How does querying actually work?
"How do I find an agent?"
Hi, I’m Kate. Ask an Author is an advice column for authors at all stages of writing, publishing, and hand-wringing. Have a question? Fill out this form and I’ll answer it in a future response!
Dear Kate,
Thanks for the post you did about query letters. I have maybe a stupid question. When you’re done with the manuscript, you’ve sent it to other readers, edited it, and all that, and you’ve written your query letter — what then? How much does it usually cost to hire an agent, and how do you go about finding one?
- Lost
Dear Lost,
No stupid questions here! You’re not the only one who’s lost or wondering “what next?” Navigating the publishing world can feel like everyone else already knows what to do. It’s hard to know what information to search for or how to begin when we don’t even know what we don’t know.
You’ve got the right steps in the right order:
Write, edit, polish, and completely finish a novel. Nonfiction is generally sold on proposal, but a novel needs to be complete. An agent will likely have revisions to suggest, but the market is incredibly competitive and a good idea alone is unlikely to get you very far. Query FINISHED novels only.
Write, edit, polish, and completely finish your query letter and synopsis. See this post on query letters and this post on the synopsis.
Find agents to query.
Send your queries and keep track of the responses.
Let’s get deeper into Steps 3 and 4.
How to Find Agents to Query
The good news is there are tons of agents out there, and the bad news is that there are tons of agents out there! Your task is to first make a list of agents who seem like they might be a good fit for your work.
What does fit mean?
They represent your general genre.
They represent your specific subgenre.
They’re open for unsolicited queries (this changes, so you have to check before you send the query and make sure the info you have is up-to-date).
This means you send your space opera to someone who represents space operas. You send your YA to someone who represents YA. You don’t send your gory mystery to an agent known for cozies. Agents specialize. Use this to your advantage. Sending your romance to an agent who doesn’t represent romance will get you an automatic rejection, so save yourself the trouble.
You can also get more specific when you consider an agent’s interests and what connections they have to editors.
What other books have they sold that are like yours?
Are they looking for something that matches the vibe/aesthetic/tone/feel/themes/content of your manuscript? It doesn’t have to be exact, but can you picture your book fitting in with the rest of their projects?
Do they like books that you like, and books that are like yours?
Does their agency have a focus or something they’re known for, and would your book make sense as an addition to their catalogue?
You can’t guess what an agent is thinking. Sometimes you can think your book is the perfect fit and get hit with a form rejection anyway. But the more steps you can take to try to match your manuscript to the agent, the better the odds of reaching someone who’s going to connect with your work. (This, by the way, is where the personalization in your letter comes in. Since you’re already doing this research to find the agent in the first place, you have the basic material to use in a sentence or two to explain why you’re contacting them.)
“Fit” doesn’t have to be exact. But it should seem like, yeah, they did X book so I think they might like mine, too!
Here are sources I use to find agents. I’ve used these successfully myself, and to help other writers through this process:
Manuscript Wish List (MSWL)
This free website has pages where agents share what they’re currently looking to acquire. Cross-reference this information against their agency bios. The search capability isn’t great, but with a little elbow grease you can find a lot of useful information.
This is a paid compilation of almost all the sales happening in publishing. It’s $25/month but you can get it for just a month or two and then cancel. Not essential, but if you can afford it, I recommend it. It doesn't include every single sale, but if an agent says they’re looking for literary fiction and everything they’ve sold has been a middle grade caper, you should find someone else for your atmospheric novel about suburban marriage.
This free website lists a lot of agents and agencies and can give you ideas of people and places to then look up on MSWL, PM, QT, and Google to get more information.
Query Tracker (QT)
This website has free and paid versions. It lists loads of agents and lets you view information about them and keep track of your queries. Personally, I find it to be information overload. I don’t think it helps with querying-related stress and anxiety to get that granular—but other people find it indispensable. You can make the right decision for you.
Google
Just searching for “literary agents X genre” can give you lots of information. And then when you do find an agent or an agency, search for them and see what else comes up. Sometimes you’ll find interviews or other details you can use. One helpful thing to google is different conferences or events within your genre—see what agents are speaking or taking pitches and then google their names to learn more.
