Am I Ready to Send My Book Off to Literary Agents?
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To answer this question, let me start off with a story. It’s a true story—my own. Back a ways, I only knew the first thing about publishing, which was you needed to send your book to literary agents. I didn’t know the second or third thing, but I knew about writing. In grad school, when they dropped us on the Mount Everest of assigned reading, I read my way back to sea level. The essays I wrote could wallpaper a good-sized flat, and I taught others how to write, too. In the end, I emerged holding a novel my thesis committee encouraged me to publish. Less than a month later, I had a small snowdrift of notes on that year’s Writers Market, a list of names—and I’d even seen a query letter from across the room once. I was ready to send my book to agents.
But I really wasn’t, and that cost me a lot of time and heartache.
If you’ve finished a draft of your book, you might be in the same boat I was. You might be feeling the pressure to send your story out to literary agents right away, not wanting to wait a second longer before sharing your characters with the world. Or maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed or intimidated by the idea of a stranger judging your work. Wherever you find yourself, if you’re wondering, “Am I ready?” I’m here to help by going over three main ways to know if you’re ready to query your book so you can avoid the mistakes I made when I first started.
Not sure what querying is? Take a look at our blog post on the ultimate guide on query letters to learn more.
How to know when you’re ready to query
Querying is a massive step on your author journey, and it’s a commitment of time, energy, and emotion. If you’ve sat down and written a novel, you’ve made this kind of commitment before, but querying requires different things of your time, energy, and emotion than you’ve experienced during drafting. As with most big steps in life, no one is ever truly ready to query—there will always be something to tweak or fix—but you can make sure you’re well prepared with everything you’ll need to make it in the trenches. For each of these, I’ll also share some tips on how to get ready if you’re not quite there yet.
You’re ready to query if…
…You’ve made all the changes you know you’re going to make
There is nothing like the heady joy of reaching “The End,” whether it’s the first time or the twenty-first. However, before you send your book off to every agent on QueryTracker and start practicing your autograph for book signings, it’s essential you have a book you’re confident in. This means you’ve got a draft that’s been revised to the best of your ability. If you know that something’s not quite right in the middle or you’re not happy with the first chapter, the book isn’t ready for literary agents to see yet. Taking this time can be painful, but it’s crucial to have a book you can stand behind. Again, there’s always something to revise, but we’re talking about big-picture changes here rather than tweaking scenes and sentences.
Far too many writers send books that aren’t ready to be queried. As an editor, I see this often, but my heart is with these writers because I was one of them myself. I should have taken more time with my draft before sending it to agents, letting the haze of thesis deadlines and defense clear. I didn’t think how writing for a committee of professors would be different than writing for actual teens, and my book was too long and written far too formally for agents to take it seriously. Sending your best work means you’re respecting the agent’s time as well as your own, and with a little more time, you’ll be saving yourself from the heartbreak of rejections that might have been “Yes, please send more.”
Put the book down
At the very least, let your book rest for two weeks. Longer, if you can stand it. When you come back to it, try and read it in as close to one sitting as you can and see how it strikes you. This is how readers will encounter your work, and taking time away from the manuscript will help you be more objective about what’s on the page. Do you feel it’s ready, or do you see parts that need work?
Learn your weaknesses
Do you know what your strengths and weaknesses are as an author? If you don’t, follow your intuition to areas of your book that don’t sit quite right with you yet. Is it believable character development or building tension? Take time to learn more about how to remedy the weaker parts of your writing and then practice it in revision.
…You’ve shared your book with someone else
Whether you use beta readers or experienced editors like us, a critique group or just a willing friend or two, it’s imperative to share your work with other people before you send your book to literary agents. This prepares you in two ways. First, you get the experience of seeing how your work resonates with others. You figure out what’s working and what’s not, and the book will be better for it. Second, you are practicing the professional skills you’ll need to enter the world of publishing. If you’re serious about your book being out there, you’ll need to learn how to separate yourself from what you write. You’re not just a creator anymore—you’re a writing professional.
