Traditional Publishing

Some Hard Truths

The average number of sales made by new authors is 250, not per year, just total. Statistics are hard to ascertain, but Amazon.com has more than 23,000,000 titles in trade/paperback for sale as of December 2024. They published more than two million new titles in each of recent years.

I recently KDP-published a novel for a client. As a practice, I immediately purchase one copy to prime-the-pump. His book was rated 2,061,429 in books after that one sale meaning more than 20,000,000 other titles haven’t sold a copy recently.

Getting the attention of an agent is difficult. Only a few percent of requests for representation get noticed. Of those, a small proportion get a request for a full manuscript. Of those a small percentage get a phone call from the agent to discuss representation.

The odds are in the fractions of a percent because agents are inundated with queries. “Query” being the term d’art for the correspondence from a writer to an agent requesting representation.

Agent or Publisher? To approach a publisher directly, an author must already be published and have a track record of sales, perhaps with another publisher, or must be a celebrity with a marketable story to tell… or must be married to a publisher. For that reason, this discussion will focus on seeking an agent.

Established agents have relationships with publishers who trust them to vet manuscripts for acceptability to the publisher’s requirements and standards. The agent pitches the manuscript to a publisher understanding the genre of material the publisher desires and underwriting the quality of the writing.

Agents look for manuscripts with compelling characters, a gripping plot, and strong narrative voice. We won’t duplicate the alchemy to create a best seller that’s available in hundreds of books and YouTube videos.

We remind you that IQ140 is not about “Writing.”  We’re here to produce your novel from a manuscript. That presupposes that you’ve written a salable story with the proper mix of character, plot, and voice… not in our opinion or yours, but through the experienced eyes of an agent and the publisher to whom your manuscript is pitched.

Publishing is a Business. Your manuscript must have the potential to produce return on investment: profit.  Agents need to pay bills, too, and because they work on commission, the product you present them must have the promise to generate cash for everybody. Publishers and agents have but one limiting resource: Time. Neither can spend time collaborating with you. What you offer must be as close to immediately publishable as possible—though it won’t be—therefore, the quality time you spend editing, working with the WFC, and acquiring Beta readers is a solid investment in getting your manuscript published.

Genre

You arrive in Australia in 1798 and see a platypus. It has a beak like a duck, a tail like a beaver, webbed feet a seal… and it bears it’s young with eggs! What is it?

Newer writers are convinced they’ve written a platypus. It has pieces of chick-lit, or is that women’s lit, and some thriller, and a bit of historical, and maybe some coming of age… and then there are the aliens. What is it?

Determining the genre of your story is important in the selection of an agent to query. Outside those whose work falls cleanly into a genre, we propose trying this, a compilation of the suggestions by a number of YouTube gurus:

Pick an age group:

  • Middle grade: 8 to 12
  • Young adult (YA): 12 to 18
  • Adult

add a time:

  • Historical: takes place in any real time and place in the past
  • Contemporary

Market:

  • Literary
  • Commercial

and which MOST identifies your story:

  • Mystery: Catch a criminal
  • Thriller: Stop the villain
  • Speculative Fiction: Fantasy, science fiction, dystopian, and apocalyptic
  • Biuldungsroman: Coming of age
  • Horror: ghost, monster, and slasher
  • Self qualifying: Western, Military
  • Comedy: including dark comedy and parodies
  • Female audience:
    • Romance: A love story centering on a romantic relationship; may include erotica
    • Women’s fiction: a story line with complex issues primarily addressing women’s experience
    • Chick-Lit: lighter subjects targeted at young women

Clearly there are cross-overs:

  • Women’s fiction may pair with romance, but novels featuring strong women in military roles won’t, if the story is more about the military than the female character(s). It’s Military genre
  • Cowboys and Aliens was a western/science fiction/graphic novel hybrid before it was a movie, but the cowboy aspect is a novelty, it’s science fiction.
  • Jane Eyre is women’s fiction and bildungsroman with a touch of comedy… woman’s historical.

Preparing to Approach an Agent

Refine the manuscript to the point you’re confident you’ve done as much as humanly possible. Do not query an agent if you’re still “working on it, just a few things, I’m almost there…”

A Query letter is the cover letter for materials sent to an agent. The term “Letter” is a vestige, you will be transmitting the query to the agent by email or using Query Manager (more about this later), but the Query letter is still essential. See the Library for resources.

The agent will require one or more of the following included in the Query letter or attached to it.

  • An opening statement with some essential parameters including title, genre, setting and time frame, and whether it’s complete and the number of words: “I am requesting representation for my novel Ulysses, historical adult fiction set in Dublin in 1904. It is complete at 265,222 words.”
  • A blurb: one hundred words or so like those on the inside flap or back cover of a book enticing a reader to purchase your book.
  • A synopsis: a 500 to 800 word major scene-by-major scene summary of the plot, the characters, and their motivations, including the ending, the who-done-it.
  • A pitch: Often called an elevator pitch, as If  you had only the time it takes for an elevator ride to describe your novel: A  young woman, knocked unconscious, awakens to find herself in an enchanted land that is threatened by a witch. With a quirky band of misfits, she fights to defend them from the witch’s evil intent, and then save herself as she struggles to get home.
  • Your bio: what you’ve previously published, awards you’ve won, professional experience that might provide first-hand substance to the fiction, or a simple statement that your manuscript is your first which doesn’t necessary put you at a disadvantage if your writing is good.
  • Sample pages: The agent may request a number of words, pages, or chapters from the beginning of the manuscript. The agent may specify that the sample be embedded in the text of an email or as an attachment (8-1/2″ x 11″, 1″ borders, 12 pt, Times New Roman, black).
  • Many agents subscribe to Query Manager for submissions instead of email. More about QM later.

