Some tips on approaching an agent
By Andrew Lownie
Literary Agent,
The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency Ltd
 Our thanks to Andrew Lownie,
named by Publishers Marketplace as the top selling agent
worldwide, for providing this advice on how best to
present yourself to an agent. This article is taken from
The firstwriter.com Writers' Handbook 2015, available
through
Amazon,
Amazon UK, and other outlets all over the world.
Authors are often angry, frustrated or shocked by the responses or lack of responses from agents, and it might be useful to give some background and advice which might help with pitching to agents.
Your book is special to you, and may one day be to other people, but at the moment it is just another submission. Authors need to remember that agents are inundated with submissions. Most have full lists already and need to concentrate on their existing clients. Of course agents are looking for new talent, but the chances of selling books from the slush pile are small.
Some agents claim they have never sold anything from the slush pile, though I take it very seriously, and personally look at almost twenty thousand submissions each year. Given each submission may be over forty pages long, that is a lot of reading to fit around the reading of my existing clients’ work, such as the fifty delivered manuscripts each year, and the normal work of the agency.
The most promising submissions – some eight a week – once read by me are passed to one of my specialist readers where the average charge for a reading will be about £40, which I pay; my bill for reading each year is over £15,000. Sometimes I will obtain several reports and spend years with authors reworking proposals and still fail to sell the book. Out of all those submissions, I will only take on around a dozen authors a year, and of those I might place eight.
The decision whether or not to look more carefully at a submission is made quickly, so authors may benefit from the following tips:
Address the agent correctly. I often receive proposals meant for other agencies, Mr Brown, Mr Mooney, Ms Lownie, the Andrew Lownie Litter Agency, the Andrew Lownie Literacy Agency. Sometimes the email claims to be addressed to me exclusively but refers to another agent in the body of the text.
Make sure the agent actually handles what you are offering. Well over half my submissions are for genres which, in all the reference books and on my website, I categorically say I don’t represent. I don’t know any agency which handles poetry and short stories so best to try publishers direct in those genres.
There are a number of annual reference books that list the leading literary agents, such as The firstwriter.com Writers’ Handbook, the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and Guardian Media Guide. Many agencies now have websites giving a good sense of what they handle and their success rates There are countless websites, such as
http://www.firstwriter.com, giving information about submitting to agencies and publishers and numerous writing magazines, such as Writer’s News and Writing Monthly, with tips not just on writing books but also placing material.
Pitch by email rather than phone as it’s the writing which will sell you. If leaving a phone message, explain why you have phoned. You are unlikely to receive a return call to Australia if you simply say “Steve called”.
Try and personalise your email. It is easy enough now agencies have websites to find out the authors they handle. Look at the acknowledgements page of books which are comparable and try the agent who handled the book. Any email submission which I see has been copied to hundreds of other agencies is immediately discarded. A submission which shows the author has done research on the agency and comes with a recommendation is always taken seriously.
Follow instructions. If agencies have a preferred format then follow it and customise your proposal. The format is generally the one that they find works with publishers and helps everyone assess the proposal most effectively. Don’t insist they read the whole manuscript.
In the agency we initially ask for a short synopsis and the first three chapters for fiction. For nonfiction we ask for:
- one page mini-synopsis highlighting with bullet points what makes the book new and special with proposed word count and delivery date;
- one page on your qualifications to write the book;
- one page with a few lines on the five most recent competing and comparable books, giving author, title, publisher and date of publication together with a note on how the books relate to the author’s own book;
- one page on sources used;
- one page on any specialist marketing outlets such as websites, organisations or magazines; and
- a sample chapter.
We then ask for a half page synopsis per chapter – roughly ten pages – if we are interested and want to take it further.
If the book is categorically rejected then don’t respond pointing out the agent has made a “mistake”. Move on to the next agency. It is a subjective business and agents turn down proposals – even perfectly publishable ones – for all sorts of specific reasons, even if they don’t always give you those reasons.
Agents understand that authors need to make multiple submissions to agencies but dislike “beauty parades”. It is not flattering nor encouraging to be told you are simply one of a hundred approaches. Time is limited, and if an agent suspects the author may go elsewhere then they will simply say “no” at the beginning. Keep quiet about multiple submissions and only send a few at a time so you can adapt your submission in the light of the responses you receive.
Agencies are keen to find and nurture talent but they are inundated with submissions. Remember they are businesses, not the Citizens Advice Bureau; manuscript evaluation services; or a branch of Social Services. Don’t expect them to recommend other agencies within or outside their areas of expertise. Presentation is important. Check spelling and punctuation. Don’t underline or use exclamation marks.
Submissions should be sent by email, preferably as Microsoft Word files or similar, not least as this is how we will submit. Gone are the days of photocopied proposals and scripts being posted. Remember that often more than thirty people in a publishing company may be asked to assess the submission so it needs to be circulated easily. My agency no longer accepts submissions by post.
Be clear in your covering letter. The concept of the book should be apparent in the opening sentence.
Don’t boast – the agent will be the judge of the quality of the material – but do highlight in a covering note what you think makes your book different and special. Not every idea makes a book. It might solely work as a television programme and long article.
And remember, if you receive lots of rejections, that not every book is sufficiently commercial for an agent or trade publisher. There are now plenty of opportunities to self-publish without being ripped off.
