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How to Pitch a Literary Agent
Prepare your materials and yourself for the exciting world of pitching agents, where you’ll boost your adrenaline and get real-time feedback.
Introduction
Set aside your fears of talking to agents about your work and you may find yourself deep in conversation with a professional who truly cares about you, your creativity, and your success.
Disclaimer: I am still searching for my advocate and partner in the publishing industry, but I had a hugely successful day pitching agents in March 2023 at an online conference and am eager to share tips to help you, too. I pitched six agents a total of seventeen times (I pitched some agents three different manuscripts) and received zero ‘sorry, not interested’ responses. Here was the breakdown:
- 3 full requests
- 8 partial requests (between 20 and 100 pages)
- 6 maybes (prioritized interest in one of my other manuscripts first)
The irony is I thought I was going to be lousy at pitching. I thought I would stumble all over my words. I thought querying was more natural for me because I find the publishing industry intimidating and speaking directly to agents even more so. But trying new things helps us learn, so I challenged myself to try. I prepared. And that day, I learned pitching is definitely my thing.
Querying vs. pitching
The first time I heard the word, ‘querying’ in the context of the publishing industry, I was lost. On my own. Stranded on an island. I quickly rowed my way back to the mainland after learning querying is the process of sending a package of materials that represent your work to try to find an agent willing to represent you in the publishing world. Typically this happens via email or a Query Manager system, and the agent will get around to reviewing your work whenever is suitable.
Pitching, on the other hand, is getting directly in front of an agent for a few minutes, and having the chance to talk about your…
