Ye Olde Query Letter
I loathe writing. On the other hand I’m a great believer in money.
–S.J. Perelman
Many large publishing houses accept only manuscripts submitted by agents. Many agents aren’t interested in representing unpublished authors. So now what?
If you are an unpublished novelist, don’t bother a literary agent or anyone else in the book business until you have finished writing your novel. Agents and editors work at desks surrounded by stacks of completed manuscripts and are too busy to entertain “ideas” that may one day become books.
Writers of nonfiction who are also experts in their book’s subject may attract an agent by submitting a compelling proposal, outline, and sample chapters. But most editors and agents advise aspiring writers that time spent peddling an unfinished book would be better spent finishing it.
If you have a complete manuscript, you should approach one or more literary agents by writing a query letter. Introduce yourself and your book, and ask permission to submit the entire manuscript.
Jane Friedman
I once featured links to various sites about how to get published or how to query a literary agent, but now I send aspiring authors to Jane Friedman’s site on Book Publishing. Jane has good advice on how to get your book published and how to find a literary agent.
Other Tips
Think of books that are just like the one you are trying to get published. Look in the acknowledgments of those books. Most authors thank their agents. Now you know the name of some agents who sold books just like yours. Query them!
I believe Publisher’s Weekly still has a RIGHTS column wherein they have very terse one sentence descriptions of all the books sold that week: title, author, AGENT, publisher, and usually the sale price. When you see an agent repping a book like yours, query them! Even better an agent repping a first novel or first nonfiction book. If you see that, you know that agent will at least consider repping unpublished authors. No need to subscribe to Publishers Weekly, just go to any major library and spend an hour looking through issues from the last couple of years.