Mistake number 1

I wrote a cover letter and a synopsis (far too long a synopsis given what I later learned) and put the first 3 chapters of the book (double spaced and triple checked for errors) into a file. I explained why I was approaching that particular agent. The letter was probably too long.

Ok, let us call it mistake number 1 and children.

I sent it off and waited. I also made sure to follow that agent on Twitter. I waited some more. I was expecting to wait for a while. I had done my research.

The agent announced on twitter that that had just sold a novel for a new author to a major publishing house. Well, that is great. It occurred to me that I would probably have a lot longer to wait since her focus would clearly be on representing that author. It was at that point that I read an article by another agent from the same agency. It is a fine, fine article. http://hjreynolds.co.uk/publishing/literary-agents-submissions-tips/

So, apparently it is considered to be acceptable to approach multiple agents at the same time with a suggested upper limit of ten. Well, that seems reasonable. How had I not known that? Ten sounds like a reasonable number as it massively speeds up the process (well, you wait ten times as fast) and it is not too many to contact if someone does show an interest. Of course, it is polite to tell agents that there are a few other people that you are talking to; that is also wholly reasonable.

I now add a new agent to the ones that I am trying to woo every time I get a rejection. This has changed my approach to rejection as I will discuss in a later post.  

However, let us look at the numbers. One of the agents looked at 8000 submissions in a year and took on five new authors. So, that is a success rate of 0.06%. This is sobering but it is not time to give up hope. I have been in bookshops. I own books. Clearly, some get through this process. However, let us dive into this a little further.

If we assume that an agent diligently reads submissions for half of his or her time (and I would be astonished if they had so much time to dedicate to “panning for gold”) then that is around 20 hours a week. That would mean about 166 submissions per week. I have heard other agents talk about 250 submissions a week but let us go with the lower figure. That gives an average of 10 minutes per submission.

Ok. That doesn’t sound so bad. You have 10 minutes to convince someone that your work is wonderful.

Um, no, sadly not. To read the first three chapters of a book will take considerably longer than that. If I were the one reading the manuscripts, I don’t think that I would have time to open most of the files. If I read the covering letter, that will take me two or three minutes. If I don’t like the synopsis or if the synopsis takes more than a minute or so to read then I would pass on the submission and send a standard “Thanks but not for me. Good luck!” email. The exact sort of email that I had soon after sending my work to multiple agents.

So, I think that I need to convince an agent that my work is going to be more valuable to them than the other 166 submissions that they had this week in probably two minutes. I need to persuade the agent that my work is worth losing the chance to read those other guys. This is not a leisurely discussion between potential friends. This is not even a speed date. This is having to sell something complex in virtually no time while being very personable.

Now, do you remember that I said that sales and marketing were not my sort of thing? By training, I am a computer scientist. I could not have prepared worse for this quest if I had chosen to study flower arranging instead of horse riding. The farm boy that rides off to defeat the dark lord in his castle is far better prepared.

So, I shortened my letter. I focused on the elevator pitch while being my most charming. I decided that I would use every one of the seconds that I was allowed and hope for the best.

Did that fix my mistakes? You will have to ask me again after I have found an agent. The quest goes on.