Perfect Pitch: Adam Sass' Query for Surrender Your Sons!

I can’t believe Surrender Your Sons is almost (or is, depending on when you’re reading this post and if I remember to update it) out.

Adam originally pitched me this stunning novel in 2016, and while I loved what I read, it didn’t feel quite ready. He’s talked about this, how there used to be magic and superpowers in this YA contemporary thriller / horror novel. I’d told him how eager I’d be to read anything else he wrote, and he remembered.

Two years later, he followed up, with a wildly revised book and an entirely different query letter. If you’re curious about that ORIGINAL pitch from 2016, maybe tune in to Adam’s virtual book tour when we chat about it on September 21st.

And now here we are, two starred reviews later and a ton of acclaim from beloved authors, Surrender Your Sons is ready to make a splash.

But how did it get here? Well, let’s dig into that query letter. And remember, if you found this helpful, please order a copy of Surrender Your Sons, which is also available on audio!

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Hey Eric!

It's been so wonderful following you and Nena the last few years and seeing you guys grow your family. Similarly, I can't tell you how much your support has meant to me personally. As a total shot in the dark, I thought I would poke in to see if you would be interested in my latest manuscript. It's SURRENDER YOUR SONS, the one you passed on, but I spent a year putting it through a major gut renovation both in content and genre. Rewritten from scratch, there is no longer any fantasy elements and it's fully a contemporary mystery/thriller, complete at 88,000 words.

Sixteen-year-old Connor Major knows his mouth gets him into trouble, but he can’t help it. After a disastrous coming out, he spends his summer verbally sparring with his religious zealot mother, eventually costing him his phone, his boyfriend, and his freedom.

But his nightmare is only beginning.

At his mother’s request, masked men abduct Connor and drop him onto a secluded island—a gay conversion therapy camp called Nightlight. As Connor hunts for ways to escape the island and resist the sadistic program, he discovers Nightlight’s connection to an unspeakable hate crime that’s remained unsolved for over 20 years. It’s a good thing Connor enjoys a bit of troublemaking because the treacherous staff and suspicious campers of Nightlight Ministries won’t give up their secrets without a fight.

An escape-from-the-jungle story reminiscent of LOST, this adventure is LAST SEEN LEAVING meets MORE HAPPY THAN NOT.

A 2016 Pitch Wars mentee, I also had a short story “98% Graves” appear in the anthology STARTLING SCI-FI: NEW TALES OF THE BEYOND (New Lit Salon Press, 2015), which was nominated for Best Science Fiction Story by Writer’s Digest. On the non-fiction side, my writing has appeared in USA Today and the LA Times. In my day job, I research and write content for ATTN:, an issues-driven social media video creator. With an emphasis on LGBTQ issues, I’ve scripted videos for our clients Samsung and T-Mobile.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration!

Sincerely,

Adam Sass

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So there’s a lot of stuff here Adam does so VERY right. Let’s talk about them, and why this pitch is so perfect.

Following Up & Circling Back: First, let’s talk about following up. I get asked about this a lot in my agent life, when it’s okay, if you ever should, etc. Listen. So much of an agent’s job is following up with editors, so believe me when I tell you, no one is going to be furious with you for sending a followup nudge. To see if they might want to see a revised version of a manuscript, or if they’ve had a chance to look at a manuscript… these things are welcome.

It’s up to you, as the author, to judge whether or not you should be circling back though. Did the agent seem excited about you and the work? Was it just a form rejection? Gauge whether or not the interest is there. You don’t want to waste your time, after-all.

I’d told Adam I was a fan, that I was eager to see what he was working on next, so his followup was WILDLY welcome. He even replied to the old, two-year-old email exchange we’d had. I requested the manuscript immediately.

Personalization: Me and my family followed Adam on social media for a while. My wife is a big fan, long before he had a book out and about. So his friendly note about us was totally appropriate. We had an established relationship online! He also mentions the invitation to send the book back. Perfect.

Comparative Titles: His comps to Caleb and Adam’s books are perfect, as that’s exactly what this book is, and that nod to Lost was excellent. It captures the tone and feel of the book, from the darkness to the surprise humor, entirely. It also helps that I’m a massive fan of Last Seen Leaving and that More Happy Than Not is one of my favorite YA novels of all time.

