer from Agent Billy Bob at Billy Bob's Literary Agenting and Hot Wings. You're so excited to get the offer (and he even threw in a free bucket of wings) that you sign right away. Billy Bob goes to work for you. He sends My Magic Hippo and Me to every editor in the biz. While you wait. After six months and twenty pounds (from all the wings) you finally demand to know what's going on with your hippo. Billy Bob sends you more wings and says to hold your hippo, publishing is slow. Another six months pass and still nothing. Finally you realize that Billy Bob just randomly sent your baby to the senior editor at every major house, but he did so without talking to them or letting them know about it. So they passed 'cause they were like, "What is this novel and why does it smell like wing sauce?" You decide that you and Billy Bob aren't a good match and that you don't even like wings. You sever the relationship. Then you re-query and find Heath McSwagger at White Knight Agency. He's dreamy and knows all the right editors and doesn't like wings either. In short, he's the perfect agent for you. The problem is that everyone's already seen My Magic Hippo and Me, they're not going to want to see it again, not unless you replace the Hippo with a werewolf and the boy with a vampire and call it Fangs and Fur: A tale of Forbidden Love. So yes, you have an awesome agent, but you have a book that smells like wing sauce and won't sell. Not the end of the world, but if you'd taken your time and found Heath McSwagger from the outset, My Magic Hippo and Me could be sitting pretty on top of the NYT Besteller list.

So when Chris called, here's what I did: I changed my drawers, took a deep breath, and emailed the other agents. I did so because it's only polite. If you have an offer on the table, give the other agents a chance to read and make their decision. For me, I told Chris that I wanted to hear from at least five agents before I made my decision. All the agents I emailed were awesome and polite.

Mini-Rant: Mostly this post is for writers, but here's one thing about agents that bugged me majorly when I was querying. I get that agents are busy. I really do. But if someone's just spent months or years writing and revising a book and then followed all the instructions to craft the perfect query, please have the courtesy to respond, even if it's a no. This policy some agents have of only responding if they want the book is rude. That's my personal belief. It doesn't have to be a personal email or letter. It can be a form email. But leaving a writer in limbo is sort of mean. I made the decision that even if that agency wanted my book that I wouldn't sign with them. Why? Because if the time can't be taken to send a form letter even, how would I be treated as a client? That's all I'm going to say about that.

So there I was. I had Chris in one corner and a couple of other agents in the other corner. Chris had little experience. The other agents had varying levels of experience, but all had more than Chris. They were all from respectable houses and had confirmed sales of books that I'd read and admired. They were all really polite and liked my book and the voice and such, but none of them went as far out of their way as Chris did. And that's what sold me.

Listen, getting your book published requires an agent who knows the right editors to submit to, someone who's willing to take the time to personally talk the editors up. Most of all it needs an agent who is so gung-ho about your book that they can't stop talking about it to anyone who will listen. Why? Because they'll need to stay excited about it through multiple rejections, through various revisions, through teary, frantic phone calls from you about how you just want to give up. They need to have absolute confidence that they can sell it even if twenty editors have passed. And they need to feel the same way about your career as a writer, because picking an agent isn't just about selling one book, it's about creating a career.

And that's what Chris had. Out of all the agents, I could tell Chris was the most enthusiastic. There were other factors, like he was more relaxed and casual than the other agents (but still professional) which is awesome for me since I have a tendency to take little seriously, and he had good suggestions for how to make The Deathday Letter even better, but it was his passion for my book that really sold me.

Over the last 10 months I've been proven right. We sold The Deathday Letter, even after some bumps in the road, and Chris has been awesome about handling the various negotiation stuff. He sent me pudding when it sold, and let me freak out when I got some revision notes I didn't like.

That's it. You want to make sure your agent has a good reputation and a good track record and works with a reputable agency, but at the end of the day trust your gut. You want to work with someone who matches your style. If you like the phone (which I don't) make sure you agent does too. If you need daily updates, make sure your agent is someone who doesn't update only every six months. If you're super serious, make sure you don't get a joker like Chris. And most important, make sure that whoever you sign with loves your book at least as much as you do, after all, you're putting it in their hands.

Next week: Point of View - To I or not to I.

Anatomy of my query process

I'm a researcher. I love doing research. I have to shut off my internet connection while I'm writing because if I don't I might lose myself in researching some tidbit that has come up. It's a sickness really. One of the ways I come up with story ideas is to surf wikipedia. I just go from article to article. I can start with NASA and end up with DARPA. Or puppies.

Anyway, so when I decided (prematurely) that I was ready to search for an agent, I put a lot of research into it. First I read up on how to query an agent. The following sites were indispensable:

Miss Snark
Pub Rants
Nathan Bransford
Janet Reid

Now, there are more. There's Agent X, my awesome agency's blog at Firebrand Literary, and many others. But the sites above (especially Miss Snark) helped me learn what NOT to put into a query letter.