About the agency
The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency Ltd, founded in 1988, is one of the UK’s leading boutique literary agencies, with some two hundred nonfiction and fiction authors handled respectively by Andrew Lownie and David Haviland. It prides itself on its personal attention to its clients and specialises both in launching new writers and taking established writers to a new level of recognition. Andrew Lownie remains the top selling agent worldwide, according to Publishers Marketplace, and was short-listed for Literary Agent of the Year at the 2013 and 2014 Bookseller Awards.
Books represented have included: The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English; The Oxford Classical Dictionary; The Penguin Companion to the European Union; Norma Major’s history of Chequers; the memoirs of Sir John Mills, Alan Whicker, Gloria Hunniford, David Hasselhoff, Emily Lloyd, Kerry Katona and Patrick MacNee; the best-selling fostering series by Cathy Glass and Casey Watson; Sam Faiers’ Living Life the Essex Way; Daniel Tammet’s international best-seller Born on a Blue Day; Laurence Gardner’sThe Magdalene Legacy and The Shadow of Solomon, the literary estates of Joyce Cary and Julian MacLaren-Ross; the historians Juliet Barker, Roger Crowley, Tom Devine, Robert Hutchinson, Sean McMeekin, Linda Porter, Geoff Roberts ,Desmond Seward, David Stafford and Christian Wolmar; the wine writer Michael Schuster; crime writers, such as Mei Trow and David Roberts, and thriller writers such as Duncan Falconer.
Pieces about "struggle"
sought for anthology
Puff Puff Prose Poetry and a Play is
seeking submissions for their third print paperback. Their
goal is to publish the voices about struggle people would
not usually hear: pieces about heartbreak, loss, cancer,
or anything else that could relate to a struggle.
Struggle to make it in the real world? Struggle with
addiction? Have fiction about cigarettes? Or poems about
drinking? The topic is fairly broad, but in essence if there
is a story you love telling of debauchery then the
publishers want to read it. Eligible
pieces include short/flash/micro fiction and nonfiction,
poetry, plays, and for the first time cover photos.
For more information, or to submit, email
puffpuffproseandpoetry@gmail.com
For the details of over 1,700
other publishers,
click here
17th Annual Golden Pen
Have you got a story to tell or a poem
to share with readers? If so, you could
enter the annual St Kerrill’s Festival Golden Pen contest.
The contest is now in its 17th year, and welcomes entries
from all age-groups.
The competition has two sections:
Short Stories and Poems.
-
Open theme
-
2000 word limit for stories
and 70 lines for poems
-
Winning entries will be
published in the annual St Kerrill’s Festival magazine
-
Winners will be notified by
June 10, 2015, and will be invited to the awards
ceremony during the festival
-
Entry Fee: €5 per entry (€3 for
primary pupils) (£4/£2 Sterling)
Please send entries to: The Golden Pen,
Gurteen, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. Check
out St. Kerrill’s Festival at:
www.stkerrillsfestival.com for more details.
For the details of over 100 other current writing
contests,
click here
Sling Magazine call for
submissions
Sling Magazine is accepting
submissions for its fifth issue, titled "All That Craft".
Writers are invited to submit their most "crafty" poetry,
fiction, nonfiction (essays, memoirs, reviews, interviews),
art / photography / animation (including creation videos –
youtube or vimeo), and music (mp3).
For full guidelines,
submissions information, and the latest issue, see
www.SlingMag.com
And don't forget that firstwriter.magazine
is currently accepting submissions of fiction and poetry on
any subject for Issue 28. To submit online, go to
https://www.firstwriter.com/Magazine/submit.shtml
For the details of over 1,900 other magazines,
click here
Essaymama Spring Essay
Writing Contest
Essaymama has announced its Spring
Essay Writing Contest for writers. The
competition offers:
More information on the contest
can be found on the website at
http://www.essaymama.com/contests/
For the details of over 100
other current writing contests,
click here
AME Magazine – call for
submissions
AME is a brand new, online zine,
publishing BL short stories, flash fiction, serial
fiction, graphic stories, poetry, BL novel reviews, and
artwork.
The magazine is looking for
well-written, entertaining stories and artwork that
contain BL (Boys’ Love, Gay, M/M, YAOI) scenarios. While
submissions that contain adult or violent elements won't
automatically be rejected, the preference will be for
fiction and artwork that is suggestive rather than
explicit, in order to make it accessible to as wide an
audience as possible. Submission
requirements:
-
Submissions should be in
English.
-
You must state whether the work you
are submitting is a stand-alone story or serial
installment.
-
Acceptable document formats include
Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs formats – no
PDFs.
-
Images must be high resolution (300
dpi with a minimum size of 1200x1500px). Recommended
dimensions are 2700x3600px, which would be ideal for a
full (8x10) page.
-
Due consideration will be given to
both unpublished and previously published works. If the
work has been previously published, please include in
your submission email the title of the magazine in which
it appeared.
-
Simultaneous submissions are
welcome, but your work must be withdrawn immediately if
it is no longer available.
Your submission email should include
your name / pseudonym, contact information, and the type of
story you are submitting (short, flash, or serial –applies to
both written and graphic stories). Writers are also encourage you to
include a very brief bio, to be posted it along with
your work. Email submissions to
amesubmissions@gmail.com
Don't forget that firstwriter.magazine
is currently accepting submissions of fiction and poetry on
any subject for Issue 28. To submit online, go to
https://www.firstwriter.com/Magazine/submit.shtml
For the details of over 1,900 other magazines,
click here Resources for
writers at firstwriter.com
Go to firstwriter.com
for the following invaluable resources for writers:
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on this newsletter for as little as $30 / £20 click
here
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