Chapter Fifteen

Agents and Other Oddities

“I wrote a book. It sucked. I wrote nine more books. They sucked, too. Meanwhile, I read every single thing I could find on publishing and writing, went to conferences, joined professional organizations, hooked up with fellow writers in critique groups, and didn’t give up. Then I wrote one more book.”
—Beth Revis

You’ve written a story. You’ve polished and polished and polished. You’ve made writer friends and are part of a publishing community. You’ve done everything you can to prepare for the next hurdle: publishing your work.

This is where the real fun starts.

Consorting with the Frenemy

The good news is that there are many more publishing options for writers than there used to be. In the old days, there were two avenues: traditional publishing and vanity publishing. Very few writers published by a vanity publisher—apart from the occasional poet—were taken seriously. The only respectable option was traditional publishing.

That was then; this is now. Self-publishing is a viable option for many writers, notably those who (1) are writing for reasons of legacy more than career and/or (2) are marketing whizzes who can sell their own books. If this describes you, then you may be happy going the self-pushing route.

But if you prefer the traditional route, then you need to find a way to get your work read by the decision makers who can publish your work. This means pitching your work to agents and editors.

Pitch, Process, Persist

“Above all, a query letter is a sales pitch, and it is the single most important page an unpublished writer will ever write. It’s the first impression and will either open the door or close it. It’s that important, so don’t mess it up. Mine took seventeen drafts and two weeks to write.”
—Nicholas Sparks

Pitching is an art unto itself. It’s a sales pitch, really—and you should write one that you can use to pitch anyone, anywhere—at conferences, in elevators, in queries. This way you can make the most of every opportunity you may have to introduce your book to agents and editors.

Write out your pitch in advance, and hone it until it sings. Let’s take a hard look at what makes a good pitch.

A Step-By-Step Elevator Pitch Breakdown

Step One: Describe your book in fifty words or less.

This description should include the following:

A title: I know you’ve heard that titles don’t matter and that publishers change them anyway—so why bother? Titles often do change, but nonetheless you need to come up with a strong title before you pitch your work. Research the titles of best-selling books in your genre to see what kinds of titles are working well. Here are some possible titling conventions to help you brainstorm one of your own:

• Objects of desire: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett; The Secret by Rhonda Byrne; The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
• Action: Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard; Eat This, Not That! by David Zinczenko; The Escape by David Baldacci
• One-liners: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain; If You’re Not First, You’re Last by Grant Cardone; Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson
• Setting: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane; The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose; South of Broad by Pat Conroy
• A Twist on a poem, song, book, or cliché: A Running Duck by Paula Gosling; A Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton; The Second Time Around by Mary Higgins Clark; There Was an Old Woman by Hallie Ephron; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future by Michael J. Fox
• Theme: Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow; The Blind Side by Michael Lewis; Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott
• Symbolism: A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman; Blink by Malcolm Gladwell; Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
• Character: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier; Oprah by Kitty Kelley; Delores Claiborne by Stephen King; Saint Odd by Dean Koontz

Word count: This is the number of words in your manuscript, which should correspond to the industry standard for your given subgenre.

Type of book: This is the genre or subgenre your work falls into: thriller, mystery, romance, memoir, self-help, how-to, graphic novel, etc.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP): This is marketing-speak for what is unique about your book, what sets it apart from all the other books in its genre.

• High-concept premise: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline; The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Unique setting: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert; The Martian by Andy Weir
• Unique characters: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris; In Cold Blood by Truman Capote; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Unique voice: My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler; Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott; Wild by Cheryl Strayed
• Author’s credentials/history: Joseph Wambaugh’s cop novels; Margaret Truman’s Capitol Crimes series; Chris Kyle’s American Sniper; Rhoda Janzen’s Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Step Two: Briefly describe your credentials.

Your descriptions should pertain only to your ability to write this great book. Here are some examples:

• I’m a freelance writer who writes for Great Desserts magazine. That’s why my memoir, Chocoholic, incorporates recipes, baking techniques, and quotes from famous pastry chefs and candy makers.
• I’m an attorney specializing in criminal law—so I made the protagonist in my legal thriller one, too.
• I do a lot of community theater, and I’m using my years as an actor to give Summer Stock Murder an authentic, insider tone.
• I’m a therapist who specializes in couples counseling in my private practice in Beverly Hills, and I draw upon that experience in my groundbreaking self-help book, How to Stay Married Even When You’re Rich and Famous.

Step Three: Expound on your description of your work and your credentials.

If you’re pitching in person, you need to be able to do this in lively and direct detail when asked. If you’re writing a query letter, then you need do the same, but in writing. (See the samples later in this chapter.)

Step Four: Prepare some questions.

If you are pitching in person, think of a couple of questions you’d like to ask the agent or editor that might be pertinent to your project and the home it might find with this person. For example, you might ask her if she thinks your Southern setting is a selling point, or if she’s had good experiences with independent publishers, or if your subgenre is selling well right now.

