Colleen Oakley: How I Got My Agent

Wherever you are on your writing journey, you’ve probably thought about securing representation.

Finding a literary agent is on most (if not every) aspiring author’s horizon, and while the end goal is clear—a fantastic relationship with an agent that both understands your novel and wants to get it the deal it deserves—you might be seeking clarification on the steps needed to get there.

At The Novelry, we pool together resources from our team of bestselling authors, Big Five publishing editors, and leading industry professionals to demystify the publication process and answer all your questions and queries. If you are wondering what an agent can do for you, what agents are looking for right now, and when to start querying agents, you’re in the right place. Maybe you are preparing your pitch for agents: this blog clarifies exactly what your pitch needs, with contemporary examples provided by Darcy Nicholson, Publishing Director for Commercial Fiction at Bloomsbury General. You’ll find more helpful tips on the publication process here, at The Novelry’s weekly creative writing blog.

In this article, writing coach and USA Today bestselling author Colleen Oakley shares her personal experience of finding a literary agent. Colleen’s books, including the Good Morning America Buzz Pick The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, have been translated into more than 21 languages, optioned for film, and were named best books by People, Us Weekly, Library Journal and Real Simple. Colleen coaches romance, contemporary and women’s fiction at The Novelry. The peaks and falls of Colleen’s journey to securing representation (and publication) will reassure writers that they aren’t alone. Colleen’s honest detailing of her experience should encourage writers to persevere, using the five pieces of advice that helped Colleen stay calm and focused while on submission.

Read on for Colleen’s tips for finding an agent, garnered from her own personal experience.

How I got my agent (and you can, too!)

Finding an agent is like all the crappy parts of dating.

There are no fancy dinners, flowers, or hot make-out sessions in gas station bathrooms (wait, just me?), but there are plenty of online Google searches, unanswered emails and days spent desperately waiting for the phone to ring.

Basically, it’s soul-crushing.

But like dating, it can also all be totally worth it once you find The One. The agent that is going to champion your work, sell your book for hundreds of thousands of dollars (or at least one dollar), and answer all of your neurotic questions about royalties, your next book, and those all-too-often moments of panic when you just need someone to reassure you that you shouldn’t just give up this writing thing altogether.

So, if you’re still reading, I’m sure you want to know: how did I get my agent?

Well, it’s simple, really. I sent her a query about my book, she responded and asked for the full manuscript, and then after reading the manuscript, she called me with an offer of representation, which may or may not have been more exciting to me than the day my husband proposed (don’t tell him I said that).

But if you’ve ever gone agent-hunting, of course you know, it’s not really that simple. So, here are my top tips for procuring an agent of your very own.

This is the hardest tip to follow, but the most important. You have to believe in your work.
—Colleen Oakley

1. Do your research

After I finished my manuscript, I spent hours, nay, days online, researching agents. I typed ‘fiction literary agents’ into Google and literally weeded through each website, reading bios, learning what books they published, how big the advances were, where they were located, how long they’d been in business, etc.

I also read the acknowledgments on all my favorite books to see who each author thanked as their agent.

Then I compiled a list of agents and why I thought they’d be a good fit for my manuscript. (One note about this: make sure the agents you are querying are legit. You should be able to see the authors they represent on their website, and legitimate agents do not charge you to read your work.)

2. Write a good query

There are plenty of blog posts about the rules of query writing—and this article from The Novelry is brilliant! But the bottom line is, if your query isn’t exciting and attention-grabbing, it stands to reason agents won’t think your book is either.

Be succinct, avoid typos, and get their attention with your awesome words.

Here’s a blog about knowing if you’re ready to query agents and another on how to write a good synopsis—a vital ingredient in your query package!

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3. Diversify your list

By this, I mean don’t just go for the top major agents. I had my shoot-for-the-stars agents that I would die to get, but I also queried a few new, just-starting-out agents looking to grow their list.

Now, I got one of my shoot-for-the-stars picks, which was amazing (seriously, better than being proposed to, too). But new, hungry-to-make-a-name-for-themselves agents shouldn’t be overlooked. Especially if they work for well-respected agencies. Someone there sees potential in them, and your book might just make a name for both of you.

4. Keep querying

An author friend suggested this to me when I was in the middle of querying hell: every time you get a rejection, send out five more queries to new agents.

It was a really helpful tip, because those rejections can sting, but when you’re querying more, it puts some of the control back in your hands and doesn’t let you wallow. Okay, you’ll still wallow a little, but new queries will give you hope.

5. Don’t take rejection personally

This is the hardest tip to follow, but the most important. You have to believe in your work.

When an agent rejects you, it doesn’t mean your work is terrible and you’ll never be a writer. It means that your work wasn’t the right fit for that agent.

Maybe their list was full, or they just signed a futuristic sci-fi werewolf novel just like yours. Or maybe they had a huge fight with their husband/wife/third-grader that evening and hated your book because there was a character that reminded them of their mean husband/wife/third-grader. You never know.

But you don’t want an agent who’s not in love with your book, anyway. When they love it, they fight for it, which means they fight for you. And everybody wins.

You might find this blog on dealing with rejection and taking criticism helpful, and our writing coach Clare Mackintosh has written beautifully about coping with failure.

How The Novelry can help you find an agent

At The Novelry, we work with leading literary agencies to help our writers secure agent representation. On our writing courses, you’ll come up with a strong idea for a novel you can’t wait to write, then write your draft with one-on-one coaching from a published author, and then edit your novel with guidance from our in-house team of publishing editors who all come from Big Five publishers.

When your manuscript is deemed ready to submit to literary agents, our team of book editors will invite you to our submission service. An editor will work with you to hone your query letter and submission package. We will then prepare a list of literary agents who work in your genre and are looking to take on new writers.

We submit on your behalf, keeping you informed throughout the process and allowing you the choice of meeting those agents interested in taking things further. We neither ask for nor accept a commission for this; it’s part of the service at The Novelry.

We cannot guarantee representation, but we will always do everything we can to help you. When we submit our writers, our success rate is over two-thirds. It’s a joy for us to make that life-changing call to say an agent loves your book!

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