by Catherine Lenehan

Created on: January 22, 2010

Having worked as an entry-level assistant for a literary agency I was witness to many of the inner workings of the first step in book publishing.  I may not be the foremost person for information about seeking a literary agent, but I am close.

My responsibility was confined to the “slush pile”, as they called it in the office, the pile of query submission from non-published authors, self-published authors, or anyone without a network of connections to a literary agent.  I say a network because that is what the publishing business is essentially, like any business, a network of associates and some even friends.  There is a laundry list of qualifications that jump people to the head of the list when it comes to obtaining an agent, and I am sorry to say that not all have to do with your ability to write. 

The biggest piece of advice that I would give would be to make sure that you PROOFREAD YOUR WORK!  Agents get about 30 query letters a day, all of whom believe that their novels are original and unique in some way. Let me tell you that, for the most part, they are not.  Similar to someone that would review resumes, one begins to throw a manuscript aside for a small mistakes and details.  Offices are consumed with work; many come outright and say that they will not waste their time on authors that do not know how to use quotes, correct punctuation or grammar.  I began to discard manuscripts for the slightest grammatical error to wean out the necessary “wastes of time.”  

Please do not take this as any kind of insult to your life experiences but do try not to write a memoir! Memoirs of notable people are hard to sell, imagine how difficult it is to sell your story.  The vast amount of reading audience does not enjoy reading “I, I, I.”  Make it a narrative or tell your story with a fictional twist.  There are thousands of people with bipolar disease, an eating disorder, that have been raped; you make think that yours is a unique story but 9.9 times out 10, it isn’t.

So, I hope this hasn’t disheartened your goals of writing.  Many notable authors, Stephan King for example, have sent in manuscripts under an assumed name and have been rejected.  Some best-sellers, Dan Brown, sold a number of failed books before they were ever discovered.  And lastly, just because an agent likes your work does not mean it is sellable to publishers.  Many publishing houses have genre quotas that they fulfill with established authors.  I have heard my boss on the phone with publishers taking tips of how to improve manuscripts before they will buy it.    Do not take it personally or as a slight to your talent.  Just make sure that you know it is a long involved process to not only get published but to first get an agent.  Good Luck!

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