The arrival of a new year and the promise that comes with it is always a natural motivator when it comes to our writing projects. For many, that means something akin to “this will be the year I get an agent.” Below is a list of resources that can help get you into the best possible position to succeed.
Join a Critique Group
You need feedback. Everyone does. And a well-functioning critique group with like-minded writers can be a boon to your writing.
JRW has tried several techniques to help folks find critique partners. In all honesty, I think it’s one of the places where I want to do better. But it hasn’t been for a lack of trying. This year we held a special critique group-themed Writers Wednesday that received positive feedback, and we may do that again in 2019.
A few years ago, the critique group I had been in was slowly dying from dysfunction and lack of participation. So I went to Facebook in frustration and asked if anyone wanted to form a new critique group with me. Because I had been friending other writers for awhile. a few people responded that they were looking, too. Within a month I had a new group. It’s been a great four years now, and I couldn’t be happier. It might seem obvious to others to ask on social media, but it wasn’t obvious to me—I only did it because I didn’t know what else to do. And if I hadn’t stepped out and shouted to the world on my Facebook wall about what I needed, I wouldn’t have this group of amazing people that I meet with every month.
If you’d prefer not to meet in person, there are a slew of online critique platforms, many of which are free. This list on The Write Life is a few years old, but most of the content is still applicable.
Brooke McIntyre of Inked Voices (a past supporter of the JRW conference) wrote a great piece for Jane Friedman’s blog titled “How to Find the Right Critique Partner or Group for You.”
After you put your writing through your critique group and revise, revise, revise, revise, etc (Have you seen our new t-shirt design about revising?), you need to figure out where you’re going to submit.
Find Agents and Editors
There are a ton of places to get information now about editors and agents. One of my favorites is Manuscript Wish List. They keep track of what editors and agents are seeking using social media and agency websites. Not only does the main page have a wonderful set of interviews and articles, there’s an almost magical search function. It features checkboxes where you can select agent or editor along with all of the genres that you are interested in writing. It’s a streamlined, efficient way to find all the agents and editors interested in all the things you are doing. It’s one of the tools I used to find my agent, and I recommend it to everyone.
You can also visit Query Tracker to find more information about your list of agents and editors. Other writers will share the responses they have received, so you can get a sense of how long it typically takes agents or editors to respond, the kind of responses they’re sending, and more.
Don’t forget to read interviews with your chosen agents and editors. Places like Writers’ Digest will give you great insight, and provide strong introductory material for your query letter.
Perfect that Query Letter
At a Writing Show earlier this year, magazine editor David Streever talked about writing queries using a method called “the hook, the book, the cook.” It’s a straightforward way of approaching queries containing three main paragraphs. The first nabs the agent or editors attention with a hook—that would be the reason you are querying them. The second paragraph is a description of the book. The third is “the cook” or you and why you are writing this book. Agent Michael Larsen goes into a bit more detail about this breakdown here.
Additionally, Reedsy has a thorough dive into developing a great query here. Jane Friedman’s a great source of information, and she’s got your back when it comes to queries, too.
Finally, if you’d like to read examples of real queries that worked, check out Writers’ Digests’ “Successful Queries” series of blogposts. I like these because they not only share the queries, but have the agent or editor explain what they liked and why they signed the author. That context in invaluable.
About the Author
Phillip Hilliker has been a freelance illustrator and designer since 2000, creating a variety of work for a wide array of clients across many fields.
While the bulk of his output has been in the role-playing game industry, his focus for the past few years has been shifting toward kids’ books, his longest held dream. He is represented by literary agent Erica Bauman of Aevitas Creative Management.