101: How do I find the agent for me?

Where to start, what to ask, and how to know you've found the best for you.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

I think most resources out there are going to have very similar tips on how to find an agent that might work on your book. But here I’ll go a bit deeper with questions you should ask that you might not find anyone else saying out loud.

How do I find an agent that works on my type of projects?

Notice I said “works on my type of projects” this is important. You need to have a bit of an idea of what type of genres the agent works in before you query them or add them to a list of potential agents to outreach to. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for rejection that has nothing to do with your work. There are a handful of ways to find this out:

• Publishers’ Marketplace: while you have to pay to get behind the paywall, this will list every project that an agent has sold, by category, with dates and other information attached. Most are updated within six months or so there is only a slight lag as the contract is finished and the author is ready to announce their deal. Here agents are also ranked by category, so you can see what agent specifically works in your genre and how many books they’ve sold in that category vs. other agents. Agents also have public pages where they share information about what they are looking for, books sold, and other basic information.

• www.manuscriptwishlist.com: Agents build out their own page with information about what they are looking for, down to the specifics, they share their favorite books, shows, and books they wish they had done. They list specific triggers or topics they won’t work on too. They share their preference for querying—follow that preference even if they have their email listed.

• www.querytracker.com: This is a great tool to use for outreach as many agents use it to track their own queries. You can search by category to see who works on what. Because it doesn’t go into details, I would still suggest creating a list then looking deeper into each agent before querying for a better chance at making a match.

• Back of books: most authors thank their agent in the acknowledgements. If you have been doing your comparative research, then you’re reading books similar to yours and you can see who was the agent on that book. This search is a bit more in depth in time it takes to find that information and then to follow up with a look at their website or MSWL.

• Ask your friends who are published: those in your network who have published had to go through this same process as you, whether they can introduce you to their own agent, one of their agents colleagues, or have the list they used to query back when, a personal referral is always a good place to start.

Build out a spreadsheet of your target agents, list their contact info, details about when they are open for queries (most have a window they accept submissions) and then plan your outreach in batches. If you get some interest, that is a good time to send to the rest of your list, sharing that you have interest from another agent.

There are lots of sources you can search for an agent, whether google or social media, but you should always take the next step in looking a bit deeper to see if they work on books like yours and when/how they like to see queries. This is really the agents first test of the potential author to see how they follow procedure and respect their time.

Wait, but how do I know what type of project mine is? First, you should identify if it is fiction or nonfiction, then this is another time to look for titles similar to yours and see how they are categorized. This will likely happen for nonfiction as you develop your proposal in the first place. (See my post on proposals here)

What if an agent reaches out to me to do a book?

This is mainly an issue with nonfiction clients only. If you have a large platform, contribute to press regularly, or a very specific expertise, agents will come to you with book ideas and offers of representation. One fourth of all of my clients come to me this way or rather I go to them this way. I’m going to speak to what to do if a publisher reaches out to you directly separately in another post, as it will differ greatly from my advice for agent outreach.

If an agent is reaching out to you, remember that agents are only paid on commission, so if they are reaching out, they are saying they would like to invest their time into working with you and are confident they will be able to sell the proposal you produce together. Look them up and familiarize yourself with their books and client lists if they don’t offer that up in their outreach email. Take a call with them and see if you agree with how they see your brand/mission translating into a book. Be sure to speak about other books they’ve done in the category that they see as similar to yours. Then look up those books and authors to see if they are someone you would like to be in community with.

Ok, I have my list of potential agents, now what?

See this post on querying agents! Book publishing is slowwwww and so every step along the way. Patience is the most essential quality for potential authors and the querying process is the first test of it.

Ok, I have interest from my querying, what now?

Plan a call with the agent! This will show you a bit about their communication style, do you speak directly with them, or an assistant, are they quick with replying, etc. On the call, they will likely have their own pitch that they give on these intro calls, here are some questions to have answered on the call.

Everyone will tell you to ask these things:

• What is your communication style? This question is only useful if you know your own communication style, so think about what works best for you before asking.