Book Acknowledgments
Authors usually list their agents in the acknowledgments section. Think of other comp titles (your actual comps and a longer list of similar authors or books you think you’re kinda like) and see who represents them. Some of these may be big name agents, but if they’re open to queries, then shoot your shot! Every published author was once searching for an agent, too.
Social Media
Many agents maintain a social media presence, largely on Twitter and the other sites like Bluesky that are cropping up to take its place. This is less robust than it used to be but you can still search for agent names, use the #MSWL hashtag, and see what comes up.
The more you get familiar with looking, the more you’ll get a sense of what’s out there. When you find an agent who seems promising, take a look at their agency and read the bios of other agents, too—sometimes you’ll find an even better fit. If you’re torn between two agents at the same agency, get as much info as you can on each and then just make the best choice you can. Often agents will share queries within the agency, too.
Note: I tried using AI to see if it’s useful for compiling lists of agents, and the answer is noooooooooo. Even with increasingly specific prompts, it gave me agents that don’t exist, agents that don’t rep anything even remotely close what I asked it for, agencies that closed doors years ago, etc. User beware!
How to Keep Track of Your Queries
As you search for agents, you’ll need a way to keep track of everything. Some people use Query Tracker. Some people use a spreadsheet. You want everything to be organized and easily accessible, so you don’t lose track of anything important.
Whether you use a spreadsheet or something else, make sure you have:
Agent’s name
Agency
What are they looking for?
How to query them (email? online form?)
What information do you need to include with your query letter?
Date of query
Date and type of response
Additional relevant info, such as how long to wait before nudging them, if no response means no, and if you can query someone else at the agency if this agent says no.
If this seems like a long and involved process, that’s because it is. That’s why you want to make sure your novel is completely finished and that you’re really ready for this step. Then you want to give yourself enough time to do this research and compile your list. When it’s time to send, I recommend starting with batches of 20 or so agents at a time, so you can see how your materials are landing. If you send 50+ queries and get nothing but form rejections (generic rejection letters that could be sent to anyone), there may be something in your query and opening pages that isn’t enticing agents to read more. If you get personalized rejections (rejection letters that are specific to your book and give you concrete information about your materials) you can use that information to decide whether you need to revise, and if so, how. Ideally, you’ll get some requests for full manuscripts (the whole book) or partial pages (some portion of the manuscript an agent might ask to read before the whole thing).
For more on rejections, here’s a post I did on interpreting agent passes and a post on coping with hearing “no.”
Querying is a numbers game. You need to send enough queries to give yourself a shot. If you only send 5 queries and they’re all rejections, you haven’t really learned enough about what the problem may be, or if there even is one. But if you send 100 queries and get only form rejections, something isn’t working with your materials—and it would have been nice to know that and correct course sooner, so you could send a better letter and a better manuscript to all those people. You can requery an agent if your manuscript is SIGNIFICANTLY revised, but it really needs to be a big change to be worth requesting another look.
Don’t pay an agent upfront!
In all of this, note that there’s NO MONEY changing hands.
You don’t hire an agent.
You don’t pay them ANYTHING upfront.
The agent will take a cut of the money you earn—usually 15% but it can be higher for foreign sales. If you get an advance ($ the publisher first pays to buy the book), the agent gets 15% of that. If you earn royalties ($ made off of book sales), the agent gets 15% of that, too. The check you get from the publisher will already reflect this, and your agency contract will have a clause explaining how monies are kept and distributed. Either the publisher pays your agency and the agency cuts you a check for your portion less their share, or the publisher sends you a check for your amount and the agency a check for their amount. The money your agent receives never hits your bank account to begin with. You never pay them yourself.
If an agent requests money to read your materials, or to send your work to publishers, or at ANY point in this process, they aren’t a real agent and are taking you for a ride. This, by the way, is true for publishers as well—vanity presses that ask you to pay to be published are not real publishers and are scamming you. People still choose to do it that way, but please know upfront what you’re getting into. An agent nevers asks you for money and only makes money when you do.
The querying process is like applying for a job. You look for the places you want to send your materials, send a cover letter and whatever additional materials are specified, and then you wait. And wait. Unless the agency says otherwise, allow a minimum of 3-4 months before you nudge anyone. This process is slow. Send more queries, read more books, start a new project, try not to lose your mind.
More than anything, keep going!
Kate