Exposing the Secret Tactic That Got Me 8 Literary Agent Offers

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Lauren Kay Writes

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 28

@laurenkaywrites 3 ай бұрын

Check out my free 10-step guide to landing an literary agent: www.laurenkaywrites.com/10-step-guide

@damalavanda 9 ай бұрын

This is the best advice I had for getting an agent

@1130becca 11 ай бұрын

Such excellent advice! I wish I'd watched your video before I signed with my agent. I was so tired of querying, and so thrilled to have an agent actually want to represent me, I made the huge mistake of signing with her on the spot without giving other agents a chance to move me to the front of the line. As you've guessed, that agent didn't work out. (After rewriting the manuscript for her, I waited over seven more months, and she still had gotten around to reading it. I realized then that she probably never would.) So I'm back in the query trenches, a little sadder but wiser.

@laurenkaywrites 10 ай бұрын

That sounds SO frustrating. I'm so glad you're keeping your head up and not letting it get you down!

@davidmackie3497 9 ай бұрын

The lesson I'd learn from your experience is "don't sign with an agent who hasn't read your book." If your first chapter doesn't excite them enough to read the book, how much effort will they put into getting you a publishing deal?

@arzabael 11 ай бұрын

It almost seems like the easiest way to get taken seriously is to say someone else is taking you seriously. Ya know? The way agents jump on a query if it’s for something that got an offer

@t0dd000 11 ай бұрын

Your book just became competitive with a timeline attached. I.e. it bumps your priority. Utterly logical. It's the same for any process that has a backlog.

@arzabael 11 ай бұрын

@@t0dd000 yes, pure utter logic. You can’t get much more accurate than that

@TheEccentricRaven 11 ай бұрын

Good advice, thanks. I have my dream agents in mind, but I know they aren’t always open to queries. I hope someday to go to a conference and meet agents, a lot of whom are junior agents. I'll be sure to give them a chance.

@laurenkaywrites 10 ай бұрын

Sounds like you've got a great plan in place :)

@ccormore 11 ай бұрын

Dumb question: how do I know someone is a newer agent? Where is it written? I queried (unsuccessfully) over a year ago, and I remember struggling to actually find new agents. All I could find on literary agency websites were well-established ones.

@laurenkaywrites 10 ай бұрын

You can check on Publisher's Marketplace how many deals they've done! I also sometimes do some stalking of their graduation year etc on LinkedIn, lol

@JamesStoddah 4 ай бұрын

How do you know if they are a junior or new agent? It's often hard to research the agent's background from the agent's website.

@laurenkaywrites 3 ай бұрын

It should say on their agency's website!

@morfrikel7472 4 ай бұрын

I‘m from germany, so i have trouble finding agents by looking at my favorite authors (since most books are written my non-german authors). i try looking for german authors, but i rarely find,y see books of them in bookstores. and i don‘t want to buy a book online, without having the option to read the first page. any advice?

@laurenkaywrites 4 ай бұрын

You can always reach out to non-German agents! And try going to a library to look at first pages of German authors' books you enjoy :)

@morfrikel7472 4 ай бұрын

@@laurenkaywrites do english agents accept book in different languages tho?

@rowan7929 9 ай бұрын

Always kept failing besides for the one who nearly accepted my work since it was the only personal one I have ever gotten. Interesting point about getting new agents. However, how can you tell? Sometimes there isn't anything written about them or have any kind of history or what authors they represent.

@WhatDoesEvilMean 6 ай бұрын

This might sound weird…but why can’t your agent just be a friend? When I think of so many of the popular actors and musicians, oftentimes their agents are just their friends or family members.

@michaelchurch1324 6 ай бұрын

Because it takes connections to be a literary agent. It's not about how good they are at their jobs--it's about whether they have the clout to say, "Give this person a lead title deal or no one I know will submit to you for the next 15 years." The agent's job--and the good ones are so good they would be worth 50% commission instead of the 15% they ask for--is to take a fucked, slow, abusive system that stopped working 40 years ago and sprinkle magic fairy dust on the gears so it works for you personally. The fairy dust comes from the trading of favors and connections that accumulates over years. If you don't have those kinds of connections, your friends don't either.

@WhatDoesEvilMean 6 ай бұрын

@@michaelchurch1324 But then how would any agent ever…become an agent? Seems like everyone has to start somewhere.

@michaelchurch1324 6 ай бұрын

@@WhatDoesEvilMean The ugly truth of it is that traditional publishing isn't for people who "have to start somewhere." Especially inside the house, it's for trust fund kids for whom the low salaries (and, outside the house, even lower book advances) and grueling hours aren't an issue. A few working-class authors will be signed and given small advances so long as they continue to sing for their supper, but the gates closed in the mid-2000s and "real publishing" (what are now called lead titles) isn't available to the masses, and you can't get force your way in just by being good at writing. If your agent wasn't born into that kind of a network, it doesn't matter that she has a 140 IQ or works 97 hours per week. There simply isn't a way for her to break through the information barriers and get your work the treatment it deserves. She can put it "on sub" and have it read quickly, after hours, by someone who has 17 other things on his mind... and this may result in a tiny book deal that comes with no publicity and where you are expected to hand-sell on social media... but she can't get you read by someone with the kind of clout that it takes to get you a serious deal with a 6- or 7-figure marketing budget and NYT-level reviews, because she doesn't have generations' worth of secrets to keep and favors to call in. None of this is fair, but you have to know it or you will end up having your time wasted and being seen as a loser, as happens to most people who try traditional publishing (although the upsides, though only available for the well-connected, remain immense.)

@laurenkaywrites 6 ай бұрын

Hi! Sometimes writers do have agents who are their friends. One of my team members' agents is someone she knew growing up who went on to become an agent, followed my team member's work, and was happy to take her on as a client when she was ready to write a book. In general, agents are there to help you find the right editor and publisher. Agents have established relationships with editors, understand what different editors are looking for, and are industry-savvy so they know who to pitch your materials to with the highest likelihood of getting a deal. They're also there to help you negotiate contracts, sometimes come up with new ideas, and more. Your agent might end up being someone you know because that's what they do for a living...but someone who is just your friend isn't going to have the industry "in" and "know how" to make a deal happen.

@WhatDoesEvilMean 6 ай бұрын

@@laurenkaywrites But is this actually true? Like…do we have examples of it being true or are we just creating a fiction and saying “yep, checks out”? There are endless examples of successful musicians and actors who have family members or friends who are their agents and even managers. Do we actually know that a friend or family member can’t just call themsleves an agent and then go out and do the agent thing for you? Like, how many producers are just friends of the filmmaker who go out and shake hands and get deals done? I think we give agents more power than maybe they actually deserve. Really what an agent is, is an advocate. And every agent starts somewhere.

@catcrazed 7 ай бұрын

This requires the writer get an offer in the first place. Then, most agents send a polite 'step aside" because they know the game. They dont like writers using, essentiallly, a low rung offer to get a better offer. The newer agents are being used essentially. Agents hate this. Also. Getting an offer even from a newer agent is very difficult. Yes. Writers do this. They put out a two week deadline to agents who already have their manuscripts or a query. The agent will take a quick look and either step aside, request and then decline. Its very rare to get a bunch of s tusl agent offers this way. You WILL get more manuscript requests but most to all turn into step asides. So youre left with an offer from an agent you may not want because you put a ticking clock under an agent who doesnt have the time to read an entire MS and decide in two weeks. You end up burniing thru a list of hood ahents this way, imo.