The “Book” Section: His jacket-esque copy describing the book is perfect. Three paragraphs. Nice and simple, right to the core of the story.

A perfect query letter, for what I think is a perfect book. I can’t wait for more of you to read it.

Remember, if this query letter share was helpful, order a copy of Surrender Your Sons! Or ask your library to stock it! Support a debut author, in these weird times.

Perfect Pitch: Nita Tyndall's Query for Who I Was With Her

It’s that time!

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Nita Tyndall’s debut for a while now, and I’m so excited it’ll be in your hands this month. Who I Was With Her is a heartbreaking and lyrical YA contemporary novel that shifts back and forth in time, digging into the story of a teen girl who loses her secret girlfriend in a tragic accident.

What happens when you’re forced to mourn alone, for a person and a relationship no one else knew existed? This book broke me into so many tiny pieces, and I was just so thrilled to work on it.

Below, you’ll find Nita’s original query for it, and I hope you’ll find it helpful. And if you do, pick up a copy of their debut! It’s in bookstores everywhere, and available in audio, September 15th via HarperTeen.

Let’s dig in!

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Corinne Parker is a runner. She runs on her high school’s cross-country team; in the woods behind her house. She runs away from her flighty, alcoholic mother and clueless father. And she runs from the truth she won’t admit to herself, or to anyone—that she’s bisexual, and she’s dating the captain of the rival cross-country team, Maggie Bailey.

But then Maggie dies, and Corinne has no one to turn to. Not her parents, not the best friend she’s pushed away for a year. Not Maggie’s brother, Dylan. The only one she has is Elissa, a girl she barely knows; a stranger who’s the only one who has any idea how Corinne is hurting because she dated Maggie, too.

As Corinne begins to fall for Elissa, she realizes she didn’t know Maggie as well as she thought, and she realizes that what Maggie and everyone else wanted for her—coming out, Division I schools, a life outside of her small North Carolina town—may not be what she wants.

But the only way Corinne’s going to figure out what she wants is if she stops running.

WHO I WAS WITH HER is a contemporary f/f YA novel complete at 61,000 words. I was a fellow at the Lambda Literary Retreat for Emerging Writers in 2017, and am currently a blogger for Barnes & Noble Teen and a moderator of the site YAPride.

Thank you again,

Nita

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And there you have it, that’s the pitch!

Nita does so many things spectacularly well in this short query letter. They get right to the plot, they dish the title, genre, category, word count. Their bio has important details about their platform in the community space (sigh, I miss the B&N Teen blog so much, where we both used to write!).

I know some readers of this letter might be wondering where the personalization is, but Nita’s a writer I knew all the way back then. I was expecting the query letter. They didn’t need to.

Hopefully Nita’s query helped you! You can thank them by ordering their debut!

Book Deals: James Tate Hill's Memoir BLIND MAN'S BLUFF to Norton

This announcement is such an absolute joy.

Back in October, Alison Stine (have you ordered your copy of Road Out of Winter yet?) sent over an email to introduce me to James Tate Hill, a contributing editor at Lit Hub who pens stunning essays and writes excellent bad jokes on Twitter. The memoir he’d written absolutely rocked me.

It was his story of faking sightedness, from high school and long into his adult life, and how his professional career and personal relationships struggled as a result.

You see, James is blind. And he didn’t want people to know.

I loved the book terribly, we signed up to work together, and it went out on submission in March… with an offer coming in just weeks later. And I’m just so thrilled to announce this beautiful book, BLIND MAN’S BLUFF which will be out with Norton in the Summer of 2021.

Here’s the blip from Publisher’s Marketplace:

Literary Hub contributing editor James Hill's BLIND MAN'S BLUFF, about disability, the things we take for granted, and the author's experience attempting to pass for sighted while hiding his blindness for nearly two decades from friends, colleagues, lovers, and even himself, to Amy Cherry at Norton, for publication in summer 2021, by Eric Smith at P.S. Literary Agency (NA).

It’s such a moving and often times hilarious story of disability, family, and the things we take for granted. James’ story moved me, and I hope it’ll do the same to you next year.

Congrats James. It’s been such an honor.

Crafting the Non-Fiction Book Proposal With Kristy Kohler and Eliza Larson and Eat to Feed

Hey there non-fiction writers!