The most important rule I learned is that when in doubt FOLLOW THE AGENCY GUIDELINES. Did I say that loud enough? It seems silly to say but one of the biggest gripes I hear from agents is that people shoot themselves in the foot by NOT following guidelines. If an agent requests a query letter and the first five pages, then don't send a query letter and the fourth chapter. Or just a query letter. Or just five pages. If an agent says that they only accept queries via homing pigeons named Steve, then that's how you need to send it.

Some of the requests might seem meaningless to you. They might seem arbitrary. They might seem downright silly. But it's their right to ask for queries to be submitted in any form they want, just as it's your right not to submit to them. It's just like applying for any job. If you don't like their policies, don't apply there.

All you're really doing if you ignore their guidelines is pretty much guaranteeing that your query will be deleted/ignored/rejected out of hand. I mean, you wouldn't show up for a job interview in plaid shorts, flip flops, and that one tee shirt with the hole in the armpit would you? Unless you're applying for a job as me.

The next thing you want to do is gather your list of agents. You'll want to query widely. When I compiled my list, I created a two-tiered list (I did say I liked research, right?). The first tier consisted of my ten dream agents. They were the agents I really wanted to work with. The agents who I thought would most mesh with my annoying personality. Then I created a second list with about 30 agents that I also thought would represent me well.

How did I come up with the lists? A combination of research, intuition and guess work. I liked Kristen Nelson not just because of how well she represented her clients on her blog, but also because she has kickin' taste in music.

The websites that helped me find agents were:

Agent Query

Preditors and Editors

There are other sites like BackSpace and Publisher's Marketplace, but Agent Query especially helped me find the agents I was looking for. I had specific criteria in mind. I wanted a younger agent because my book was a little edgier (and I have the sense of humor of an 8th grader). I wanted my agent to have a good web presence. I wanted my agent to rep the kinds of books I wanted to read. I wanted my agent to have a proven track record.

Once I'd made my lists I wrote my basic query letter. Now, most sites will tell you to avoid gimmicks, and I agree, but this is where I broke the rules. Since my book is about a boy who receives a letter informing him he has one day to live, I decided to open my query the same way. I did have some fear that I'd send out all these query letters and that within days FBI would be arresting me for sending out death threats, but it was a risk I'm glad I took.

The next couple of paragraphs described my book. This is the most important part. These couple of paragraphs are all you have to hook the agent. If you can't do it in three paragraphs, they're going to bet you can't do it in a whole book. Maybe they're wrong, but with most agents getting a couple hundred query letters a day, they have to draw the line somewhere. There's just not enough time for them to read every person's book.

In order to make my query stand out, I used the same voice from the book. That gave the agent a taste of my writing style as well as the plot. I used those three paragraphs to let the agents know what the main crux of the story was, but also what some of the smaller subplots were going to be.

After I described my book, I gave them a real quick bit about me. I have no real writing experience, but once again I kept the irreverent voice and made a quick joke. This was in keeping up the tone of the book. These kinds of jokes were going to be in the book. This was the kind of writer they'd be getting. I also told them what genre the book was and how long. Two bits of important info too many people leave out. Granted, one could have surmised from my description that The Deathday Letter is YA fiction, but better safe than sorry.

Finally, I personalized every email. If they had a blog, I mentioned reading it. If they had a cool webpage, I mentioned that. This is your chance in just a sentence or two to let them know that you didn't just pick their name with a finger jab. Have you read a book they rep? Mention it. Did you meet them at a conference? Remind them. Have you spent the last six weeks outside their window with a telephoto lens and a box of Cheez-its? Yeah, maybe leave that out.

Once you've written your query, let others read it. I honestly think I spent more time on those 260 words than I did on my novel. Tweak it. Set it in a box and forget it for a week. Then, when you're ready, send it out.

Then wait. I got my first reply in hours. My next in a day. The rest staggered over the next couple of weeks. But it can take many weeks to get a reply. Then, if they want to read the partial or full, many more weeks (months) after that. Patience is one thing you absolutely have to learn.

And that's it.

Next week I'll tell you all why I chose Chris Richman at Firebrand Literary, a relatively unknown agent with one sale under his belt, to rep me. Which incidentally turned out to be the best decision I could have made.

Right. My query letter. So here it is. It's not perfect by any means, but it got the job done. It got my foot in the door of nine out of my ten dream agents, which is all it needed to do. By the way...don't forget to personalize every query to the agent you're sending it to. Spell their names correctly and use the appropriate salutation. Details matter.

It is our duty to inform you that your death is scheduled to occur on the early morning of October 17th, 2008.

Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated. Have a pleasant day.

All thirteen year-old Oliver Travers wanted to do when he woke up Thursday morning was squeeze in a little underwear gymnastics before school, until his mom called him downstairs to tell him he had received a Deathday Letter, which sort of ruined the mood.

