You have an offer from a publisher . . . but you don’t have an agent
I never thought I would have an offer from a publisher before finding a literary agent, but this past February, that’s just what happened. Panic could have easily ensued, but, in the end, I think I handled the situation professionally, and couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
If you read my “How I Got my Book Contract” post, you know that, at the end of February 2014, I received a 3 book deal from Harper Voyager for my novel Ignite The Shadows, which I’d submitted during their open call to unagented authors in October 2012.
When I received the offer, I already knew that one of my career goals was to get an agent. Certainly, I could have negotiated the contract solo, if I had wanted, but that was never part of my plan. Why? Well . . . that’s good material for a later post *makes note to write said post* 🙂
Confident that I wanted an agent on my side, I prepared for querying, and these are the steps that worked for me and may work for anyone in the same situation:
Choose Who to Query
Having queried before and being the organized geek that I am, I had a thorough list of agencies and agents who represent my genre (young adult.) Moreover, I had a sound familiarity and preference for certain agencies. Hey, every respectable, many-times-rejected author knows her dream agency, right? Therefore, I didn’t have to do any research before deciding who to contact. I just had to pick my top choices.
Clearly, not everyone will be at the same querying stage as me. I had already done my research many time overs. For those who haven’t, I must say that research is indispensable. Scour the net, find out agents who represent authors in your genre, visit their agencies’ websites, read their bios and follow the submission guidelines (for the most part—a small exception below) AgentQuery.com is a great resource, if you don’t know where to start.
Polish your Query
Even with an offer from a large publisher, I didn’t assume an offer for representation from an agent was a shoo-in. Nope. I still poured over my query letter and made sure it was as perfect as I could get it. I introduced myself, described my project, personalized for each individual agent and, of course, mentioned the offer from HarperCollins in the body of the query.
Mention the Offer in the Subject Line
Agents receive dozens, if not hundreds, of queries every day. In their guidelines, most of them advice authors to write the word “Query” in the subject line. Given those two facts, their inboxes are undoubtedly full of unread emails, all from people they don’t know and all with the same subject line! Hmm, which one do they open first? Maybe the latest, maybe at random . . . but most likely, and to be fair, the oldest message. From there, they most likely work their way toward the present, while dreaming of superpowers that could allow them to read at the speed of light.
Unfortunately, for someone with an offer in hand, time is of the essence, and following these “subject line” guidelines could cause unwanted delays. To avoid this, I not only mentioned my offer in the body of the email, I also mentioned it in the subject line, very simply stating:
Be Open and Professional
For the same reason mentioned in the previous point, namely full inboxes, receiving a response from an agent can take anywhere from days to months (I once received a rejection 6 months after I sent the query!! Really.) So, after I hit send in my few queries, I crossed my fingers and hoped for a quicker response than normal.
To my relief, 2 weeks later, I’d received 4 requests for a full—with the first coming in the same day I sent the query and the last a week after I’d already accepted an offer of representation from my now agent Beth Phelan of The Bent Agency.
After my initial query to Beth’s agency, I received a request for a full on the 4th day. She read the manuscript quickly and, after determining it was a perfect fit for her list, she offered me representation in a very cordial and enthusiastic email. After that, we had a phone conversation in which we got to know each other a little more and I, very openly and professionally, let her know that other agents where considering the manuscript. Beth responded in kind, certainly used to these types of situations and appreciative of my sincerity.
I took a couple of days to consider Beth’s offer, each day feeling more and more confident it was the right decision and the right fit for both of us. Since, our client/agent relationship has been excellent, and I feel it couldn’t have turned out any better. She totally rocks, and I love her style!
Now we’re both on track for great things. Get ready world! 😉
[Image attribution: Photo by Sebastien Wiertz, used under CC/No changes]