How to Get a Literary Agent: 10+ Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

“Do you have a literary agent?” is one of the most common questions I get asked as an author. My answer: yes! But that doesn’t quite cover the long and difficult journey I went through to get there.

For context, literary agents represent authors in publishing negotiations. They pitch your book to a range of publishers, taking a commission on any deals they secure for you. It is possible to get published without an agent, and of course you can self-publish without an agent, but the majority of traditionally-published authors have an agent.

For most writers, getting an agent is step one to getting published.

However, the job of sifting through the literally thousands of manuscripts of varying quality/viability that are written each year now sits at the feet of agents. This makes it a dog fight for authors to get noticed.

Personally, it took me either four years or eighteen years to get to the point of having an agent, depending on how you calculate it. Here’s my story, and the lessons I learned along the way:

1. You are (probably) not a unicorn

Every so often, a news report will ping on my radar of an author who submitted to an agent, immediately got taken on as a client, and the agent, within a week, sold their book to a publisher for six-figures.

I mean… how nice for them.

That was not my experience and, sorry to say, it probably won’t be yours.

When I was a wee lass of fourteen, I bought a book called How to Write and Sell Your First Novel. I practically memorised this book, which outlined the whole process, often called ‘querying’, of finding an agent. You submit a synopsis and the first three chapters, got it.

It took me another thirteen years before I finished something novel-shaped to actually submit to agents. I didn’t think I or my novel was a unicorn, but… maybe, y’know?

I sent out my synopsis-and-three-chapters to about thirty literary agents in all. Those were the days of hard-copy submissions through the post, where you included a stamped addressed envelope for the agent to return your submission if they weren’t interested.

Bear in mind, three chapters is a substantial wodge of paper. I grew to dread the thump of yet another returned package landing on my door mat.

I’d open up the envelope and find a form letter inside, rejecting my novel.

For me, it was all form rejections. Until, one day, I got an email from agent – she wanted to read my whole novel.

WOOHOO CELEBRATE I’D DONE IT I’D FOUND AN AGENT NOTHING BUT GRAVY FROM NOW ONNN.

That’s how I was feeling as I waited for her response to the full novel.

2. It may not happen immediately, so you need to gird your loins

The agent got back to me a few days later with a one-line rejection of my novel:

“It did not compel me.”

(A few lessons to learn from that: first, don’t count your chickens, because a request for a full manuscript is not an immediate precursor to an offer of representation. And, also, criticism is useful, even if it hurts like hell. Now, when I write, my first thought is always: is this compelling?)

I’ll be honest, it killed a part of my soul to put so much effort into a novel and see it rejected, over and over and over. I stopped writing fiction for over a year, and I honestly wondered if there was any point in ever writing again.

However, because I have the most important trait a writer can possess – sheer bloody-minded stubbornness – I tried again and wrote a new novel. In fact, I threw myself into the act headlong and quit my career job to write full-time for a year while living off savings.

I did, eventually, find an agent. It just took way, way longer than I envisioned.

3. You’ll have more luck with junior agents than hotshot agents

Second time submitting to agents, I was more pragmatic. I no longer thought I might be a unicorn, and I had built up a better sense of the gradations of agents.

When you start out, it feels like agents are a monolith. In fact, agents have extremely specific tastes (you’ll do well to scour their online bio to find out if your book is suited to them) and they’re all at different stages of their careers.

For unknown authors, it’s better to target junior agents who are “building their list”. This is publishing jargon for actively looking for new clients. By all means, also submit to the superstar agent who represents multiple bestsellers (what have you got to lose?), but I recommend being realistic.

A junior agent will have more time and energy to guide you through the difficult work of getting your book ready for publication (more on that later). That’s why I mostly targeted junior agents, the second time I tried to find an agent.

4. Appreciate warm rejections, because they really do mean something

Querying my second novel, it was terrifying to fling myself back into the abyss of form rejections, but I did it anyway. By this point, at least, we’d all moved on from sending huge wodges of paper in the post, so submitting to agents merely meant refreshing my email 7,000 times a day.

I submitted to ten agents initially and got a flurry of rejections. Most were form rejections, but I did get a couple of personal rejections. I even remember one verbatim. The agent said my novel was “bright and engaging” but not right for her.

If you’re in the querying trenches, I need to emphasise that these type of warm rejections really do mean something. They’re not a sign you need to argue with the agent and say YES YOU REALLY DO WANT TO REPRESENT ME (god, don’t do that). But they are a sign you’re on the right track.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my first book got all form rejections and my second book got some personalised rejections. I’d grown as a writer and come to understand genre conventions better, but more on that later.

5. No, you don’t need to submit to agents one by one

After those first ten rejections, I fired off another ten submissions.

