Hello, dreamers. Well, this past week I passed another querying milestone: my first rejection. It was personal, which was nice. It was also promptly followed by my second and third rejections, which wasn’t as nice. However, nothing on the others yet. The dream is alive.

While I spent most of the week working on my new work-in-progress, I haven’t been idle on the query front. I spent some time this week working on an agent’s guide for Seven Days on Samarkand.

What’s an “agent’s guide”, you ask?

Agent’s Guides

Anyone who’s ventured into the #amquerying wing of the writing community on Twitter has probably seen a lot of similar posts pinned to writers’ profiles. They’re generally labeled as “An Agent’s Guide to (insert title of book here).

In the modern literary industry, one of the keys to success for querying writers is diversifying. You try to spread your pitch, try a little of everything. An increasingly important aspect is social media engagement: tweeting at agents, posting graphics, boosting your book wherever possible. I’ve come to refer to all of this collectively as a writer’s “ground game” (there he goes with sports metaphors again). Obviously the actual queries are the primary focus of the process (call them “long passes”). But the ground game can help you advance incrementally, generating hype that may ultimately reach the ears of prospective agents.

When those agents finally make it to your profile, you want to make sure the first thing they see is about your book. And you want to present as much pertinent (and enticing) info about it as you can, as quickly as possible. That is where the “agent’s guide” comes in.

At its most basic, an agent’s guide is a series of three slides, displaying vital info about your book in an eye-catching manner. Think of it as a boiled down, colorful, deconstructed query letter. Most of the basic elements are there: the guides typically display metadata, comps, and a brief pitch. Some also spice things up by highlighting specific themes or tropes, showing off comments from beta readers, or sharing snippets from the book. There’s plenty of variation. But the purpose is the same: to find a creative way to attract agents to your work.

At first, I’d resisted the idea, in part due to my demonstrable lack of talent in visual art. But I changed my mind after listening to a podcast in which two literary agents gushed over agent’s guides. In particular, both agreed it made their jobs easier. And that was all I needed to hear.

The agent’s guide ultimately serves the same basic purpose as the query letter: it’s a test of how well a writer can communicate about their book. Agents want to know that you can swiftly get your point across, and do so in a way that’s engaging. After all, they might be the first person you’ll need to sell on your work, but they will not be the last.

I dare say my agent’s guide turned out…fine. Honestly it may even be good. It’s not finished (I still need to iron out my pitch), but I plan to post it today. So if you’re on Twitter, by all means take a look. Maybe offer a “like”. And if you’re an agent, trust me: there’s more where that came from. – MK