Copy of GETTING YOUR BOOK TO AN AGENT

Many writers out there wonder how, in the hell, can they get their book into the worthy and capable hands of a literary agent. Well, it’s a process.

For one thing, I’ll be blunt: If you have a connection of any kind, use it. If you can nail down a referral, that will help big time. But assuming that’s not an option, and you have to go in ‘cold,’ here’s how you do it.

First off, start by writing the book all the way through. You’d be amazed how many agents tell me that writers submit partially completed manuscripts (or queries that pitch partially completed books). Unless it’s nonfiction—and that’s a different deal—finish the book first.

And not only finish it but have that puppy shining solid. I mean really, really polish that book. This means that you workshop it, get feedback, make changes, etc. It means that you show it to a lot of people both writers and professionals. It means that you hire a professional book editor (like me) to edit the book with skill and patience, from an objective viewpoint.

It means you go over those first five pages again and again and again. Attend writers’ conferences, read agents’ and writers’ websites and blogs about what a good 2016 book (in your genre) does and is and has. Research, research, research!!! And when you’re done with all that, research some more.

Ok, now you’ve got a tight, polished book. You’ve done your research and you know your genre’s preferred word count (the target for fiction in general, minus sci-fi, is about 70-90,000 words), the stakes are high, you’ve got solidly created characters and a strong world built. You’ve hired that editor and have made the suggested changes you agree with. You have read websites and blogs and conferred or consulted with at least one professional with or without a fee about the book industry and specifically your book.

Now is the ‘fun’ part. I am being partially sarcastic, partially serious. Time to look for an agent. This requires more research. Pick maybe ten agents to start out with, maybe even only five. Your call. Do NOT pull the amateur move where you pick out 50 agents at huge firms and send a generic query. They will laugh and reject it without even taking a sip of coffee to think about it. They live to reject this stuff. They also live to find the next J.K.K. Rowling. Trust me. Make it easy for them; make them HAVE TO look at your idea.

Pick your five or 10. Now research. Go to their websites. Don’t know where to start? Google, my friends, Google. We live in 2016; there are no excuses anymore. Fifteen years ago, sure, it was a little more limited. But not anymore. Ok, go to Google, type in ‘Young Adult Romance’ literary agents, or whatever genre you have written. Then go through the list. Star these places on your computer. Make a list on a word.doc file of each agent.

Now, when you look at their sites, make sure they represent YOUR genre (of the book you wrote) and that they seem to like your type of book. Let’s say you wrote a dark, edgy YA book (Young Adult). Find the agent who represents ‘dark, edgy YA.’ Usually it will say this in the bio in one form or another. Also, go a step further. I know this is irritating; it takes time. Go to their client list and Google some of their titles sold. Note where they sold the titles to. This will help you decide if you want to saddle up with said agent. What are your writer’s goals? Small house, medium, large? You can find all of that out online.

When you find a couple of client titles, look hard for any key words of the plot/summary of the book in the online description or the review of the book. If you find any similarities to your book, blammo! You’ve now got a [query] first sentence hook! Use that to compare to your book in the first sentence of your query. It will show the agent that you gave a crap and that you did your homework and that you are genuinely invested in that SPECIFIC agent. This will win you points; you will be that much closer to actually having your work looked at by an agent. There is still no guarantee, the work must speak for itself, but you at least have a higher chance.

Aside from that, make sure you write a killer query letter. Research how to do that online. For query writing and agent spotting, check out Chuck Sambuchino’s website (CLICK HERE). He’s great. Make sure your query follows guidelines and is three succinct paragraphs: a short paragraph about the genre, word-count, audience, and setting/hook sentence; a middle graph about the book (mini synopsis); and a third and final graph about the author (you), any credentials or publications you might have, why you’re the best person to write the book, etc. We’re talking 250-300 words tops. The closer to 250 you can get, the better. Just hook the agent’s attention, that’s really your sole goal. And also have a one- and two-page synopsis. That’s for another post.

Write on.

“You said it. Let’s edit.”

**

Michael Mohr

Freelance Book Editor (Send a book to michaelmohreditor@gmail.com. I charge 5 cents/word.)

Read my Substack writing on culture, politics, personal essays, fiction: SINCERE AMERICAN WRITING

THE WRITER/EDITOR RELATIONSHIP: PATIENCE

I’d say 95 percent of the clients I work with on book editing projects are filled with impatience. As a writer as well as a book editor, I of course understand this feeling perfectly. It makes sense. For the most part, developing writers approach me with a first or second or third draft, or even sometimes a memoir or novel they’ve worked on for years, and they have a specific plan for how they want that project to go.

The problems with this approach are many-fold. For one thing, the majority of developing writers out there don’t necessarily understand how “the industry” works, and also how book editing itself works. Due to the popularity of writing nowadays, people have been told they can very easily self-publish or simply hire a book editor for a quick edit and then, ZOOM; you’re getting published!

This couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that writing and editing (and publishing) take a long. Freaking. Time.

For me, as your book editor, I want your work to be the very best it can be. This means I want to often do two, three, even four or more (usually it’s two-to-three) developmental edits (general edit looking at plot, structure, pace, characters, setting, voice, logic concerns, etc) and then a line edit after that. This process easily can take anywhere between six months to a full year or longer. That’s right, you heard correctly; up to a full year. As you move through the process (and you’ll take time off each draft to allow your eyes to become objective with your own work again) you will undoubtedly become a stronger writer. This is part of the point. Also, you can do some research and try to understand agents, query letters (which I can help you with as well) and the market a little better so that when we’re done, you’ll have a better grasp on what you’re doing.