You may have come across the advice (usually from agents themselves) that you should submit exclusively to one agent at a time – i.e. only send your book to one agent, let them look at your work at their leisure, and wait for them come back to you with a decision before approaching anyone else.

This is madness, and it only benefits the agent. Of course they want exclusive access to your work.

I would only ever recommend doing this if you have a top, top, top agent that you really want to represent you, or if you’ve been personally recommended to an agent. In that case, sure, give them a few weeks before submitting elsewhere.

Most of the time, however, it actually benefits you to have multiple agents reading your work at once. If you get a request for a full manuscript, you can (and should!) email everyone else you’ve submitted to, alerting them of this fact.

Nothing hooks an agent faster than suggesting they might lose out on hot property because someone nabbed it from under their noses.

I sent out my own queries in batches and, in that second batch of ten, I got a couple of full-manuscript requests.

SCREAMMMM. No, deep breaths. Remember what happened last time? Don’t count your chickens.

A few days later, I received The Phone Call. When an agent wants to speak to you on the phone (or, I guess, on video call? Am I terribly old?), it’s usually a good sign. They want to feel you out to see if you’d be good to work with.

6. Your literary agent is your business partner

During The Phone Call with Sandra Sawicka at Marjacq Scripts, I have a (false?) memory of blurting out something like this:

“I’ll do anything, make any changes to my novel, do literally anything to be published.”

Ummm. Maybe wash off some of that desperation?

What I didn’t understand at the time is that your agent is your business partner. They’re not your fairy godmother. They’re not your boss.

They’re your equal. You’re working together for a common cause, which is getting your book published.

This is a difficult idea to hang on to while you’re scrabbling around in the mud, trying to get someone, anyone (please, anyone!) to notice you and your novel.

I absolutely shouldn’t have vowed to make any changes the agent suggested. I should, instead, have listened to her vision for the book and considered whether it fitted with my own.

The number one reason that an author-agent match won’t work is that you’re not aligned. You wanna write thrillers, she thinks you should write cosy crime. You love sweet romance, she believes only spice sells.

Back to my story. Sandra wasn’t (completely) put off by my Désespoir de Parfum and she suggested we meet in person to discuss it further.

WOOHOO CELEBRATE I’D DONE IT I’D FOUND AN AGENT NOTHING BUT GRAVY FROM NOW ONNN.

For realsies, this time, I’d found an agent. 😊

Sandra and I met in a little café in central London on a rainy day, windows steamed up, people bustling past. I was nervous and weird, unsure of what to say. But it must have gone well, because she offered to represent me.

Looking back, I realise I got lucky that my tastes gelled with Sandra’s. I got lucky that she’s an incredible business partner. But, my advice is, don’t rely on luck. Make sure you really are aligned with a prospective agent.

7. Don’t go scattershot in your approach

Do plenty of research into a prospective agent – do this research before you submit to them, and do even more research once they’re interested in representing you.

An agent-author agreement isn’t a crazy, iron-clad contract that it’s impossible to get out of. (Mine simply states that, with any book of mine where my agent represents me, she gets 15% of the earnings. This does not mean she gets 15% of anything I ever write. And I could walk away and find a new agent for future books if I wanted to.) However, the publishing world is a small, gossipy place and it’s not great to drop your agent for no reason. Therefore, you need to think long-term when you begin approaching agents.

In any meeting, ask about their vision for your book. Ask what type of edits they’d suggest. Ask which publishers they’d pitch to.

(You should know your own answers to those questions. Which authors would you compare yourself to? Any recently-published books you absolutely love? Do you consider your writing literary or commercial? Do you have any red lines of things you wouldn’t change in your book?)

8. Get ready to do a lot of editing before you find an agent

Here’s something no one ever wants to hear: you’ll need to do a ton of editing before finding an agent.

Most agents are not looking for a diamond in the rough. They’re looking for a shiny, polished diamond that’s ready for publication.

The brutal truth is that your book needs to be as perfect as you can make it before you send it to agents. A first draft is not good enough. A second draft is not good enough. Really, really commit to self-editing you own book before you send it out. Find a workshop group who’ll give you feedback. Ask your writer friends for the honest truth, not empty platitudes.

And, for the love of God, proofread your first chapter. When I first started querying, I realised way too late that there was a typo on the first page of my submission. SCREAM. I’m not saying that’s the only reason it was rejected, but jeez, I’m sure it didn’t help.

9. Get ready to do a lot of editing after you find an agent

You know all that editing you did before querying agents? It was great practice for all the editing you’ll do after you find an agent.