I had the mixed blessing of practicing being a pro during the process of writing the novel that was my thesis project. I was complete rubbish at talking about my writing and even worse about sharing what I wrote with anyone besides my sister, but now I had to give pages of my work-in-progress to my thesis chair on the regular—polished or not, planned out or not—and talk through it. I’m daily grateful for the opportunity to work through the questions of why I write the way I do, what I’m passionate about, and what stories I want to tell. It wasn’t easy, but that start helped me begin to build a vocabulary for my professional writing self as well as some confidence.
Querying is your entry into the business of writing, and pros can’t be squeamish about other people reading what they write (well, at least on the outside). Whether it’s agents or readers, other people will see your work eventually, and you’ll thank yourself for practicing with much smaller stakes.
Be bold
Make a plan to share your writing with someone, even if it’s just one person and even if it’s just one chapter. Letting the story out of your hands might feel excruciating, but it gets easier—trust me, and eventually, as you strengthen your craft, you’ll be able to trust the book as well. I’ve tended the encouragement from my thesis committee like embers in my creative soul, but having a local writers group has singlehandedly done more to keep me writing for publication than anything else. They’ve kept those embers glowing through many storms—rejections, getting an agent but then parting ways—and they’ve helped me try new ideas and revise courageously.
Work with a pro
Some authors don’t have the luxury and blessing of great critique partners to share their work with. Other writers do have groups, but the feedback isn’t what they need to reach the next level in their craft. When you work with an editor, you’re getting professional expertise from someone who knows the industry and someone who sees books the way agents do. After my first query attempts crashed and burned (many times on the runway), I set out to learn what I didn’t know, and now, years later, I’m doing everything I can to help writers who were just like me skip over the test pilot stage and get in the sky.
…You’ve polished your submission materials
Agents vary in what they ask for when it comes to submission materials, but you will always need a strong query letter and polished opening pages. You might also need a synopsis, and some literary agents ask for a pitch as well. Remember, you’re presenting yourself as a writing professional through your query, so whatever you send to an agent should be polished to a high sheen, not looking like you dashed it off before lunch.
I’m proud to say I didn’t have mustard stains on my query letter (or the digital equivalent for email), but my materials definitely needed more eyes on them before I sent them. Like someone applying for a job the first time, I took the guidelines I found at face value, learning later there is a certain answer you should give to questions like “What inspired you to write this book?” and it doesn’t involve me talking at length about my ninth-grade history class. There are rules and expectations for submission materials, so be sure you’re following them in order to make the best impression possible on an agent.
Review query guidelines
If you haven’t already, brush up on what agents expect to find in their inboxes and have a working folder with everything you’ll need for submission, including a synopsis (ideally, a one-page version and a two-page version) a pitch, similar books (sometimes called comp titles), a description of your ideal readers, and a query letter. If you update any of these, make sure your master copy is updated, too, or date the new version.
Shine those submission materials
Share your first ten to fifteen pages with someone and ask if they’re intrigued to read more. Do the pages end on an interesting note or is it simply trailing off into space? (Speaking from personal experience, I can’t recommend the latter.) Make sure everything you send to an agent is neatly edited and shows your work to best advantage. If you’re looking for someone to help with your submission materials, editors like us happily put everything we know at your disposal.
Have patience in querying
Querying too early is one of the most common author mistakes when it comes to submitting to literary agents. I’m a prime example of this! I queried for a long time with a letter that was hilariously bad (too long, too wordy) and a book that was a terrible fit for its readers (much too long, even wordier). It’s a small comfort that I did get more than a handful of full requests for my book despite my mistakes, but the responses on those fulls told me the book had wings but no engine—it wasn’t delivering on the promise of the story.
The road to publication is long, and patience is your best companion and ally. Being ready is more than holding a finished draft. It’s readying yourself mentally and emotionally for a change in your role as a creator. Taking steps before you begin will ensure you thrive and grow as an author despite the ups and downs of querying. Rejection still stings, but it doesn’t devastate me like it used to. As I’ve learned more and put it into practice, my writer skin is getting closer to those Kong dog toys rather than the tissue paper I used to have.
If I can do it, you can, too.
“Do not give up. The race goes to the relentless.” —Kate DiCamillo
Thanks to Tim Evans at Unsplash for the photo!
