How do I get a book agent?

Jeffrey's answer

Find someone who will fight for your book.

Mine was Deborah Owen, and I will not forget her if I live to be a hundred and ten. In 1974 I had been bankrupt, lost my seat in Parliament, and written a novel about four men who had been swindled out of their money. Eleven publishers turned it down. Some of them said it would never sell. Some of them said it was too long. One of them said the title was a mistake. They were not unkind — they were simply wrong.

Deborah was different. She read it in a weekend. She rang me on the Monday morning and said she would represent me. By the end of that week she had it on three desks. By the end of the month it was sold. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less has now sold three hundred million copies in ninety-seven countries.

What did Deborah do that the eleven publishers had not? She believed in the book. She fought for it. She picked up the telephone and would not put it down. That is what an agent does. Not paperwork. Not contracts. Belief, and the willingness to act on it.

So when readers ask me how to find an agent, the answer is not a list of names. It is this: write a book that someone will fight for. Then keep looking until you find that someone. The eleven who said no were not your enemies. They simply had not been shown the right book yet — and the writer’s job is to keep showing it.

And while you are looking — write the next book. The worst position to be in is one finished manuscript and the silent telephone. Two finished manuscripts is twice the chance, and twice the courage when the rejections start coming in. They will come. They came for me. They will come for you.

Most published novelists have been told no by ten people before they are told yes by one. I had been told no by eleven. The number does not matter. The yes only has to come once. Until it does, you write.

Deborah Owen sold the book. The book had to be there for her to sell. That is the order, and it has not changed in fifty years. Write the book. Find your Deborah. And if she is not there yet, keep writing until you have given her something to find.

A few practical notes

• Don’t query before the manuscript is finished. Agents only sign writers with completed novels. A polished sample of a half-written book is a waste of everyone’s time.
• Find agents who represent writers like you. Open the books on your shelf in the same genre you’re writing — the acknowledgements page nearly always names the agent. Build a list of 15–20 names that recur.
• Use the directories. In the UK: the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook (the standard reference, updated annually) and the Association of Authors’ Agents (AAA) member list. In the US: the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA, formerly AAR) directory and Publishers Marketplace.
• The query letter is one page. A two-line hook (genre + premise + word count), a one-paragraph synopsis (200 words max — yes, with the ending), one paragraph on you (relevant bio, prior publications, why you wrote this book). That’s it. No ‘I think you’ll find this novel commercial’ — let them decide.
• UK agents typically ask for the first three chapters + synopsis. US agents ask for anything from the first 5 to 50 pages. Both want a query letter first. Read each agent’s submission page on their agency website — every agent has a slightly different process and submitting wrong gets you binned unread.
• Response times are 6–12 weeks. No response often means no. Don’t chase before three months. Don’t query an agent who is closed to submissions (their website tells you).
• Never pay an agent up front. Legitimate agents take 15% commission on what they sell. If anyone asks for a reading fee, an editing fee, or a contract before a deal — walk away. They are not real.
• Publishers don’t take direct submissions for fiction. A small number of independent presses do, but the major houses (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan) accept agented submissions only. The agent is the gatekeeper.