How to Get a Literary Agent

Okay, lots of people have asked me how I got my literary agent. This is what you do:

1. Write a book. Not just the idea for a book. No one will look at that. I say this even though a woman at a party, upon hearing of my book deal from a mutual friend, said that when she was at a conference she presented an idea to an agent, who promptly gave her some? sort? of? contract? Yeah. That happened. Thunder-thief.

2. Look in books of people you like or their websites. They often mention an agent. Query that agent.

3. Go to conferences if you can. These have agents floating around. For a fee, you can get a one-on-one. Even with no fee, shmooze them up at cocktail hour. Have some guts.

4. Network. Make friends with people in writing groups and classes. If you're very talented and they know of people who can help, people usually don't mind referring you. If they're nice, that is.

5. When one door closes, another opens. Cliche, but true. I found this out after I DIDN'T sell the hot book I thought I was gonna sell 3 years ago. And then my old agent fell out of love with me, kind of. I had to get a new one. The good part: other agent had introduced me to the Book Whisperer, Jane Cavolina. She helped me whip my book into shape and picked me up when my morale guttered.

6. Don't listen to the naysayers. You-know-what the naysayers. Send out your queries and forget about them. All you need is one person with taste (because ANYONE with taste will surely fall in love with your book, no?) and that will be that. It could take a week, it could take ten years, but keep your day job and don't give up. Cue the Peter Gabriel music.

Querytracker is a nifty way to track your agent queries. There's also extra info in there, like how long individual agents take to get back to you. They were kind enough to interview me, their faithful user.