When you’re collecting rejection letters from agents, it doesn’t much feel like the world needs you, or that agents and publishers need you. It can get pretty depressing actually. If you’re in this position, consider working with me in a 3 week teleseminar called: Find an Agent, Creatively. Meanwhile, literary agent, Liza Dawson lets us in on what it feels like from the other side of the fence.
Her point of view is refreshing, as she reminds us that the entire publishing industry relies on people who get ideas, take the time to write and polish them, and then are willing to do the work to get their books published. Over 300,000 books are published (traditionally) in a year. Agents and editors are always looking for “a book they can fall in love with.”
Liza goes so far as to tell us what her interns are asked to look for as they slog through the submissions. What gets your letter out of the intern’s hands, and into an agent’s?
- “I was recommended to you by…”
- “I’ve been published…” [credentials]
- “I read [a book for which you were agent] and I loved it. I want the same agent, because I see a similar path for my book.”
- “My voice has been compared to [established author] and since you’re her agent, I felt you’d like my work.”
- Editor/Publishing house interest
Big No-No’s?
- My family loves it
- This is the only [thriller] [romance] [other] that does what I do. This is what the genre has been waiting for. There are no good writers out there in this genre.
Lastly Liza says, “Let your letter tell a story – because then I know you can write. Describe your book’s story compellingly.”
If you’d like to listen to the Storytellers’ Summit interview with Liza Dawson, it’s a delight, and I learned quite a bit from her insights.