How to Write a Query

Now that you’ve developed your elevator pitch, you have the basis for a great query letter. Queries are the e-mails you send to agents and editors in the hope of interesting them in your work. Here’s a template for a good query, part by part:

• Subject Line: This is the headline of your query.
• Salutation: “Dear X,” X being the name of the intended recipient. Do spell X’s name correctly, and never write “Dear Agent.” If I had a dollar for every query that began “Dear Paul” or “Dear Agent” or “Dear Mr. Munier” …
• Personal touch (optional): If you were referred by a mutual colleague or you met at a conference or whatever, refresh the agent’s memory. Nicely.
• Elevator pitch: This is the pitch you’ve honed and honed and honed.
• Expansion of pitch: This is where you expand on your pitch, adding a plot point or two, a subplot, etc.
• Bio: This is a short (fifty-word) description of you, your credentials, and/or your platform, and how they inform your story.
• Closing: Say how much you’d like to send them a copy of your manuscript.
• Contact Info: Your name, your e-mail, your phone number, your website, etc.

Here’s a query I wrote for Red Line, the wonderful debut novel written by my swell client Brian Thiem. (You can pick up a copy of this great read wherever you like to buy your books.)

Of course, the queries you write to agents and editors will be written from a different point of view: yours. Here’s a wonderful query I got from a writer that led to me signing her as a client and selling this story to a Big Five house in a very nice deal. (You can buy the compelling new adult novel The Registry by Shannon Stoker wherever you like to buy your books.)

Process and Persist

“You fail only if you stop writing.”
—Ray Bradbury

You’ve written a great query, and you have a polished manuscript ready to send out. Now you need to come up with a list of agents (and editors) to query.

Any personal connection will help. As you’ve seen, agents (and editors) are swamped with queries and submissions. Speaking for myself—with the understanding that all agents and editors struggle with similar issues—my first responsibility is to my signed authors. My hands—and my in-box—are full with just the books I’m already working to sell. Of course, my secondary obligation is to find great new writers and projects—but that’s something I mostly do after hours, in my so-called spare time. (Truth be told, almost all of my reading—and I know that I am not alone in this—whether written by signed clients or potential clients, happens on evenings and weekends.)

The pile of projects waiting to be read is extremely high. At any given time, I have at least fifty projects to read in my secondary pile. (Yes, I’m a fast reader. No, I don’t keep reading if the work is not well crafted.) Your goal is to get to the top of that secondary pile.

Anything that takes you out of the slush—the unsolicited work that comes dead last on the agent’s to-do list—is a good thing. So if you can put “Referred by Editor X” or “Requested material from Conference Y” or “Pushcart Prize Nominee’s New Novel” or “Forensics Expert’s New Thriller” in the subject line of your e-mail query, you can set yourself apart in the in-box. When that’s not an option, then make sure you have a heck of a headline.

Rejection Sucks. Get Over It.

“Rejection refines us. Those who fall prey to its enervating, soul-sucking tentacles are doomed. Those who persist past it are survivors. Best ask yourself the question: What kind of writer are you? The kind who survives? Or the kind who gets asphyxiated by the tentacles of woe?”
—Chuck Wendig

Once you start sending out queries, the waiting begins. The wait can be interminable—first to hear back from the agents and then to hear back from the editors your agent contacts to read your work. I tell people to “pester me nicely” every week until I read their work, and I’ll be the first to admit that it can take a long time for me to read it.

That’s why you never send your work to just one agent at a time. Feel free to submit to multiple parties. If an agent asks for an exclusive, meaning that you offer her alone the opportunity to read your work for a limited period of time, you can grant it—but for no more than two weeks.

You’ll probably collect more than one rejection on your path to publication. But that’s the nature of the business. Don’t let this get you down or deter you in any way. If you receive any specific feedback (as opposed to a generic rejection letter), then you should congratulate yourself—and listen to that feedback. If someone asks you to revise and resubmit, then do it. (I’ve signed more than one client after the writer revised the work based on my feedback.)

Whatever you do, don’t be rude, snarky, or a pain in the butt. Don’t trash people, at least not publicly, online or elsewhere. Publishing is a small world, and the rules of business etiquette apply here, too. Be polite and professional, no matter what.

And keep on submitting your work. While you wait, write the next book.

“Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work.”
—James Lee Burke

The “Business” of Publishing

When an agent offers to represent you, have a frank and open conversation to help you figure out if this agent is right for you. Here are some areas you might want to cover:

• Commission structure. The standard is 15 percent of sales, with 20 percent for foreign and film. No agent should charge reading fees.
• The scope of revisions, if needed.
• A submission plan. Like many agents, I prepare a submission plan to share with each client.
• The preferred means of communication. E-mail, phone, text, etc. I tell my clients to text me; I also have a separate e-mail for clients and editors only.
• Transparency. This can vary according to the preferences of the agent and the client. I report all feedback to my clients—unless they are too thin-skinned to hear it. Which is not a good thing, in my humble opinion.
• Career. Make sure you are both on the same page in terms of where you want to go in your career and how you want to get there.