I’ve said it before on here, and I’ll say it again. Navigating the world of non-fiction can be tricky! Agents and editors always ask for a proposal, but what do they look like? How do you know what goes in one? What if you’re missing crucial-

Breathe.

Like I’ve done before with Alex Rubens’ 8-Bit Apocalypse and Sam Slaughter’s Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum?, today we are going to breakdown an actual non-fiction book proposal for a client’s project I sold. Now, this isn’t a proposal the clients put together on their own, but one I wrangled up with them as a team. It was a group effort, like many proposals are.

Are YOU expected to have something this detailed right out of the gate? Not really. This was a project I was seeking authors out for, as opposed to one they pitched to me. But if you do have it ready when you’re pitching, it’s certainly something in your favor. This wonderful book published in July of last year with Da Capo Press, and is a cookbook detailing recipes for breastfeeding mothers.

First, as always, a few quick disclaimers!

• Remember how subjective this all is. What works for me as an agent, might not work for someone else. There are some great additional proposal guides written up by Jane Friedman, Brian Klems at Writer’s Digest, and Nathan Brandsford. Learn as much as you can.

• Make sure you are reading agency guidelines before sending anything. An agent might want something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. But I imagine a lot of what we are going to dig into here, such as author platform, proposed contents, sample pages, etc… will be across the board for everyone who requests a proposal.
  

• And last, if this helps, please consider picking up a copy of Eat to Feed. Kristy and Eliza put a lot of their hearts into this beautiful project. And if this is helpful, buy me a coffee! The cafe near my house is open again!

Alright. Let’s dig in.

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THE BASICS

I’ve said this in previous proposals blog posts, but when it comes to crafting a really great non-fiction book proposal, there are a few sections you should have in every single one. In my opinion, the breakdown should look a little something like this, and we’ll dig into each of these in a minute, and how they apply to working on a cookbook:

• About the Book: Exactly what it sounds like. What’s the jacket copy look like? What is this book?

• Meet the Author: Let’s get to know you.

• Author Publicity & Platform: It’s time to name drop. What’s your platform like, where do you write, who will support your book, what are your numbers? This could also just tie into the Meet the Author section, though if you have a lot to dig into, break it off. Give us a whole section.

• Comparative Titles: What books would yours sit with in bookstores? What book would fans of your book, also potentially like? This section is notably missing from this proposal.

• Potential Media Relevance: Covering a topic that gets dug into in the media? Shows us a bit about that, if possible.

• Manuscript Overview & Proposed Contents: What you’ve got so far, and where you see the work going. Word count? Well, that can vary greatly. We’ll dig into that too.

Now, when it comes to non-fiction proposals, there will sometimes be sections that are pretty specific to that kind of proposal. Since we’re focusing on a cookbook, there’s going to be a whole section dedicated to photography. We did this in Sam Slaughter’s Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum as well. Obviously if you’re writing an essay collection or a memoir you might not have a breakdown of your food photography. I guess it depends on the memoir, though.

And you’ll also note this proposal had no comparative titles. It was a very rare moment when I felt like we didn’t need any, as there were barely any books like this one on the market. And I stressed that fact.

Now, let’s break down these sections a bit more. I’ll include summaries of what we discussed in the proposal as well as some screenshots, which I hope will give you a helpful overview of what goes into one of these.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

You know that query letter you’ve been polishing up? With your jacket-copy-esque writing that describes the book you’ve spent all these many months / years on? Well, this is yet another place to let that writing shine.

In EAT TO FEED, we opened up the proposal with an introduction that talked about the two creators, and what their brand has been doing. We even had a cute photo of one of their wholesome bars that they sell through their store as the opening image.

After-all, a big part of Eat to Feed, was that it was being written by two women who made the exact things inside the book, and sold them through their company. It was a large part of their platform, and we’ll talk more on that later.

The rest of the quick two-page About the Book section digs into what readers will see in the book (“…from full dinners like pesto barley salad with roasted tomatoes to savory spreadable snacks like roasted pumpkin seed butter, to delicious takes on drinks like their ice chocolate sesame almond milk.”) and who the book is for (breastfeeding mothers).

It’s quick and to the point, just as any good jacket copy is.