• What are some other books you’ve worked on that are similar to mine? You will already know this from looking them up, so feel free to press a bit more for details.

• What edits do you want me to make to my proposal to get it submission ready? What is their plan for you and how much thought have they put into your project already.

• Are you editorial? Meaning, is the agent going to shape your work or just position it.

• What is your timeline for pitching this project? Book publishing is slow, if they are not doing their part to set your expectations, then they may not be able to set realistic expectations throughout the process. Can you get a book proposal out a week after you sign with someone? Yes. Should you? 9/10 times, no way.

• What is your proposal process like and how will you help me get this done? This question will gauge how hands-on they are with your work, what their timeline is for going out on submission, etc. There is not a right answer here, but you just want there to be some answer—they have a process, or they let you go about on your own. They think strategically about their submission process, or they don’t.

• What type of involvement do you have with your authors after the book is sold? Ask them specifically about their last title published to get to the details. Most will have broad answers on their long term partnership with an author, but have them share specifically how they were in the trenches with the author.

• What quality do your clients have in common? I don’t know that there is a right answer here, but it should be a quality that you have or would like to.

The biggest thing that you want to takeaway when meeting an agent is a sense of trust. Do you trust that they can do what they say they can? Do you trust their strategic approach to your work? Do you trust them to champion you the way you deserve? If you cannot get that from them on a call, then they may not be your person. If you feel you need to speak to references, they may not be your person. If they try to rush your decision and ask you not to speak to anyone else, they may not be your person.

Some questions that might come up:

• Should you sign with an agent that reps one of your comparative titles? If they see that you and their other client have clear lanes and will not crossover, then let them explain that to you. If they are invested in your longterm career and not just selling this book that is front of them, they will share how they see you and their other clients working in community. You should sign with someone who wants to sign you, not just your book.

• If I like one agent, should I even take another call? I am always going to say, take the call. Having a comparison is a great way to feel even more confident in your decision. If an agent cannot be patient enough for you to do so, they are not your person. The trust piece works both ways. They should trust that if it is meant to be, you’ll sign with them.

• Should I ask for references? You can, but do you really need to? What would one of their clients share that you cannot pick up on or ask about on the call? And if you don’t feel you can ask them, are they really your person? My take is that, if I can’t convince you to work with me, then we aren’t meant to work together.

• Is it better to sign with someone with fewer clients/less sales, or someone with a lot of clients/more sales? This will be preference based on your own communication style and needs (which is why it is important to know this asap). If you need a lot of regular check-ins just because or like to be preemptively contacted about things, not necessarily just contacted with news, you should sign with someone with fewer clients (and therefore sales). If you can trust your agent to do their thing, champion your project, and let you know when you’re needed, you can sign with someone larger.

Here are my biggest pointers to keep in mind when you are deciding on an agent:

• You can do everything right and not find the right fit, either through no interest in your queries or signing with the wrong person. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Take it as an opportunity to find clarity in your project or working style, then find a way forward to find the right fit.

• Don’t let your preconceived expectations or timeline ruin a good thing. I’m going to talk about this in one way or another in every post that I do: you cannot have a set journey or timeline planned out for your project in traditional publishing. All you can do is be ready for the opportunities, trust in your people, and do the good work when it is time. If you believe that January 2nd is the perfect day for your project to go on submission, that will not be the first time in your publishing journey that you learn that your ideal timeline is wrong. Trust that your agent is going to do what is best for you (and for them).

• Agents are humans. Believe me when I say, you want your agent to be a human. You want them to have a life, feelings, relationships—it makes them better at their job and better at working for you. Agents have off hours, and children, and take holidays. They are a real person doing a job. And so are editors. Agents should be connecting to editors as if they are humans too, recognizing when a good time for them to consider your project might be. Its not the day or even month after a fiery election day. It is not the three days before Christmas. Trust your agent to do what is best for your project. I am 100% a better agent because I am a mom to three kids, if that is a mark against me for a potential client, then they are not my person.

I’m sure I’ll add more thoughts to this over time, but I don’t think you can go wrong if you focus on these big ideas here.