On Publishing, Agents, and Queries

Journey to Publication - Week 1

Greetings, literary lovers! 

Several weeks ago, I completed the full draft of my debut novel, THE LILAC ROOM. As many of you are also aspiring writers and novelists, I thought it would be helpful to track my journey to getting published, as well as to provide an overview of what “traditional publishing” entails.

What Is Traditional Publishing? 

If you’re looking to get your novel published, there are several avenues that you can take. Most authors choose between traditional publishing and self-publishing. If you’re looking to get your novel out to a wider audience—and if you want that prestige of being able to walk into a Barnes & Noble and show your book off to your friends—you might opt for traditional publishing. Traditional publishing will get you in front of the big names—the Penguins and the Simon Schusters of the literary world—but comes with its own score of hoops, most notably the lengthy publishing process and the draconian standards of the publishing industry, which make it virtually impossible for new authors to break through. 

Given these hurdles—and with traditional publishing on the decline—many authors now opt for self-publishing through platforms such as Amazon KDP. Though it may be harder to market your book through this route, self-publishing allows authors to have more control over their work and comes with minimal barriers to entry. With the proliferation of digital media, anyone can self-publish. The practice, in fact, has been around for longer than you’d think—Walt Whitman, most famously, self-published his monumental collection Leaves of Grass after being rejected by many major publishing houses. So, no, being rejected by publishing houses does not make you a lousy writer—if anything, it might just make you an independent spirit. 

Nevertheless, I’ve decided to try my hand at traditional publishing with my upcoming novel THE LILAC ROOM (it’s industry standard to capitalize book titles), so my first step to publication will be to secure a literary agent. 

What Is a Literary Agent? 

If you’re looking to get traditionally published, you’ll first need a literary agent. Agents will serve as a sort of broker between you and the publishing house (who will refuse to engage with you directly) and ensure that you land the best publishing deal you can get. While many agents only work with established authors, a handful of agents are always looking to snag new writerly talent and represent no-name authors in the hopes of standing behind the next big name in literature. But the hardest part of this process for a new writer might be to secure the agent in the first place, and that’s where the query package comes in. 

What Is a Query Package? 

All new authors will need to reach out to agents by sending out query packages. A query package typically contains a query letter (this is like a cover letter for your novel), sample chapters, and a novel synopsis. While most agents will ignore your query, some agents will respond with a request to read the full manuscript, at which point you can give yourself a small pat on the back—you will receive this response only about 5% of the time, and that’s if you put together a stellar query. Getting an agent might take anywhere from several months to a year, with most agents taking about 2-3 months to respond to an initial query and another 2-3 months to read through your manuscript. If an agent likes your manuscript, they will sign you on to their agency and be your right-hand man as you navigate the publishing world. 

My Journey to Publication - Week 1

If you’ve written a manuscript, congratulations! You have completed the easiest part of getting your book published (though none of the parts are easy, so you should still be immensely proud of yourself). After you’ve formatted your manuscript (I find this formatting guide to be best), you’re ready to start spamming agents with your project. The first step is to gather a list of agents who might be a good fit. Not all agents will represent all work, so you can check out helpful websites like Manuscript Wish List to get a sense of what each agent is looking for. If you’ve written a steamy romance novel, for instance (though you probably shouldn't have because we really don’t need more of those), you probably won’t want to query an agent who states they are interested in children’s books. I suggest working in batches of 20—i.e. identify 20 agents who might be a good fit, query those people, wait a bit for a response, and then move on to the next batch. I had my assistant put together a list of about 100 agents, and we have a massive spreadsheet going with everyone who might be a good fit, so I hope that one of those 100 people will be a match!

I started querying my novel about a week ago, and thus far, we’ve reached out to 27 agents (our first batch). I am still working on finalizing my novel synopsis, so we plan on submitting to our second batch once we have the synopsis ready. In the meantime, I’ve received one response so far from an agent (who shall be henceforth known as Jeff the Agent) asking to see the full manuscript (yay!) and will keep everyone posted on his decision. We are keeping up that 5% success rate, and it’s only been a week, so I am feeling fairly optimistic, especially after reading that it takes several months to hear back from anyone.

I will be sharing my query letter with you all once I sign on with an agent and hope to put together a handy guide for mastering the query letter at that stage. In the meantime, if you are a Liza Libes fan, I invite you to track down Jeff the Agent and spam him with emails informing him that you will, indeed, buy my book when it comes out and make him rich from his commissions.

Stay tuned for next week’s Journey to Publication update.