In talking to authors and keeping up with the publishing discourse on Twitter, I’ve had some thoughts lately about querying literary agents in 2023 and beyond.
While the problem of literary agents being overwhelmed with queries doesn’t appear to be getting much better, the writing and publishing community as a whole seems to be settling into this new slow-as-molasses reality. In other words, many writers are starting to accept the new normal of longer wait times, more agency-wide “no response means no” policies, and suffering the unnecessary torment of some literary agents building up “maybe” piles like they’re collecting Pokémon cards.
If you’re a querying author, this isn’t news to you. Things are slooow. At the same time, I’ve come to believe there are ways an author can mitigate a bit of the suffering and maybe speed up the process a little. Here’s my advice for how to approach querying literary agents in 2023.
Query More Literary Agents
This might sound like silly advice, but I’m constantly shocked at the number of rejected or ghosted queries it takes before many authors give up and move on to the next project. I’ve had clients tell me they threw in the towel after querying fifteen to twenty agents, and it makes me want to pull my hair out.
So how many literary agents should you query?
In the year of our publishing overlords 2023, only querying a dozen or so agents simply isn’t enough. If you’re the polite or shy or self-deprecating type who feels like six rejections and fourteen ghostings means your book doesn’t deserve to be published, please consider that another author is out there firing off their 200th query, with no plans to stop anytime soon. Who do you think has the greater odds of acquiring representation when one author is querying ten times as many agents as the other?
I’ve seen authors on Twitter testify to having queried 300+ agents before acquiring representation. And I have one particular client who signed with the 75th agent he approached. There are no rules, and anyone who says otherwise is probably an agent who’s more concerned with their own inbox than your odds of getting the call.
Don’t give up so quickly. Query more. Query harder.
Find Literary Agents the Old Fashioned Way
I might catch some flak for this one, but I’m not in the business of caring what anyone thinks. Don’t use Twitter and MSWL (Manuscript Wishlist) to find literary agents.
Why?
Because that’s how everyone finds literary agents. If you rely on Twitter to find agents, you’re going to wind up querying the same agents as everyone else, the ones who are most visible on the site. Have you ever noticed how agents will announce on Twitter that they’re open to queries and the next day complain that they’re overwhelmed with submissions? Who wants to be the 1000th author in an agent’s inbox?
MSWL has created a similar problem. The website simply sucks. If you select the Agents tab and do a search for a genre, it populates the same list for everyone. I’ve tried it on multiple devices, in incognito tabs, and on a friend’s phone. Same exact results.
Which means if you start browsing those results and making your list, you’ll wind up querying the most-queried agents. You’re using the exact same sorting mechanism everyone else is using. That’s not the best strategy, in my opinion.
The best way to find agents who will be more likely to respond to your query in a timely fashion is to do it the old-fashioned way (post-internet old-fashioned, I mean): generate a list of every single literary agency you can find—you can start with this one I made a while back in an article on where to find literary agents—and then manually browse each agency’s website and select agents who represent your genre. Once you’ve found some agents, there’s nothing wrong with checking out their MSWL pages too, but that should come after you’ve nominated them as a potential agent to query.
Write Shorter Pitches and Learn the Art of the Logline
If your pitch isn’t working, it might be too long. Remember, literary agents are buried under a mountain of queries. Some of them might be just as motivated to empty their inboxes as they are to find new clients. Now more than ever it’s time to distill the essence of your story into as few words as possible. As a freelance editor who works with tons of query letters, I’ve found myself gravitating toward the two paragraph pitch structure for most books:
First Paragraph: Introduce the character and tell us what problem they face.
Second Paragraph: Highlight the turning point (the place in the story where the stakes start to rise) and give us the hook.
Note: This isn’t the best option for every genre. For example, romance pitches tend to highlight Character A in the first paragraph, Character B in the second, and the conflict they face in the third.
The point is not how many paragraphs you use. It’s how many words you use.
Another way to strengthen your query is to start your pitch with a great one-sentence logline. Think short, snappy, and clever. If you’ve participated in Twitter pitch contests, you’ve had some practice with this—but you should include it in your query letter, above your pitch. Conveying your story’s hook in a single sentence is a great way to grab an agent’s attention.
Here are some examples of loglines that I’m writing on the spot.
A tour of a Jurassic theme park becomes a fight for survival when the power goes out and the dinosaurs escape. (Jurassic Park)
A man’s search for his daughter’s killer forces him to confront a traumatic childhood event that forever changed one of his closest friends. (Mystic River)
A psychotherapist attempts to pry the truth out of a famous painter who went silent after she murdered her husband. (The Silent Patient)
While I can’t offer some magical piece of advice that will help you perfect your query in a single blog post, I will say this: The best way to go about writing a great pitch is to first think about everything you should include, and then challenge yourself to the task of cutting what isn’t necessary and conveying the same information in as few words as possible.
Additional Help with Querying Literary Agents
This is the part where I peddle my wares. As a developmental editor, I offer a range of services including manuscript critiques, developmental editing, query letter critiques, and query letter writing. Of the hundreds of query letters I’ve edited over the years, the most common problem I find is that the pitch is too long. Check out my editing services page if you’d like to put yours on the chopping block.
Otherwise, happy querying in 2023!
Tory Hunter Books 