Four Steps to Finding an Agent for THE REMAKING OF MOLLY ADAIR

1: Pitch to Agents and Send out Query Letters.
I attended the 2008 and 2009 Willamette Writer’s Conferences and pitched to several agents. Five of them asked to see the first few chapters of the manuscript and all of them rejected it. I’ve also sent out about 15 query letters—all of which were rejected.

2: Rewrite! Rewrite! Rewrite!
After much soul searching and many sleepless nights, I decided that it was possible that all those agents weren’t pretentious Neanderthals. Maybe my precious manuscript that I’d rewritten and revised so many times still needed work.

So, with the help of a merciless editor, Jessica Morrell, and a marvelous writer’s group, I rewrote the manuscript a few more times. Their sort-of-gentle criticism, insights, and encouragement transformed me into a better writer and The Remaking of Molly Adair into a vastly improved story.

Since lots of beginning writers make the same mistakes that I did, it might be useful for me to confess my literary sins.
 I did not torture Molly enough. Main characters need to be miserable. Death and danger must lurk in the shrubbery at every turn.
  I bludgeoned the reader over the head with the lessons of the tarot cards. A well told tale teaches by example.
 I used evil adverbs instead of strong, virtuous verbs.
 I used many words instead of a few well-chosen ones.
I’m sure Jessica and the group will remind me of others that I failed to mention.

3: Prepare a Pitch, Query Letter, and Synopsis
This process is about as pleasant as a root canal and takes much longer. But it’s really important to have a good pitch and/or query letter. They are my one and only chance to get an agent to look at my manuscript. Most agents (or their assistants) look at hundreds of query letters in a month and decide in the first few sentences if they’re interested in the book. So all the juice of Molly’s adventures has to be distilled and infused into those first lines. Think book jacket blurb. They have to catch that agent’s attention or she’ll be on to the next query letter before you can say, “Missed a chance.” My pitch is a slightly reworked version of my query letter.

If the agent likes the pitch or query letter, he asks for a synopsis and/or the first few chapters of the book. A synopsis is a bare-bones retelling of the plot line—yes, even the ending. In five to seven double-spaced pages I cover all the plot points of the story; describe the main characters, conflicts, and settings; and give the reader a feel for my writing style. This bleak skeleton of a story must be absolutely fascinating or the agent won’t even bother to finish it.

I had enough trouble just writing them—describing how to construct a synopsis, query letter, and pitch is not in my skill set. These links do a much better job.

4: Repeat Step 1, and if necessary, Steps 2 & 3
I am attending the 2010 Willamette Writers Conference August 6-8. The workshops alone are worth the rather steep cost of admission, but the opportunity to meet and pitch my book to agents is priceless. It allows me to put faces and thumbnail sketches of personalities into the murky void in my head labeled “agent”. And the thrill I get when an agent gives me her card and asks for a synopsis and the first few chapters is fabulous. I’ll be pitching four times this year and will be keeping my fingers crossed for four not-so-cheap thrills.

I will also start sending out more query letters. Many writers send out over a hundred query letters before they find an agent, so my mantra will be “Perseverance is the Key”.