Avoid These 8 Turnoffs When Querying Literary Agents!
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Getting a literary agent is arguably the toughest part of scoring a book deal with a traditional publisher. If you're in the literary agent querying trenches right now, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You may even have received some rejections by now and are wondering why agents didn't respond positively to your query.
In this article, I'm going to talk through the top eight turnoffs for literary agents so that you can refine your query letter and ultimately get more successful replies.
1. Being Overly Generic
The first turnoff is if your query letter is overly generic. It's very easy for an agent to tell if you've done no research beyond reading their bio and seeing what genres they represent. While it’s easy to blast-mail your query letter to every romance agent, it may comes across to the agent as if you’re a bot and not a person.
When I worked at a literary agency, my main responsibility was to manage the submissions inbox for two high-profile agents. There were hundreds of queries submitted every day. But even with the large numbers, it was easy for me to tell which writers hadn’t taken the time to research the agent and understand their tastes and what they were looking for, as the letter’s language would be generic and vague. Sometimes, the salutation even had the wrong agent’s name in it. It was evident that those writers were just copying and pasting the text into whoever’s submissions inbox was open.
When you’re in the literary agent querying process, it’s important to take the time to think about why you would be a good fit for each agent you’re reaching out to. That's why I always recommend personalizing query letters and making sure the personalization line comes at the top of the query. Sometimes writers add this personalization line at the very end of the query. But remember, the person reviewing the queries isn't always reading down to the bottom.
So put a personalization line right after the salutation that explains why you want to work with that agent. Maybe it is because you admire one of the authors on their list. Maybe you read one of the books they helped get published, or maybe you connected with them on Twitter and saw something they posted that piqued your interest. Draw that connection any way you can. And if you can’t find a connection, it’s a sign that you should rethink why you’re querying that agent in the first place.
2. Making Assumptions
The second turnoff for a literary agent is if you come off as a little bit presumptuous. For this point, what I'm talking about is the nuances of the language used when approaching the agent.
You probably don’t intend to come off as presumptuous, but sometimes these phrases sneak in there, such as, “My book would be a great fit for your list.” While the phrase seems innocuous, it’s still making an assumption that your project will fit with the list the agent has, which you can’t know for certain yet.
These subtle wording choices usually come up in the first or the last paragraph of your query letter. So give them a quick scan to make sure that you are maximizing each word’s real estate by showcasing your story, and not basing your statements on any presumptions.
3. Querying a Book That Has Already Been Self-Published
The third turnoff for literary agents is if your book has already been self-published. Unfortunately, if this is your situation, it will almost always lead to a rejection from the literary agent. The reason is because agents sell the original and exclusive rights of their book projects. If your book has already been self-published, they cannot sell those original rights.
Now, if you have self-published books in the past you can mention them in your bio at the bottom of the query. But the book being queried to the literary agent has to be an independent project that has not been published anywhere before.
Don’t lose hope if you’ve self published in the past but now you are trying to learn how to query literary agents—just make sure the book you’re querying is an unpublished work.
4. Looking Unprofessional
I recommend proofreading your query letter for spelling or grammar errors since, after all, you are trying to show literary agents your writing ability.
Additionally, your letter formatting needs to be clean, polished, and simple. Don't go for any special fonts or colors. I used to see crazy letters formatted with, for instance, size 40 Comic Sans font. Just keep your letter simple.
There should also be no embedded images. Even if you have an idea for the book cover, for instance, or you want to include your author headshot, just don't. At this stage, there's no reason to have any embedded images. Also, other than your manuscript, there shouldn’t be any attachments either.
You also don't need to include your home address. I know it feels more formal and complete to do so, but since the agent is going to contact you via email, you don't need to include your address.
A great way to check for formatting inconsistencies is by emailing yourself your query letter from a different provider. For example, if your main email account is with Gmail, send it to a personal Yahoo address, just to ensure there are no formatting issues that happen when you hit send.
5. Using Hyperboles or Overstatements
To maximize your success in the literary agent querying process, avoid using hyperboles or overstatements in your query letter. This could look like you saying, “My book is the next Gone Girl,” “Thousands of readers are going to buy copies,” or, “It will definitely reach the New York Times bestseller list.”
While your confidence is appreciated and admired, and I hope you continue to have that confidence going forward in your writing career, you shouldn't make assumptions of how much your book is going to sell or how popular it is going to be. The reason being is that an agent doesn’t expect your book to be a major hit, as hugely successful books like Gone Girl are outliers in the industry.
Of course everyone wants to publish a bestseller. But the vast majority of books don't reach that status, and it's okay if yours doesn't. That doesn’t mean an agent won’t want to work with you. So remain humble and resist the temptation to over-hype your project.
6. Demanding a Specific Pay Range
The next turnoff for a literary agent is if you expect a certain sized book deal. It is very, very difficult for agents to predict how much a publisher is going to offer for a book on submission. Even for a top-notch agent with decades of experience, it can just run the gamut.
So don’t presume or expect a certain sum at the querying stage. The reason is that you might end up disappointed and the agent doesn't want you to be disappointed, so they might not feel comfortable with the expectations that you've set for that book deal.
7. Having Overly Sexual or Violent Opening Pages
If your opening pages are overtly sexual or violent, it could lead to rejections from literary agents. Now, sexual content and violence might be completely warranted in your novel, and that's not a deal breaker.
However, having it right in the opening pages could turn some agents off, especially if it's not handled sensitively. It can distract from the plot and character development that should be established in those opening pages. Plus, it could give the agent the wrong impression of your story.
I always recommend deeply editing your opening pages, even if they don’t contain sexual or violent content. Since those pages are the first impression of your story the agent is going to get, you want to make sure that you hook them rather than lose them.
8. Having an Irregular Manuscript Length
If your book is not a standard length, you could run into issues when querying literary agents. Nonfiction can encompass a wide range of lengths, and sometimes you can score an agent's representation based on an outline alone.
But for fiction, the sweet spot for adult novels is anywhere between 60,000 to 90,000 words. If you’re a little bit over or under, that is completely fine. But if your project is novella length, so under 40,000 words, or really high, such as over 100,000 words, that could make it tougher for the agent to sell your book.
Additionally, having an irregular length novel could suggest there are issues with pacing, so an agent might not want to take it on since they may think it will need too much work. Of course, some genres tend to have longer average book lengths than others. But if your romantic comedy novel is 120,000 words, an agent is more than likely going to reject it unless you have an excellent reason for it being that long.
If your novel is at an irregular length, I recommend working with an editor and seeing if you can bulk up or cut down your novel. This will hopefully also aid the pacing, character development, and resolution of your manuscript, as well as increase your chances of getting represented by a literary agent.
I hope these tips are helpful for you to understand what goes into the literary agent querying process and what agents are looking for. The querying journey can be long and rejections are just a part of the process. So if you do get some rejections, don't sweat it and keep going!
I encourage you to continue to send out those queries and don't give up if traditional publishing is your dream. There are many stories of people who had hundreds of query letter rejections before they found their agents and sold their first book. So keep at it, because getting traditionally published is possible.
Thanks so much for reading and happy querying!