![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
First I pick where to fish for new names:
Some of the largest and most popular sites for this kind of thing let you search for either fiction or nonfiction subject areas that agents have specified an interest in, and gives you the matching agent records along with all their contact info. I'm pretty sure that agents fill in their own interests from a supplied checklist. For any given agent, an indicated interest in "memoirs" could mean anything from "I specialize in representing memoirs" to "oh let's see, mysteries and young adult fiction and science fiction and romances and what else? yeah sure, memoirs, I could do that...". One cannot search on terms that the site doesn't use; hence on agentquery.com, for example (they're one of the big popular sites), one cannot search for "gender" or "feminist" or "trangender", although there is a "gay and lesbian" search term under nonfiction that I've used as a search term.
Smaller resources are often things like lists of memoir agents or lists of agents interested in LGBT content that someone on some web site somewhere has assembled.
I do my searches and skip to the results page where I left off, or pick up where I left off on someone else's list, and spend awhile reading agents' profiles and checking to see if I've already queried them (or another agent at the same agency). I have several different prospective lists and I switch between them at random, continuing from where I was when I last worked from that list.
I keep a database of literary agents I've sent query letters & proposals to. I'm a database geek — that's my day job — so I made a FileMaker Pro system to keep track of it. Let's say I'm doing my search for nonfiction subject = "memoirs" on agentquery.com . The next entry is for Erin Harris of Folio Literary Management, who represents memoirs that include personal and experiential growth and cultural conflict. Sounds good. Keeping my web browser page with her data open in front of me, I turn to the other monitor and do a find in the database window. Nope, haven't queried Erin Harris before, although I've sent to her colleague Michael Harriot who is also at Folio and he hasn't responded yet.
New Record. I drag from the web browser window her name, email, the organization name and its weblink, the postal address, phone number, and her blurb about what kind of material she represents. Then I click on the link to "How to submit" and scan it to see what form of submission she prefers. I have an initial breakdown into either "Email", "Snailmail", or "WebPortal". Many agents do not accept anything but email or will not accept email and require it be mailed with a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for the reply; others will accept multiple formats but have a preference; still others do not appear to have a preference, which leaves it up to me. In the case of Erin Harris, she wants all submissions to be uploaded using Folio's web form: answer the questions and click the "upload proposal" button and upload the material. I check "WebPortal".
The next field in my database distinguishes between types of material the agent wants to receive: query only? query with sample of your writing? query with formal nonfiction proposal? query with proposal AND sample? Then I have a field for stipulation of what type of sample for those who want an included writing sample. The most common options are First Chapter and First xx pages, but I also have indicators for Sample Chapter (any of the author's choosing), first TWO chapters, Selections Up to xx Pages, and First XX Chapters Up to YY Pages.
I fill out that Erin Harris wants a Query with the first 10 pages only of my proposal (unusual option) and first chapter as writing sample. I flag the record, indicating that no query has been sent yet, but also flag the "OnHold" field because I'm not sending to her until I get a rejection from her colleague Michael Harriot, or until enough time has elapsed that I can figure I would have heard if he were interested. (Some agents do not reply except in the affirmative).
I move on to the next agent in the search results. Meh... their writeup says they are interested in memoirs of experts in the medical or industrial-sciences fields, not my kind of memoir, skip that one... OK here's a good one... I make the new record, drag the fields into my database, then, since this person wants the query via email I click the button next to email address and my database auto-generates the email with the agent's name and email address in the To header, with the subject line: QUERY--The Story of Q, copy my query letter text and paste it in as the body, and then I personalize the attached proposal (putting in the correct name and address) and send.
I have a related table of correspondence records. I input that I "sent NewQuery 8 + proposal via email" and it auto-dates the record with today's date. When a rejection letter comes in I will find the record and input "Declined interest" on the next line and that will generate a second related record with that day's date.
The next agent wants the proposal via standard US mail ("Snail mail") with SASE. I stick more paper into the laser printer, personalize the proposal front page and print it, print the pitch cover letter and sign it, paperclip the proposal, then click the "Print Agent Label" twice and "Print SASE Label" twice. My little Dymo label printer obediently prints my mailing labels and I crack and peel one set onto a new envelope, slap on a Forever stamp, grab that and the cover letter and proposal and slip them into the big parcel envelope, seal that and crack and peel the second set of labels onto that and mark my database record "sent NewPitch 8 + Proposal w/ONE chap snail w/SASE".
I get nine or a dozen or sometimes fourteen or so done and call it quits for the week's endeavors. Stack the outbound US mail envelopes in the chair, where I (or anais_pf) will get around to mailing them when we're out and about and the rest of it's out of my hands. All I can do is keep fishing.