Also hi, note the title change? NEVER BE MARRIED TO YOUR TITLES. They are always subject to change. We even knew this one might change, and labeled it “Working Title” throughout the proposal packet.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Whenever I talk about query letters, I like to quote other agents who say it’s all about the “hook, book, cook.” The marketing blip that snags you in, the jacket-esque description of the book, and the cook, aka, you! The chef behind the pages.

This, is your author bio.

For Eliza and Kristy’s bio, we spent three pages doing this.

• Talk about them together, as partners in Oat Mama.

• Talking about them apart, and what they individually brought to the project, such as how Eliza was the photographer, and bringing up her career as such.

It was a little longer for a quick Meet the Author section, but these two have done a lot together and individually! There was a lot to say.

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PUBLICITY AND PLATFORM

Ah, here we go. The section everyone hates to talk about.

Before I jump into this, I want to remind you… it’s never too late to build a platform. You don’t need a million social media followers (though hey, that would be nice!), but you should have something to establish that you are the expert on your topic. In the case of Eliza and Kristy, they had:

• An established brand they were building their book off of, Oat Mama.

• A large following on social media accounts like Instagram and Pinterest.

• A significant newsletter subscriber base.

• A ton of press surrounding what they’ve done.

When it comes to this book and these authors, they built their own platform. They created their website, their brand, their store… this is a book connected to all of that. For them, platform was tied to this, as opposed to a huge social following… though that certainly helped!

We pressed the fact that they owned their platform too, pointing out their lovely blog and the following they had developed around it and their products.

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MEDIA & MARKET

You can’t always have a section like this, but in the case of this book, it was easy. So many outlets had been talking about lactations cookies and bars over the course of the year. Different meals, shakes, and the like. And many of them, lucky for us, talked specifically about the Oat Mama team, linking to their recipes!

This allowed us to build out a nice section that showed off media outlets talking about what the book would cover, helping us show relevance. We even dug into a specific news story centered around the Starbucks “pink drink” (remember this?) in 2017.

Which helped us showcase how the media covered this particular topic, when attached to a trend.

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MANUSCRIPT OVERVIEW + PROPOSED CONTENTS

And here’s the big one, and arguably the most important part of the puzzle… what’s in the actual book, and samples of your writing.

I’ll note this, I’ve heard varying things about word count in non-fiction proposals. Some say a few thousand words, some say a quarter of the book. As always, pay attention to submission guidelines. Me? I like to see at least 10,000 words before I offer on anything, and like to think that’s a safe bet for anyone else working on a proposal like this one.

For this proposal, we broke down the contents, and then listed all the recipes and fun instructional tidbits we planned on sharing in the cookbook. It wasn’t enough to just have a bundle of recipes. We had fun facts, instructions on how to grow sprouts, all kinds of great bits that make a cookbook really great.

Cookbooks that are just recipes aren’t interesting. Cookbooks that tell a story? Those are. And this book had a story to share.

We were also sure to share recipes with big beautiful photos. I had to zoom this one out to fit it here on the blog.

We shared five different recipes with full color, beautiful photos.

And afterwards, in the final section of the proposal, showed off more sample photography from one of the co-authors of the book.

And there you have it. A non-fiction cookbook proposal. If you found this helpful, do consider ordering the book from your favorite bookseller.

At the end of the day, the proposal ended up being 30 pages long, but I’ve seen proposals be much longer. Dish as much as you have to, to get the point of your book across, AND why you are the right person to write it.

Good luck out there!

Perfect Pitch: Alison Stine's Query for Road Out of Winter

As of this posting, Road Out of Winter has pulled in starred reviews from BookList and Library Journal, calling it “an excellent feminist dystopian novel of survival, desperation and, ultimately, hope.”

You can get a really cute skateboard enamel pin from the author if you preorder it, which you definitely should.

I’m really excited to share Alison Stine’s query letter here, because it is such a perfect example of using comparative titles. The books she brought up here grabbed me immediately, naming three books I adore, followed by a really quick pitch for her book.

The comps here tell me exactly what I need to know when it comes to the voices and themes she was planning to explore, even with a hook that short (one sentence!) describing her story.

So! Let’s have a look, and if you find this helpful, preorder Alison’s magnificent novel. It’s in bookstores everywhere September 1st with Harlequin / MIRA.

And yes, you’ll see it has a different title. Never be married to your titles, author friends. They can change from agent to editor to publisher, etc.

