These are notes I took from a wonderful writing symposium called Life, the Universe and Everything. We have a lot of talented people in Utah and visitors with a great deal of knowledge. Any Misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

Questions to ask the agent.
– What kind of work do you do and who will represent your work the best.
– Critique books alpha and beta reads.
– A personal response is good.
– If an agent’s response that the book has a certain problem pay attention to fix that problem in the manuscript. Pay attention.
– A kind rejection, if they expressed that they liked it. And you do say you did a significant revision. You can ask them if they are willing to read it again.

Q: Once you have the perfect manuscript, how to select the right agent.
– What are your favorite books? Who represented those? Write the name of the author.
– What books are being promoted/ market hard and wrote those authors names.
– What books in the book store appeal to your attention?
– 4. Get query tracker> who reps whom. https://querytracker.net/
Some authors use submission grinder.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=submission%20grinder%20for%20writing&epa=SERP_TAB
– Second mistake. Send out 20 queries.
– Recommend smart persistent. Remain targeted. Don’t go down to level seventh agents until your level four agents have rejected.
– Some needed a year and a half to respond.
– EBook: from the work to the call I am not sure of the title.
– EBook: Call process made easy
– Save separate files that have files to send to agents such as synopsis, 1 – 3 chapter samples. Put have those samples in a folder for samples.
– Personalize the query what is their wish list, you can personalize your query.
– Some agents may skip if the letter is not personalizing.
– Be careful of putting the wrong name of the agent.

The wait:
– Don’t want a quick response > no.
– Set a goal for rejection
– Set reminders to follow up with agents.
– Forget> queries and let reminders tell you your next step and devote yourself to new material.

Pitch contests.
– A good pitch for two sentences.
– Write multiple versions of the pitch.
– Swap with friends they can see what they see as two sentence plot of your book.
– Face to face pitching> don’t rely on them to ask questions> know about them to ask questions for them.

Feedback and revisions from agents and editors or contests.
– Author mentor match. http://authormentormatch.com/
– Listen to your heart. You are the only person who understands the perfect version of your book looks like.
– Also, pay attention to your alpha readers.
– If someone says your book reminds me of > xx write that down as you may need that later when a publisher wants to have comparisons to your book.
– When emailing to agents reply to an email they already sent you and change the subject line, from a query or they will wait another year and a half to respond. Maybe put in a line about publisher interested in the book.
– If you get a call you have to straight up ask them, are you querying me?
– One to two weeks is a reasonable response.
Q: What to ask an agent:
– Google questions to ask an agent. Have the list on file in advance.
– Ask what did they like about our book.
– What kind of revision do you see me making? If ask kill the main character. If it is not what you envisioned. You need to know that up front.
– Who are some of the people they agent for?
– What are your typical response times to emails and phone calls?
– What are your emails of some of your current represented authors?
– Contact those people > they say what they like, give details of working with them and then.
– What happens if you don’t sell this book,
do you want to advance our careers.
– Ask for a sample contract to go over it.
– Good complicated words in the contract. Foreign rights, reprints,
– Ask how many publishers they plan to send to?
– Make sure they will represent all their work not just one item.
– Your agent gets paid when you get paid.
– Once have agent expect revisions.
– If they are dodging their emails and calls.
– What happens if this does not work out? What terms are you working?
– Henriksen.laura.m@gmail.com
– If some b list responds send a note to a follow-up query to your email letting them know you will give them an answer on a date about two weeks. Don’t sign up exclusively with an agent unless they want to represent you.

Want any suggestions to add to the list? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.