I perform only developmental and line editing (line is going through the whole manuscript line by line and strengthening your writing) which means you’ll still have to then hire a proofreader when you’re done with me. But the point of everything I’m saying is: SLOW DOWN AND BE PATIENT. Let me let you in on a little trade secret: Good novels and good memoir (I only work with novels and memoir) come from writers who take their time, slow down, and put out their very best work. Don’t rush the process! As a client, be willing to be teachable. Remain humble. You don’t have to swallow everything I tell you, and by all means disagree with whatever you wish (and we can discuss each issue/concern) but don’t make the rookie mistake of either rushing your not-truly-ready manuscript to agents or even worse perhaps, releasing an unprepared self-published book into the digital world that isn’t your best material. We’ve all seen some grizzly stuff out there, and you don’t want to be in that category.

Instead, do the right thing and take it slow. Yes, each draft is going to cost you more money, but it’s worth the price when you consider what you’re getting back: A solid, tight, finished product worthy of readers’ expectations. I am a published writer, a freelance book editor, and a former literary agent’s assistant at a reputable firm in the Bay Area, so I know how all this works from a personal as well as professional standpoint. I have worked with clients like Christian Picciolini (“WHITE AMERICAN YOUTH [Hachette Book Group, 2017]”) and have seen clients like Tom Pitts (“Hustle,” Snubnose Press) get their books published successfully. I worked with Christian for over a year on a book he’d been working on for a decade. Tom Pitts I worked with through the agency I was with and we went through several drafts.

The point? You don’t need to spend a decade on your book, or even half that. But you do need, in my opinion, to spend some real time going over your material to make sure it shines brightly and performs its main functions: to entertain, to teach, and to enlighten.

Are you ready for me to help take your novel or memoir to the next level? Got the patience? Give me a try.

Write on.

“You said it. Let’s edit.”

Michael Mohr

***

Have a project for me? Send me the first chapter as a word.doc, a description (short) of the book and of the author, and a basic description of your desires and goals as pertaining to the project to michaelmohreditor@gmail.com.

The Bend (auto-fiction about freight train hoppin...)

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Photo by Alex Geerts on Unsplash

The Bend

My body ripped up at a ninety-degree angle, my eyes popping open, hearing what sounded like a freight train. Brian was asleep, his rucksack propping his head up like some 1930s Depression-era freight train hopper. If Dorthea Lange were here, she’d have gotten a good photograph.

The train whistle throbbed, that loud, wheedling wail. How could Brian sleep through this? Because he was used to it. He’d been doing this for fifteen years. I’d been “on the road” for three months, tired and dirty and in some deep existential quagmire.

I’d met Brian in New York—Buffalo—drunk, stumbling up the lonely streets trying to find the abandoned park at four A.M. where I’d stowed my pack, when I’d nearly knocked the guy off the sidewalk. An exchange of words, some drunk yammering, bitter feelings, and then blam: I’d woken up the next morning in his garage, early sunlight piercing the darkness like a baby beginning to exit the womb, seeing the world for the first time.

I’d asked Brian to hitchhike west with me and, to my astonishment, he’d agreed to come. Now, a mere week later, after a few days hitching across the USA, we were here, hiding out at “The Bend,” the spot in North Portland where the train tracks bent around a sharp turn and the trains went slow enough that you could hop one.

The heavy whistle blew again and I saw the fat, yellow headlight from the first car of the train. Watching these Titanics of the railroad was fascinating. It was highly illegal and very prosecutable by law. The “yard bulls,” train cops, had the right to beat the crap out of you. I’d heard stories about severed limbs, death.

Ahead of us, to the immediate north, was a fork in the tracks, one track veering left, one right. There was a track switch sitting in the middle. A sign saying, “DANGER: HIGH ELECTRIC CURRENT.”

The train appeared suddenly from around the bend, maybe a hundred yards east, chugging. The incredibly loud crunch of steel wheels rolling ruggedly on tracks began to pump and purr and pop.

“Brian,” I tried again, but he only mumbled something indecipherable.

WOOOOOT WOOOOOOT….WOOOOOT WOOOOOOT

The train whistle blew through my fear and anxiety. I was twenty-six years old. Brian was in his early 30s and a world more experienced than me. I was an intense dude, a burgeoning writer, but very white, very middle-class, and very American, in all the senses of the word. Brian was blue-collar Middle America and an expert in the seductive life of the crime underworld. He’d run away at fifteen and had never looked back, hopping freight trains, stealing copper from warehouses and selling it. He knew things. I respected and also feared him.

The train gained. I roughly shook Brian’s shoulder. “Brian!”

He woke up with a scare, his body shooting into a forty-five degree angle, confusion wrenching itself on his face.

“What is it?” He said.

“Listen,” I said.

The train whistle blew harder than hell. We could actually feel the rumble of the ground as the massive beast approached, as if God were letting us know what he could do. Brian scruffed onto his knees and peered over the brush, his eyes barely over the rim.

“Shit,” he said. “That’s our train. I’ll hop first. Follow me. Wait for my signal.”

My heart began beating harder, like the train’s approaching wheels clacking on metal and the sound of that pounding, pumping, pummeling whistle, announcing the arrival of Zeus.

Before we knew it the head of the train came right at us, the headlight gigantic and all encompassing.

“Get down!” Brian hissed.

(TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY CLICK HERE FOR MY SUBSTACK PAGE; PLEASE SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE TO GET REGULAR WRITING FROM ME!)