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Dear Eric Smith,

I’ve come to you through Twitter, where I’ve become a huge fan of your work and the work you champion. I’m a partially deaf, bisexual single mom in Appalachia. I have a new manuscript, and I wonder if you’d be interested in taking a look?

The book is called THE GROWER. It’s adult fiction, in the ilk of Edan Lepucki’s California, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, and Emma Cline’s The Girls. Here’s a brief synopsis: 

A woman marijuana farmer has to rescue a teen mom and her daughter from the leader of an anarchist skateboarding cult in a rural, West Virginia ravaged by climate change.

I’m the author of two books of fiction: The Protectors (Little A, 2016), an illustrated novella about graffiti artists in rural Appalachia, and Supervision (2015), which won the Digital First Contest from HarperVoyagerUK, as well as three books of poems, most recently Wait (University of Wisconsin Press, 2011). An NEA Fellow and former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, my writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The Paris Review, Tin House, Poetry, The Toast, The Kenyon Review, and many others. I live with my young son in the rural, Ohio foothills of Appalachia, and work as a social justice reporter. 

I have a draft of THE GROWER complete, and would love to send it or an excerpt to you. Let me know if you’re interested.

Thank you,

Ali

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Oh my goodness I love this query. Let’s talk about all the stuff that works so well.

First, the comparative title use. I talked about it up top, but again, using those to dish the voices and the themes put this immediately in my “I need to read this now” stack. And I did. And I loved it.

The other great piece of this? Her bio. So many authors forget to dig into this. Now, Alison’s won some awards and has some other books to her name. Not everyone does. This doesn’t mean you should skip out on telling the agent or editor a bit about yourself! What do you do when you aren’t writing? Who are YOU as a person? There’s still room to dish here, with or without a publishing background.

With Alison’s bio, she shows the buy in surrounding her writing. The places she writes for, the books she has out. It was fantastic.

And there you have it. A fantastic query letter, with a one sentence pitch for the book (gasp!), and BRILLIANT comparative titles. This one worked. And the book will be in stores everywhere September 1st.

Be sure to preorder, and to follow Alison on Twitter.

Book Deals: Mary Kenney's GAME CHANGERS to Running Press Kids!

It’s strange, how good things sometimes brew up out of bad news.

Me and a number of my friends, particularly here in Philadelphia, were huge fans of Telltale Games. There were endless group chats and live texts from playthroughs of those games, and they had a special place in my heart. When the studio shuttered, I was devastated, and made sure to look up the writers I’d come to adore so much.

One of them was Mary Kenney. And I started following her career.

You might know Mary from her work on The Walking Dead and Batman games, or her current work at Insomniac Games, as a writer on the team for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

She was also a 30 Under 30 honoree from Forbes, and her work on The Walking Dead was nominated for a GLAAD award. She’s brilliant and amazing, and I’m beyond excited to be announcing her first book.

Readers, get ready for GAME CHANGERS, a Young Adult nonfiction title highlighting oft overlooked figures in gaming Here’s the blip from Publisher’s Marketplace.

Children’s: Young Adult Non-Fiction: Writer for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Telltale’s The Walking Dead video games, Mary Kenney’s debut GAME CHANGERS, which shines a light on over two dozen women and genderqueer people who built the video game industry, and their often overlooked contributions to the booming world of gaming, to Britny Brooks at Running Press Kids, for publication in 2022, by Eric Smith at P.S. Literary Agency (World).

Also, fun fact, this marks my third book with the wonderful Britny Brooks and my fourth project with the Running Press team. Do I get a members only jacket now? Please?

Congrats Mary! Everyone be sure to follow her, and check out the comics (she’s written for My Little Pony!) and games she’s worked on. Go become a fan. I sure am.

Apply for One of Two Passes to the (Online!) James River Writers Conference

So there are a lot of things I miss from my time living in Richmond. The Fountain Bookshop, my old writing crew (who I wrote Don’t Read the Comments with!), the Book Riot gals (hi Rebecca and Amanda!), and all the beautiful scenery everywhere.

But one event I miss terribly, is the James River Writers Conference.

I went to that conference within the first two weeks of moving to town, and basically made all my friends that I’d spend that year with. It’s a fantastic event that I’ve traveled back for, and during this strange pandemic times, it’s going online.

