Querying

Why do writers need literary agents?

Back when I was writing screenplays, my experience was that to get an agent, somebody had to want to buy your script. But nobody would be open to reading your script unless it was submitted to them by an agent. That’s a Joseph Heller classic Catch-22.

It is different with literary agents. Many are open to submissions from debut writers. I started querying literary agents about six weeks ago. In most cases it is a laborious process, requiring writing very carefully structured and polished query letters that are then modified according to the requirements of the agent. So far I have submitted to about 60 agents, most of whom have not responded or not yet responded. Some say it may take two weeks to six months to respond and some say they will not respond if they are not interested. Many say if one agent at their agency passes, you are free to query others at the same agency.

The majority of literary agents, according what they say on their agent pages, privilege very specific demographic categories of writers. I don’t belong to any of those groups.

Another thing many agents want is for you to provide your own analysis of the marketplace so you can tell them where your book fits and how it will likely perform compared to similar books.

Many agents also want the writer to already have a substantial built-in audience. For example, if I were Shohei Ohtani and I wanted to write a memoir about playing baseball as a kid in Japan–the agent and publisher would be confident the book would sell many copies.

One reason I need an agent is so that I can spend more of my day writing fiction, rather than looking for an agent.