The Guide to Getting a Literary Agent

Ah, getting an agent. I feel pretty safe to say this is probably not the part of the book process you’ve been dreaming about. It’s been pretty fun up until this point: Deciding on a big book idea, writing your very first chapters, seeing it all begin to take shape.

Now, it's time to dive into some necessary, but decidedly less fun parts of the process: Getting your foot in the door of the publishing world.

The way you’ll do this is by reaching out to literary agents, and securing one to represent your book. Lit agents are the gatekeepers of the traditional publishing world. You’re going to need one if you want to get published—unless you decide to self-publish.

In this guide, I’ll give you a playbook for finding agents and learning how to send them query letters.

We’ll also talk more about how to figure out what agents are looking for, and how to target the agents that are most likely to be interested in your book proposal. Not all agents want the same type of books, so I’ll help you focus your efforts here.

And no lesson on finding an agent would be complete without talking about how to deal with rejection. There’s no two ways about it: Most of the agents you pitch will either not answer you at all, or send you a rejection. This is just how it works! It’s something of a numbers game, and you’ll probably have to send a lot of pitches before you get a “yes.”

So, by the end of this guide, you’ll have a game plan for finding potential agents and pitching them on your book. You’ll also have a better understanding of how agents operate, and how to deal with their rejections or non-responses.