I’ll be going back, virtually, and I want to give you the chance to as well! I’m offering up two passes to two marginalized, unpublished writers. (And by unpublished, I mean you don’t have a book out yet. It’s fine if you’ve published essays and short stories).

That JRW team gave me two passes, for two days of the conference, and they’ve got a really outstanding line up this year. You can see the full schedule here, on their official website. Familiar faces like Sarah Glenn Marsh, Beverly Jenkins, Saba Sulaiman (one of my favorite agents in all of publishing!), Philly’s own Athena Dixon, Phil Hilliker, Meg Medina, Linda Sue Park, and so many more.

This year it’s October 9th - 11th, and again, it’s all online. How do you request a pass? Easy!

One: Just email me! With:

• Name: You know, your name.

• Who Are You?: A bit about you. Why you write.

• Your WIP: What are you currently writing?

• Twitter: What's your Twitter handle?

To ericsmithrocks at gmail dot com. No need to send an essay, just a little bit of detail. I'll pick two folks in September, so you’ll have time to set the time aside. These passes are worth $200+ and this event is awesome, so email me!

Two: Watch for the second giveaway on Twitter! In August I’ll be giving away a pass on Twitter. I’ll likely tweet it out sometime on August 3rd, so, keep an eye open! This is my Twitter. Follow along!

Huge thank you to the conference organizers for donating the passes, and making this event even more accessible. I appreciate you so much.

A Beginner's Guide to Looking Up Literary Agents

Whenever I leave my DMs on Twitter open, I get asked one question more than others.

Publishing isn’t exactly the most accessible industry, and it’s important to me that I try to be available to answer quick questions that would be difficult to navigate. But the one question I’ve been asked a lot this year, hasn’t been about query letters or writing craft or anything like that.

But about how to find literary agents.

I feel like the typical “well, Google is your friend” kind of response to this, ends up being a problem in the age of countless articles and blog posts about agents and publishing in general. A Google search for “literary agents” me gave me some agent roundups from 2017 and 2018, with several people who aren’t even agents anymore, and only two agencies ALL the way at the bottom of the page.

They were good agencies (hi BookEnds and Writers House!), but still. Two agencies, AFTER a mess of outdated articles? That’s bad.

So, here’s this. A beginner’s guide to looking up agents. Because it shouldn’t be that hard, and if you know the right resources, it isn’t. Especially when those resources are (almost entirely) free.

Let’s dig in.

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PUBLISHER’S MARKETPLACE

So, a monthly membership to Publisher’s Marketplace costs money, yes. But the newsletter? The basic newsletter is free. That newsletter will give you a daily list of agents selling books and who they are selling books to. Only sign up for this if you can stomach it though? Seeing folks every single day getting book deals can be… tough. Even as someone who works in the industry!

But as a free resource, it’s so valuable. You’ll see the name of the agent, the category of the book, the agency they work for… looking for an agent who is selling Young Adult books? Sci-fi or fantasy? Picture books? It’ll dish those deals by category via the newsletter.

Also, at the end of the year, every year, Publisher’s Marketplace goes free for a few weeks, so writers can access it and do research. They usually offer up a free year end trial. Though, that is a lot of waiting. Keep an eye out for when they do it, via social media.

As for the database, which costs $25 a month. In a recent event with Jonathan Maberry, he mentioned how he often suggested writing groups pool in a few dollars a piece (or however much, depending on the size of your group), to share an account and do agent research for a good month or so. Just scour over the entire thing. It’s still money, and honestly, researching agents should never cost you a thing… but it’s an option if you have the extra funds.

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WRITER’S DIGEST

When it comes to categories and verticals to keep an eye on, their New Agency Alert one is really great, dishing out new agents when they are scooped up at agencies. Robert Lee Brewer also regularly updates roundups of agents who are actively seeking authors (aren’t we all!), and you can see his latest (updated in February 2020) right here.

A note here though, make sure you are looking at the date of publication on those articles that round up agents. I’ve definitely stumbled on a few while Googling to discover the dates were from two or three years ago, and those agents aren’t even agents anymore.

But wait! There’s a physical magazine! It’s true, there is, and I’m a fan. A subscription is $20 a year, but remember, you can also generally check out the magazine at your local library, and if you’re a student, definitely at your college. You’ll see sales and agents in there too, as well as industry profiles, but you can still see a lot of those online.