Your agent is essentially your first editor. You’ll work with them extensively to whip your book into publication-ready shape. (That’s why working with a junior agent who has more time for you can be a boon.)

However good you think your book is when you send it out (and, hopefully, after all the self-editing, it’s pretty good!), there will be yet more issues with it that only an industry-professional can see.

Working with my agent, after she signed me, I did a lot of edits. I excised a subplot that was needlessly controversial without adding anything to the story. I switched the writing from third-person to first-person to better fit with genre conversions. I got rid of a bunch of bad, B-movie writing tics (things happening “suddenly” or “momentarily”, for example).

I really cannot stress enough how much editing is involved in being a professional writer.

10. Having an agent is not the same as having a book deal

You know that rainy, window-fogged meeting with my agent in London? Three years passed from that day to the day when my debut novel was published.

The book that secured me an agent was not the same as the book that secured me a publishing contract. Well, it was, technically, but I rewrote it so extensively that it was basically a whole new book.

My first book got some interest from a couple of big-name publishers, but in neither case did it “pass acquisitions”, i.e. get the go-ahead from everyone at the publishing house.

That’s how it goes, sometimes. Looking back, I think my book suffered a little from being the work of an inexperienced writer. (No way to fix that except to keep writing!) I also think I got unlucky with timing. I’d written a YA thriller and, at the time, there were no YA thrillers on the shelves. Flashforward a year and the bookshops were filled with copies of One of Us Is Lying and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Sigh.

With my agent’s support, I decided to rewrite my novel for an adult audience and – after three years, much garment-rending, and many declarations that it wasn’t any good and I should just give up – it was published as Dead Ringer.

As I hope this post demonstrates, it was a long, circuitous route, but I got there in the end. I’ll finish with a few final nuggets of advice that I learned along the way…

11. You definitely don’t need to buy a copy of The Writer’s & Artist’s Handbook. This is a directory of literary agents (in the UK) and it’s a good idea to consult a copy, but you can find one in your local library for free.

12. Know the publishing world’s schedule. Don’t worry too much about the day of the week or time of day when submitting to an agent (it really doesn’t matter very much), but do stay aware of the dates of the big book fairs. London Book Fair happens in March, Frankfurt Book Fair happens in October. Every agent will be busy during those dates, so they won’t have time to devote to new submissions. August and December are also months when the publishing industry slows down.

13. The most efficient way in is through the front door. When I was a new writer, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out if there was a back door or a side door or, IDK, a skylight into the publishing industry. One of the reasons I started writing and publishing short stories was that I thought someone (a vague industry “someone”) might read them and offer to fast-track me to publishing greatness. (In fact, writing short stories is a great way to get recruited to… write more short stories.)

Rather than looking for a back door, I’d recommend putting all your efforts into writing the best book possible and take the front-door route of standard querying.

14. Agents don’t care that you have 5,000 followers on social media. From the same playbook as “I’ll write short stories to get noticed” is “I’ll get famous on social media to get published”. And, listen, if you really do have a platform of hundreds of thousands of engaged followers on social media, that’s something that can help you get an agent. But 2k, 5k, even 20k followers isn’t moving the needle. It’s better to have 0 followers and a bangin’ book that it is to have 5,000 followers and a book you haven’t self-edited properly. Get off social media and write your damn book.

15. As a debut author, you have way more power than you think. The querying process is such a dog fight that it’s easy to lose self esteem and take any crumbs the industry is offering you. (“Oh, this agent seems all wrong for me, but they’re the only one who’s interested, so I guess I’ll go with them?”)

Please remember that you are in a position of power. It doesn’t feel like it, but it’s true. Every agent (and every publishing house) is looking for a fresh new voice that might sell a million copies. You could be that fresh new voice! Your untapped potential is tantalising. It’s valuable. Don’t ever sell yourself short. Don’t sign with an agent who’s not right. Don’t take a bad publishing deal. Remember your power.

16. If you fail, it could be for any number of reasons. Why did my first book fail to find an agent? Probably a combo platter of bad luck, subpar storytelling, lack of understanding about genre conventions, not enough self-editing, crippling self-esteem issues that stopped me from listening to feedback about my book (etc. etc.). If you’ve queried a book and failed, I can’t diagnose the problem. But it’s almost certainly NOT because your book was irretrievably bad and you’re a hack of a writer.

Maybe your book was well-written but not particularly commercial. Maybe you’re a promising writer who has some growing to do. Maybe you’re writing in an oversaturated market. Maybe your perfect agent just signed an author with a similar book to yours last week.

A lot of these reasons are completely out of your control. The one thing you do have control over is to keep writing and keep (actively) improving your craft.

17. The most important thing is to keep going.

I believe in you. Now get back to that Word document and write.