Hello authors! Today I want to once again piggy-back off a Substack by my client Kelly Beck. Last week, Kelly posted “What Happens in the ‘In Between’” which focuses on what happens after you’re picked up by an agent. Basically, the things you should be focusing on while you wait for an agent to make an offer. So today I’m going to talk about what’s happening behind the scenes with your agent.
It may seem like everything is hurry up and wait once you finally get that agent offer. Your agent is probably going to ask for a lot of information from you, and while (and after) you’re working on that, your agent is working behind the scenes.
Your Sub List
One of the biggest things your agent is working on is your sub list—a list of editors they think will like your manuscript. This might seem relatively easy, but it’s not. Depending upon what you’ve written, it could take anywhere from half a day to two full days (or longer) to properly identify a list of ten to twelve editors for your first round of submissions. And here is what that entails…
Step One: Identify the “Perfect” Editors
Your agent will probably have a list of publishing houses in mind for your manuscript. Their first step, then, is to go through each of the editor lists for those imprints to identify which editor is the best fit for your project. This will entail reading every wish list and making sure each list is “current,” which may then include doing a wider search to see if any newer information is available.
Step Two: Cross-Reference Submission Lists
Once a list of “perfect” editors has been identified for your project, your agent will likely double-check where their other clients are on submission and whether any editor on your list is already considering a submission by another of your agent’s clients. While sometimes an agent will send a second project to the same editor, we try to do it as rarely as possible because doing so not only causes competition between two clients with the same agent, but it also “lessens” the urgency for an editor to read projects by that agent. After all, if the agent is sending one editor everything they have, what makes this one special?
It should be noted that this cross-referencing can be tedious, depending upon the agent’s organization system. For my clients, I’m usually jugging roughly 25 clients and more than 150+ active submissions at one time.
Step Three: Identify the “Not Perfect, But Pretty Darn Close” Editors
Once the “perfect” editors have been identified, we now take a step down to the “not perfect, but pretty close” editors. These are editors who might be a good fit (based upon what they’ve acquired recently, read from us that they enjoyed, or what we know of them). They might be good fits, but they’re not perfect—they’re not looking for the Monster Romance you’ve written, but maybe something on their wishlist is pretty close. What this means is that your agent is repeating Step One…and the above process begins again. Identify an editor, double-check that we don’t have something with them already, and make sure there’s not newer information available. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Sometimes We Really Just Don’t Know
Occasionally, an agent will have a really good list of, say, six editors and knows they want to send to other specific publishers, but there really aren’t a lot of great options in front of them. Sadly, this does happen—not usually on a first round, but more frequently on later rounds. When this happens, we go back to thinking outside the box.
Does someone at their agency have suggestions?
Is there an editor at that imprint who might suggest someone?
Are we part of a Slack or Discord group with agents from other agencies that might have suggestions?
If all else fails, Google. Your agent has probably become an exceptional internet stalker.
Beyond the Agents, There are Other Important Things to Consider
You’d think finding publishers and editors would be the hard part, but it can get even harder. For example, while there are literally scores of imprints we can send manuscripts for any given genre, it doesn’t mean we can send to all of them at the same time. There’s a nuance to sending submissions, and I’ll share a few of them below.
We Try Not to Put All Our Eggs in One Basket
While it’s true that many of the bigger publishers have a lot of different imprints that might be a good fit for your project, we want to spread them out. For example, Macmillan might have four or five different imprints with editors who are all perfect for your manuscript, but it’s not ideal to send your manuscript to four or five imprints under the same “umbrella” (the umbrella being Macmillan) at one time. Not only does this limit the number of bids you can receive if your manuscript should go to auction (because two imprints under the same “umbrella” won’t bid against each other), but we also have to consider whether two imprints under the same “umbrella” are on the same or different teams. We only get one shot per imprint, and sometimes it’s one shot for multiple imprints because the editors for those imprints are occasionally on the same team.
Let me break this down. Think of the publisher (in this case, Macmillan) as the mom or dad of the family. Mom/Dad has several children (imprints), and those children include: Tor, Forge, Bramble, Nightfire, Henry Holt, Flatiron, St. Martin’s, Saturday Books, Griffin…(and a whole lot more). Among the Macmillan “siblings,” we have a few sets of “fraternal twins.” They don’t look alike, but they’re always together, so a pass from one is a pass from all. So for Macmillan, we have:
Set One of Fraternal Twins: Tor, Forge, Bramble and Nightfire
Set Two of Fraternal Twins: St. Martins, Saturday Books, and Griffin
Single Child: Flatiron
Single Child: Henry Holt
We can send to any of the “single children,” but if we send to any one in a set of “fraternal twins,” then a pass from one is a pass from that entire set of “fraternal twins.” So in our example using the first set of Macmillan’s fraternal twins, we can send to Tor or Forge or Bramble or Nightfire. But not all of them. But, we can send to one of those four and Flatiron and Henry Holt and even one of the second set of twins (St. Martin’s or Saturday Books or Bramble)—though, again, it’s not a good idea to put all of our eggs in the same basket, so most agents will only send to one or two siblings from the parent publisher at a time then save the rest for another round of submissions. And remember, if we choose to send to, say, Tor, and they pass, they’ve also passed for their twins—Forge, Bramble, and Nightfire. And this is why the process of finding the right editors can be so tedious. Pick the wrong editor and you can take out four possibilities all at once.
Are you confused yet? Trust me—this can be confusing, and it’s not something most people can pick up overnight. But if your agent has had good mentorship and has been in the business long enough to gain some experience, these things are on the list of things “we just know.”
We Try to Select Editors and Imprints that are a Good Fit for the Author
Finding the right editor doesn’t end at the manuscript. Sometimes the author has specific needs. Maybe the agent is looking for a specific personality to match with the author, or perhaps they’re looking for a publisher who’s known for being a great launching pad for a debut author. All of these things are taken into consideration when choosing where to send your manuscript.
As you can see, the submission process is very nuanced and I’ve barely scratched the surface. If your agent is doing their job, identifying editors for your project takes time and hours of “studying” what’s out there.
It’s Time to Create the Submission Package
Now that the agent has a list put together, they need to put together a submission package.
A submission package starts with the pitch, which isn’t too much different than the query an author sends to editors. A good submission package “markets” your manuscript to an editor so the editor wants to give your project a read. These packages include most of the following aspects:
1. Writing the pitch and making sure the pitch “hits” just right.
2. Making sure each pitch is personalized for each editor, while still saving time by creating a pitch template with the basic information that needs to be included.
3. Looking for comp titles—sometimes using the ones the author has supplied, but more often requires finding new comps.
4. Maintaining meticulous notes for every client on submission related to what’s been sent, what’s up next to send, what the editors said in their passes, setting reminders for themselves to send nudges, etc.
And in between each of these things, your agent has 20+ other clients for whom they’re sending ubmissions, or who need new editors, or nudges for current submissions. They might be negotiating contracts, meeting editors to keep their information current, or even talking to clients to brainstorm projects in the works. And all of this—for most agents—is without any up-front pay and on the blind hope or belief that your project will be their next sale so they can finally justify the many hours they’ve spent working each week..
There’s so much more I could cover on this topic—I haven’t even scratched the surface of all your agent besides getting submissions ready. So leave me a comment below with any questions you have related to the daily ins and outs of an agent’s job,mand I’ll try to address it in a future newsletter.
For now…sit back and enjoy the process. And whatever you do, keep writing!
Thank you for this-pulling back the curtain when we writers “don’t know what we don’t know” is gold!
A fly on the wall for a moment or two. Thanks for the share.