————————
Index of all Blog Posts
Some of the largest and most popular sites for this kind of thing let you search for either fiction or nonfiction subject areas that agents have specified an interest in, and gives you the matching agent records along with all their contact info. I'm pretty sure that agents fill in their own interests from a supplied checklist. For any given agent, an indicated interest in "memoirs" could mean anything from "I specialize in representing memoirs" to "oh let's see, mysteries and young adult fiction and science fiction and romances and what else? yeah sure, memoirs, I could do that...". One cannot search on terms that the site doesn't use; hence on agentquery.com, for example (they're one of the big popular sites), one cannot search for "gender" or "feminist" or "trangender", although there is a "gay and lesbian" search term under nonfiction that I've used as a search term.
Smaller resources are often things like lists of memoir agents or lists of agents interested in LGBT content that someone on some web site somewhere has assembled.
I do my searches and skip to the results page where I left off, or pick up where I left off on someone else's list, and spend awhile reading agents' profiles and checking to see if I've already queried them (or another agent at the same agency). I have several different prospective lists and I switch between them at random, continuing from where I was when I last worked from that list.
I keep a database of literary agents I've sent query letters & proposals to. I'm a database geek — that's my day job — so I made a FileMaker Pro system to keep track of it. Let's say I'm doing my search for nonfiction subject = "memoirs" on agentquery.com . The next entry is for Erin Harris of Folio Literary Management, who represents memoirs that include personal and experiential growth and cultural conflict. Sounds good. Keeping my web browser page with her data open in front of me, I turn to the other monitor and do a find in the database window. Nope, haven't queried Erin Harris before, although I've sent to her colleague Michael Harriot who is also at Folio and he hasn't responded yet.
New Record. I drag from the web browser window her name, email, the organization name and its weblink, the postal address, phone number, and her blurb about what kind of material she represents. Then I click on the link to "How to submit" and scan it to see what form of submission she prefers. I have an initial breakdown into either "Email", "Snailmail", or "WebPortal". Many agents do not accept anything but email or will not accept email and require it be mailed with a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for the reply; others will accept multiple formats but have a preference; still others do not appear to have a preference, which leaves it up to me. In the case of Erin Harris, she wants all submissions to be uploaded using Folio's web form: answer the questions and click the "upload proposal" button and upload the material. I check "WebPortal".
The next field in my database distinguishes between types of material the agent wants to receive: query only? query with sample of your writing? query with formal nonfiction proposal? query with proposal AND sample? Then I have a field for stipulation of what type of sample for those who want an included writing sample. The most common options are First Chapter and First xx pages, but I also have indicators for Sample Chapter (any of the author's choosing), first TWO chapters, Selections Up to xx Pages, and First XX Chapters Up to YY Pages.
I fill out that Erin Harris wants a Query with the first 10 pages only of my proposal (unusual option) and first chapter as writing sample. I flag the record, indicating that no query has been sent yet, but also flag the "OnHold" field because I'm not sending to her until I get a rejection from her colleague Michael Harriot, or until enough time has elapsed that I can figure I would have heard if he were interested. (Some agents do not reply except in the affirmative).
I move on to the next agent in the search results. Meh... their writeup says they are interested in memoirs of experts in the medical or industrial-sciences fields, not my kind of memoir, skip that one... OK here's a good one... I make the new record, drag the fields into my database, then, since this person wants the query via email I click the button next to email address and my database auto-generates the email with the agent's name and email address in the To header, with the subject line: QUERY--The Story of Q, copy my query letter text and paste it in as the body, and then I personalize the attached proposal (putting in the correct name and address) and send.
I have a related table of correspondence records. I input that I "sent NewQuery 8 + proposal via email" and it auto-dates the record with today's date. When a rejection letter comes in I will find the record and input "Declined interest" on the next line and that will generate a second related record with that day's date.
The next agent wants the proposal via standard US mail ("Snail mail") with SASE. I stick more paper into the laser printer, personalize the proposal front page and print it, print the pitch cover letter and sign it, paperclip the proposal, then click the "Print Agent Label" twice and "Print SASE Label" twice. My little Dymo label printer obediently prints my mailing labels and I crack and peel one set onto a new envelope, slap on a Forever stamp, grab that and the cover letter and proposal and slip them into the big parcel envelope, seal that and crack and peel the second set of labels onto that and mark my database record "sent NewPitch 8 + Proposal w/ONE chap snail w/SASE".
I get nine or a dozen or sometimes fourteen or so done and call it quits for the week's endeavors. Stack the outbound US mail envelopes in the chair, where I (or anais_pf) will get around to mailing them when we're out and about and the rest of it's out of my hands. All I can do is keep fishing.
————————
Index of all Blog Posts
