How’d Ya Get Me?: A Love Story From a Literary Agent Looking For Writers
Well, hello there! I’m an agent. Aloof and hard to snare, like this season’s Prada bag or a yeti. I know what you’re wondering: How do you stand out in a query in box along with the 497 other queries? I have the secrets here.
Well, hello there! I'm an agent. Aloof and hard to snare, like this season's Prada bag or a yeti. I mean, how do you stand out in a query in box along with the 497 other queries? [Like this quote? Click here to Tweet and share it!] How do you dazzle at a conference amidst 40 other pitches? HOW DO YOU CRASH THE GATE?
Well, first of all, write good stuff. Then? Well lookey here. You are reading this blog. Which means that you are snooping around Writer's Digest. Which means that you are tapping into the actual educational opportunities to support and expand the craft, technique and detail of your creative endeavors. You are giving yourself an edge, a key, a boost in order to make sure no stone goes unturned in your quest for publication. You are paying attention to trends and tales of other writers in order to design your own path towards you goal. Gates are scattered all around the ground before you like the crumbs from this Boston Cream Pie that I for sure shared with many other people and didn't just eat with a spoon by myself while binge watching Columbo.
But for real. Tapping into this blog, and delving into research and resource materials that WD can provide, is a wonderful way to equip yourself for the agent hunt. An extra tool in that author tool box. I can say this confidently and with proof as Writer's Digest and its many platforms have been very good to me insofar as being the conduit for some of my most recent sales. In fact , next to that formidable slushpile of mine, the next highest percentage of my client list has indeed come from Writer's Digest. Don't believe me? Well stay tuned to this blog this week, as you will hear from four of my upcoming releases who all came to me through Writer's Digest: the magazine, the webinars, the conference. Yup, all found me through WD and stood out because of it.
This week you'll meet:
Renee Ahdieh, (The Wrath and the Dawn, May 12) who used a blend of technology and guts in order to make sure I had her YA on my radar. Read Renee's post here.
Anne A Wilson, (Hover, June 2nd) , a former naval helicopter pilot who used the same laser- like focus she has in the cockpit to get her women's fiction in front of me, twice.
Monica Ropal, (When You Leave, April 7) who filled her restless waiting period for the responses from requested full manuscripts with a webinar to see what else she can be doing to get her contemporary YA mystery that extra push.
And Kat Spears, (Breakaway, Sept 15) who compiled research gleamed from the pages of Writer's Digest and on-line interviews to hone in on a specific, tight list of agents to query for her debut YA contemporary, SWAY.
Now obviously there are multiple ways to skin a stegosaurus, and I am FAR from guaranteeing that you will find an agent or a career in publishing through Writer's Digest. All I can say is that I found these folks with a little help from the ol' WD—help that is at your same fingertips. And no matter how you go about obtaining that giant lizard pelt, it can't hurt to keeps tabs on like-minded folks who have been there/done that or are trying to get there/do that.
So this week, sit back, grab a spoon and a Boston Cream pie, and tune in every morning to read shameless plugs for all the good stuff that WD can provide, because I want you to find me. In fact I'll come back here too and check out their blogs and the comments, after all, someone has to be my next client, right? And the odds literally are that they could come from Writer's Digest ... somehow.
Barbara Poelle is vice president at Irene Goodman Literary Agency (irenegoodman.com), where she specializes in adult and YA fiction.