Producing a blurb and synopsis will be more daunting than writing the manuscript. “How the heck do I boil my 100K words down to a couple of pages? Fortunately, there are online resources to explain the objective, lay down the rules, and assist in the execution.  Search “Writing a Book Blurb,” “Writing a book synopsis,” and “Writing a query letter,” on YouTube and Google. You will find excellent presentations that will help you, some referenced in our Library.

Once you have assembled all the pieces, it’s time to find an agent.

Finding an Agent

There are annual publications, such as Writer’s Digest’s Guide to Literary Agents, and others that are published ever few years. These compendia are valuable for detailed histories of agents, the books they’ve stewarded, and their preference in genre, but they are out of date as soon as they’re printed.

Agencies and agents all have web pages. When new agents enter the field, retire or worse, move between agencies, or change preferences in genre, you’ll find that information updated on the web.

Google “Literary agents.” These websites list agents and publishers and are not limited to the “Literary” genre.

  • Some of these sites require membership fees, but not all. PublishersMarketplace.com has a small monthly fee that may be a good investment as their database is robust, and you can subscribe for just one month.
  • Some are boutique publishers with limited resources to support marketing, but they may be a good fit for you.
  • Some are individual agents hoping to procure representation for a 21st century Harry Potter.

WARNING!  While you may pay an editor to refine your manuscript and you may pay a consultant, like IQ140, to aid in cover design, blurb development, and publication on the KDP and other platforms, NEVER pay a publisher or agent to read your manuscript.

Legitimate agents and publishers offer their services to authors without charge after they’ve evaluated their work through the Query process and have determined that a market exists for the subject matter and quality of the writing. FULL STOP.

When visiting websites, your target is the individual agent who may be one of many in a large publishing firm.

  • Agents are listed individually providing the genre of manuscript each will consider along with their specific requirement for their query. Some agents will request a query by email. Others use the Query Manager system. They’ll provide a link from their web page to Query Manager where you complete the query process.
  • Query only one agent from an agency at a time. Should that agent reject your query, then you may query an alternate agent at that agency.
  • You can query as many agents from different agencies as you choose.
  • The most critical factor in selecting an agent is matching their preferred genre to your writing. If it doesn’t fit at all, pass the agent by. If you’re not sure, then it’s probably a pass, but if it’s close, go for it.
  • Review each agent’s profile carefully. Some will have stopped accepting queries. Some will have stopped but suggest a date after which you can query. Always respect their wishes… they hold all the power.

Query Manager & Query Tracker

For those agents who do no subscribe to Query Manager, follow the detailed instructions on their web site, usually on a “Submissions” page, for how to submit via email.

The Query Manager system standardizes queries and ensures that the information agents need to evaluate your submission is complete.

Set up a free Query Tracker profile BEFORE you begin submissions through Query Manager. More about QT next.

In the arrow graphic, the agent has a “Submit Here” button on her web page that links to the QM system. The link has the agent’s code number embedded in it, so you are submitting to her and her alone.

Query Manager has 23 fields, some optional depending on the nature of your submission. We list them here so you can be prepared before you go to QM. Have everything written out, spell checked, grammatically perfect, and in an application from which it can be copied into the form.

  • First and Last name, email, and phone number
  • Biography (required)
  • Web address and Twitter handle (if you have them)
  • Have you previously published (Y/N)
  • Have you ever been represented by a literary agent (Y/N)
  • Is the query a referral? By whom?
  • Why did you choose to query [that agent]?
  • About the book: Title, genre, and word count
  • Is it published or has it ever been published?
  • Query Letter (can’t escape it)
  • Sample: Agent will specify words, pages, or chapter to be copied into the field
  • Pitch
  • What inspired you to write this book? (required)
  • A section for artists and illustrators, if applicable
  • Query Tracker: username and password to which the query will be linked

QueryTracker.com is a free parallel system that, as the name suggests, keeps track of queries you have submitted via QueryManager.

By having a QueryTracker account before sending queries, you can link the query submitted in QueryManager to your profile in QueryTracker which aggregates a list of your submissions. You may receive communications from agents including requests for more info and rejections in QueryTracker.

Using QueryTracker is relatively intuitive, so we won’t go into details here.

The Long Wait

Some agents state their anticipated response time on their web listing, or give you permission to bug them if you haven’t heard in a time they specify. It is reasonable to presume AT LEAST a 30 day wait, though 60 to 90 is not unusual. Some don’t send rejections or just aren’t fastidious about it.

There is no rule about how many queries you send, however some agents may respond with a brief note as part of a rejection suggesting what you might do to improve your chances. If you’ve sent queries to EVERYONE, you can’t reasonably re-send another query for the same title.

The best tact is to send 8 or 10 queries, then wait for a few responses before sending another batch. If you’ve done a lot of legwork and decided on a large number of agents to whom you’ll send queries over time, always check to see that they’re still accepting queries when their name comes up on your list.

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