The most important thing may be the agent’s enthusiasm for your work. You want an agent who believes in you and your work, and who shares a similar vision for your career.

The Good News Is You’ve Got an Agent

When you do sign with an agent, you are entering a professional relationship. Your agent is not your secretary or your shrink or your mother; your agent is your publishing advocate. It’s a partnership, dedicated to furthering your publishing career. Remember that your agent doesn’t get paid until he sells your work, so the fact that he believes in you and your work strongly enough to take you on for a commission that may or may not happen already indicates a commitment on his part. With any luck, this relationship will prove one of the most stimulating, long-lasting, beneficial, and profitable associations of your professional life. Like a good marriage, you should remember to enjoy and appreciate it.

That said, not every agent-author relationship works out that way. If your agent fails to sell your work, don’t automatically assume that it’s her fault. Ask to see the feedback she’s received—and take it seriously. Sometimes it’s the revised version of the book that sells, the one you fixed after an early round of submission based on feedback from editors. Or sometimes, it’s the next book that sells.

Sometimes your partnership runs its course, or turns out not to be a good fit, and you should move on. But do discuss any issues you may have with your agent; I’m always surprised at the many writers I meet who have complained publicly and privately about their agents to anyone who will listen but have never actually voiced their complaints to the agents themselves. That’s like getting a divorce without ever telling your spouse why you’re leaving. Talk to your agent, and maybe you can work it out. If not, you can leave with no regrets.

The Business of Promotion

The business of publishing has changed more in the past twenty years—and especially in the past five years—than it has since Gutenberg invented the printing press back in the fifteenth century. The rise and decline of the chain bookstores, the e-book revolution, the proliferation of online publishers and booksellers, the predominance of social media—all these factors and more have changed the book business in profound ways that we haven’t even begun to understand yet. And that change will continue.

All this change affects the way you do business as a writer. Once you find a publisher, you can’t just sit back and rest on your contract. In the old days, authors were reliant upon their publishers to promote and market their work—and if you were a small fish in a big pond, your books often got overlooked, as publishers reserved the bulk of their publicity and marketing budgets for the brand-name authors.

But authors no longer have to rely on the publisher; the good news is that the digital world we now live in offers you the opportunity to drive your own PR and marketing. You can generate great PR, build your readership, and boost your sales on your own and/or in coordination with your publisher’s efforts. You need to show your publisher and your readers that you are committed to promoting and selling your books.

You can begin building your platform before you even write a word. But once the contract is signed and you know that you have a book coming out, you certainly need to focus on this. These are the strategies I advise my clients to consider:

1. Hire a blog tour manager to set up blog tours for you to promote your book.
2. Ramp up your social media efforts. This means a website and a Facebook page, of course, but also a marketing campaign that includes:
   • contests
   • giveaways
   • blogs
   • newsletters
   • Skyping with book clubs
   • writing short pieces for online publications popular with your readership
   • hanging out on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and wherever your readership hangs out online
3. Find your readers and court them. If you can afford it, it’s also worth investing in a publicist who’s savvy about social media and can help you create a social media campaign. Ask for recommendations from your editor, your agent, or successful authors in your genre.
4. Check out other successful authors in your genre and do whatever they are doing. Study their strategies and adopt them.
5. Ask your friends and fans to write reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. Return the favor.
6. Join SCBWI, RWA, SFWA, MWA, Sisters in Crime, and so on. Go to meetings and conferences; volunteer. Work with other published authors in your genre to do group blogs, group signings, and group appearances, both online and off-line. These groups typically afford you the opportunity to:
   • set up your books for sale in the bookstore.
   • register yourself in the speakers' bureau.
   • access members-only resources including directories, podcasts, and newsletter archives.
   • check out and register for events anywhere in the world.
   • set up a membership profile.
   • become a part of the organization’s discussion boards, forum, and online chapters.
   • get recommendations for blogs to read.
7. If there’s any romance in your story at all, check out Romantic Times (which is where many independent booksellers look for titles; the independents are growing in number now in the wake of the chains’ decline). Consider advertising your book in Romantic Times. (The lead time can be as long as six months, so arrange this accordingly.) Also of interest in RT: www.rtbookreviews.com. This section is available online and goes out to a huge readership.
8. Start getting yourself invited to conferences, where you can do the following things:
   • sign books.
   • appear on panels.
   • meet fans, reviewers, and booksellers.
9. Read books on promotion and marketing:
   • Your First 1000 Copies by Tim Grahl
   • Create Your Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino
   • Sell Your Book Like Wildfire by Rob Eagar
   • Social Media Just for Writers by Frances Caballo
   • Platform by Michael Hyatt

This is important: Now is the time to invest in your success and build your readership, so that you can sell your new book when the time comes. You need to do all you can to help your book find its place in the market, because you’ll be judged by its sales forever. You don’t want to be one of those writers who have to change their names and their genres to get a second book published after the first failed. This happens too often, so be sure to do your part to promote and market your book.

Because a writer with an audience is a writer with a career.

“I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It’s like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books.”
—Paulo Coelho