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PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

Personally, I subscribe to the Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf newsletter, which generally goes out twice a week. It details new books that have been acquired in the world of kid-lit, and dishes the editors, publishing houses, and agents who made this happen. It’s a free resource. Also their PW Daily dishes out deals!

It’s great, free, and hits your inbox throughout the week. You can check out their newsletters and subscribe away, right here.

And just like Writer’s Digest, you can generally check out Publisher’s Weekly at your local library or college.

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MANUSCRIPT WISHLIST

So, I love Manuscript Wishlist. Both the website and the hashtag. Let’s discuss both.

First, the hashtag. If you hop on Twitter and check out #MSWL, you can see both editors and agents talking about the kind of books they want to see in their inbox. Often times, they get wildly specific, talking about the exact thing they are obsessively searching for. For me, as an agent, it helps me get to know editors before even reaching out. For authors, it lets you get a sense of what kind of books an agent is all about.

There is an annual MSWL Day, generally in September, where agents all tweet out their general wishlists. Categories, genres, you name it.

It’s not a place to pitch. I’ve seen this mistake before, and I get why it happens. Twitter pitch events are a thing! But that isn’t what this is. It’s to get a picture of what agents want. Use it. i

Second, the website.

Over on the actual Manuscript Wishlist website, you can scour agents (and editors!) by categories and genres, and check out detailed profiles regarding what they want. It’s really great, and as an agent, I’ve used it to look up editors.

Remember though, this is a slice of who is in the industry. It’s a great glimpse, but there are a lot of people not on here. Use it, but don’t only use it. You’ll be missing out on a lot of people.

Bonus? Check out the Manuscript Academy podcast. Hosted by the two agents who founded Manuscript Wishlist, it’s another awesome resource, featuring interviews with industry people and authors.

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QUERY TRACKER

So Querytracker is a website to behold. A community that’s also a fantastic research resource, it allows you to look up agents, see what other people are saying about them (do they take a long time to respond, what’s their response rate like, are they nice?), and, as the website title states, track your own query letters.

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YOUR FAVORITE RECENT NOVELS

So all of these web tools and outlets are fantastic. But one of the best and easiest ways to research agents? Your bookshelf.

Now, clearly you’re reading tons of books in the space you plan to be writing in, or have been writing in. Right? If you’re reading YA, you’ve got a bunch of YA on your shelf. Literary fiction? You’re reading a bunch of it. So head over to your bookshelf, pluck out a few books that have been released in the last year or two or three, and see who those agents were that handled the title.

Chances are, that author thanked their agent in the back of the book.

You can also look up the authors you’ve been reading and see who their agents are rather easily… because almost all authors mention their agents on their websites. Agents are the point of contact for fun things like subrights, so authors always leave that info up there.

I promise you, you have a ton of resources for research right on your shelf at home.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Remember how I mentioned that hashtag for Manuscript Wishlist? Great. Because social media is another fantastic place to research agents. Now, this does not mean you should pitch that agent on Twitter (unless specifically asked to via a social media pitch event, like Beth Phelan’s extraordinary #DVpit). But using Twitter, you can look up those authors you’re a fan of, and see who their agents are.

And sure, you can do this flipping to the back of your books, like I said just above… but what if all your books are eBooks? What if you’re on the bus or the train, or laying in bed having an existential crisis, and want to do a little research? This is a quick and easy way.

But again. Don’t pitch them on Twitter unless you’ve been specifically asked to. No one likes it.

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And there we have it. That’s it.

However! It’s important to note that while these are great resources for finding agents, they aren’t going to tell you if that agent is a great fit for you, if they’re the real deal, etc. So, make sure you do your own deeper research there. There are lots of websites that will help you steer clear of bad agents / actors in the industry.

Writers Beware and Absolute Write are great resources, and of course, just a quick search of an agent’s name on Twitter or Google will certainly turn up any red flags. Don’t just send out a query to someone without having a good look at their website.

Are they a new agent? Great! Don’t discount a new agent just because they don’t have sales yet (I was a new agent five years ago!). Just make sure their agency is able to support them. Does the agency have sales? Bigger agents? A quick look at the agency website will let you know.

Nervous about querying and getting a synopsis together? Don’t worry. I’ve got you. There are query letters and non-fiction proposals here, and ready for you to check out.

Good luck!