Avoid These 3 Mistakes When Submitting a Query Letter to a Literary Agent
Author and popular podcaster, Bianca Marais, shares her insight after hosting podcast where agents read and provide feedback on query submissions!
Introduction
Bianca Marais is the author of Hum if You Don’t Know the Words, If you Want to Make God Laugh, and the upcoming novel, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor.
She spends her time hosting an insanely popular podcast for writers called The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. In this interview,
She’s listened to agents review query submissions from so many aspiring writers. So what does she think are the 3 best things to do if you want to grab and keep a literary agent’s attention?
Marais makes it sound simple:
- Nail your comps
- Give the stakes
- Build a resume
Let me guess…
For many writers, there’s a dream of landing a literary agent. But this is easier said than done. If you’ve ventured into the querying world, it can feel overwhelming.
If you’re here, you’re probably looking for a literary agent. The looking is easy. It’s the landing that’s the hard part.
The best part, though, is that sometimes the mistakes we make are avoidable!
If you’re a writer with a book ready for an agent, you’re going to love this advice from Bianca Marais.
The whole purpose of her podcast is sharing agent feedback on query letters. So she’s about as qualified as anyone to share the feedback agents have for writers regarding query letters.
So if you want to get past an agent’s first defense (the query letter), check out this advice. It might just get you a good email reply instead of the dreaded rejection!
Imagine what it would feel like to see that email from an agent asking to see more from you. It might not be as far away as you think!
Comps
As Marais says, you need to compare your novel to titles within your same genre. Don’t compare your young adult novel to something in the middle grade section. Find a way to be clear about where your book fits in the market.
“You really need to nail your comps” — Bianca Marais
Remember, and this is something I learned from this interview with literary agent Amy Elizabeth Bishop, the literary industry is, first and foremost, a business. Everyone wants to choose books to represent based on what they love. However, they also need to think about what will sell. Your book sales means they eat and pay rent.
So be clear about where your story fits in the market so agents can identify where you’ll work, if they’re the best agent, and will help frame the way they begin to think about marketing your story!
Stakes
According to Marais, focusing on stakes can be something that sets your story apart. Too often it seems writers are forgetting why it matters that their story is being told.
“Your one paragraph that is plot but focusing on stakes…that’s always the thing writers forget.” — Bianca Marais
It’s normal to get caught up with character and plot. However, one of the keys, according to this interview, to keeping agents reading and interested, is what is at stake for your character?
What will happen if your character doesn’t get what they want? What’s at stake if they fail in their mission?
Resume
This one can feel more difficult than it actually is! Here’s my suggestion, and what I’ll be working on in the coming weeks. Every month there are new literary journals that send out what they want and what they’re looking for.
“Building up some kind of resume. Submit to journals. Submit to competitions.” — Bianca Marais
Some journals do this by a theme or genre or some other category. Consider doing a simple Google search for your genre and the term: literary magazine. See what comes up!
If it looks like a quality magazine, see if they’re accepting submissions. You can read their published works and see if it’s a right fit.
At this point, I’m not planning on worrying about whether or not it’s a paying magazine or contest. Remember the end goal. Sure, it’s nice to stuff twenty bucks in my pocket. But it’s even more useful to me to slam a story published on my query letter.
Conclusion
It can feel daunting to wade into the querying pool. You only have a few short words to hook an agent and convince them your book is worth reading.
So how do you do it? Bianca Marais gives us a roadmap to follow. You’ll be glad you followed her lead!
And remember, you only need one “Yes” so keep pitching, building your resume, and (most importantly) writing!
