How to Break into Publishing Without a Referral
Two Strategies That Work Better Than the Slush Pile to Help. You Find an Agent and Publish Your Book, Especially for Literary Fiction
You probably already know that you need a literary agent to publish a book with most traditional publishers. You may also know that the best way to get the attention of an agent is through a referral. Agents are inundated with query letters, so if an author they already represent says, “You should read this manuscript!” they are more likely to take notice. Unfortunately, most writers who don’t know anyone in the industry submit queries through the slush pile.
In the post Looking Inside the Slush Pile, Lauren B. McGrath of
estimates that most literary agents receive about 11,000 unsolicited manuscripts through the slush pile each year. McGrath describes herself as “a researcher who studies publishing from the outside, using data and interviews and observation and archives.” I appreciate her approach, because numbers provide insights into what kind of odds unpublished authors really face when they are trying to break in. McGrath’s estimate is based on data from 2012, when agents were probably receiving far fewer submissions than they are now. At that time, she concludes “there was a .04% chance that one of the queries submitted would lead to an offer of representation.”I found the figure shocking, just more evidence of how difficult it is to break through in traditional publishing if you don’t know any agents or editors. One lesson I would take from this is: if you have written, revised, and submitted diligently, but haven’t gotten a bite from an agent, that doesn’t mean your query or manuscript isn’t good.
Remember that there are three stages in reaching out to agents. The first is writing and revising the book. The second is crafting a query so enticing and so well-targeted to the agents you’re querying that one of them asks to see a full or partial manuscript. The third is submitting a well-written, polished manuscript.
Even if you do all of these things, you may be facing headwinds that have nothing to do with the quality of your manuscript.
Continue reading to discover two proven strategies to help you find a literary agent or even publish a book with a traditional publisher without an agent.