Content to spend his last day of life at school (where the girls are), Oliver's best friends Shane Grimsley and Veronica (Ronnie) Dittrich convince him to burn his books and ditch school to track down the source of his letter and find out why he's been chosen to die.

In a world where only taxes, Deathday Letters, and teenage boy's hormones are certainties, Oliver, Shane and Ronnie embark upon a bus ride that takes them from the post office, to a house filled with college-aged anti-Deathday Letter activists (and Dave Matthews fans), and nearly to prison. And as the end draws near Oliver learns that living is way tougher than dying…and that kissing is wetter than he'd expected.

THE DEATHDAY LETTER, a quirky YA novel, is complete at 60,000 words. This is my first novel, but my short fiction has previously appeared on the wall of Mrs. Miller's third grade class (with two gold stars), and my non-fiction has previously appeared in XY Magazine.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my query and I look forward to hearing from you.

Why Agents Rock

I've been having a lively conversation over on Self-Publishing Review about the nature and responsibility of an agent. There are a lot of negative ideas out there about agents, and I can't address them all, so I thought that I'd tell my story. Tell how I got my agent and what our relationship is like.

First off, I think that a lot of the anger that revolves around agents comes simply from rejection. No one likes it. No one likes repeated rejections. But statistics are not in the writer's favor. I follow Jennifer Jackson's blog and she posts her request rates every Friday. Usually she reads about 100 - 200 queries. I don't think I've ever seen her make more than two or three partial requests. Kristen Nelson read something like 30,000 queries last year, and I think she took on about two clients (it's early and I'm not fact checking but I'm pretty sure that's close). The point is: Agents have a lot of rules and quirks and guidelines, all of which are make writers feel like they're jumping through hoops just to be rejected. I think a lot of the anger comes from this place. If writers stopped focusing on the agents and more on their own work, maybe the ratios would rise a little.

On to my story. I finished my book THE DEATHDAY LETTER (it's my job to be shamelessly self-promotional) and had been researching agents. There are a lot of really great sites out there to make sure that you don't get scammed (Predators & Editors, Miss Snark, AgentQuery, just to name a couple). I amassed my dream list, the ten agents I felt were a match for my book, my personality, and my style. Then I worked on my query letter. I used other query letters for inspiration, and read up on some do's and don'ts of the query letter.

I'll find out from my agent if I can put up my query letter here. Until then I'll just tell you about it. Because my book was funny, I used humor to sell my story and myself. Out of ten agents, I got partial and full manuscript requests from nine. I believe my book had a good hook, but it was the query letter that got me in the door.

I hadn't expected to get so many replies so quickly. I sent my query letters, expecting replies to take six weeks or so, and then when on my vacation to Europe. I was happily surprised by all the attention, but since I was on vacation, my ability to reply was very limited. It was Chris at Firebrand Literary that really went above and beyond. Originally I had queried Nadia Cornier. Firebrand Literary, and Nadia in particular, just had the right mix of quirky playfulness and professionalism. Plus, their solid sales record was great. Chris was a new agent, I'd never heard of him, but Nadia passed my query to him and he tracked me down.

I'd sent him my full manuscript before leaving, and he wanted to talk immediately. The time difference made things difficult, but Chris went out of his way to accommodate my schedule. I was only going to be gone for two weeks, so I was surprised when he was so eager to talk to me. I had other offers from the agents I queried, but it was Chris's exuberance that sold me. He was so psyched about THE DEATHDAY LETTER that he tracked me down in Europe and made time to get to know me. That was the kind of guy I wanted representing my book and career.
When I got back, we worked on some editing. He had some good suggestions, some of which I resisted. It wasn't all roses. Both Chris and I have strong personalities, so there were misunderstandings, but one thing never changed: my agent's excitement about my book. Even after we started sending it out and my own excitement was replaced with fear and anxiety, Chris was my cheerleader.

Just recently, we sold THE DEATHDAY LETTER, and Chris was there to guide me through the process, to make sure that we got the best terms, to make sure I understood what was going one. He negotiated me a wonderful deal and I'm now working with a wonderful editor who is as excited about my book as Chris was.

A great agent can make the whole process of getting published, seem less daunting, because it is daunting. There were days where I wanted to give up, where the waiting seemed like too much. Chris isn't there to edit my stories, but he's invested enough in my career to read them and provide me with honest feedback. A good agent is worth his weight in gold. But it's a two way street. If you want to get an agent, you have to be a good writer, you have to follow their guidelines whether you agree with them or not. Once you get an agent, you have to be a good client. You are not your agent's only writer. You may feel like four days is too long a response time if you've asked your agent to read a manuscript, but really, it's not.

This whole thing has been an amazing learning process for me. I'm sure I've screwed up and done things that caused Chris to face palm in exasperation, but as I move forward with my career, I move forward with an agent who cares about my career, and about making me the me I can be.