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It's such a relief to hear that a good query still works. Traveling to conferences isn't always easily managed!

I agree. Thank you for posting info like this...it really helps to get an idea of what it's really like.

Oh. Alright. Thanks for the information.

Great blog!

If it's permitted to travel off-topic, may I ask a question of all you (compared to me) experts here?

I've been writing for fun all my life but nearly three years ago I started to think about publishing. I began writing a children's fantasy story that I originally meant for a magazine. But since then it's grown more complex and into too great a length for that so now I'm trying to figure out what I have on my hands.

I believe it will finish at about 15,000 words, which seems long for a picture book but short for a middle-grade novel.

The vocabulary's rather rich with a few metaphors and some longish descriptive paragraphs (fantasy worlds need describing, right?)

The protagonist is a 10-year old girl with a 13-year old male best friend.

It's fantasy for kids who like reptiles, which not only seems like a setup begging for color illustrations but also implies somewhat younger interests.

And besides the main storyline about needing to save the town from a Dragon she's stirred up but not wanting to kill the King of Reptiles, it has a subplot or two: confusion (NOT sexual in nature) about her relationship with an older boy...and why her guardian is suddenly acting more cold-blooded than the Dragon she's supposed to be hobbling.

So what the heck have I created? Do I just need to keep re-writing until my story becomes long enough for a novel or short enough for a picture book? (Hint: please say no to that last question, I like my story the way it is!)

I'm a fan of Tom Petty and the boys, but not this song. It's okay, not great and gets ranked accordingly. #5

AR- try not to do the casual query thing on an agent's blog. It's considered in horribly poor taste, since they are horribly busy folks, and the rest of the blog-addicts are likely to chastise you. After all, they've spent many months kissing the agent's ass in the interest of getting their own queries a little extra attention. You're horning in on their racket.

So two out of eight went the traditional query route and hit gold. Good for them. The rest (with the exception of the one with a great title- way to buy into a work on the merit of the work... choosing to look at something because of three or four words is a dynamite way of going about choosing an author, BTW) had inside tracks of one kind or another. I guess if we don't know a published author or an agent we're SOL. Salud.

Thanks for the heads-up, dingle. I'm so far from being ready to publish my mess of a story that I thought it would be obvious my question wasn't a sales pitch. And I know Agent Kristin is busy, that's why I addressed my question to the readers.

So to rephrase the question without discussing any details about the actual story: how do I know that my kid's story at its present length and age level fits into any particular market? Is there some guide to figuring out whether I need to reconceive it as either older or younger?

Shut up, Betty, I'm trying to get noticed with good titles, don't ruin it for those of us who can string together 2-4 words, but can't write worth a shit.

"The Stone Door" Sounds forbidding, doesn't it?

"High Heels, Martinis & Werewolves" Guess what it's about? You got it! Oversexed lycanthropes!

"The Diary of Wendy" Well, it's just kind of Wendy's diary. But she's hot, and kind of a slut.

"Odor of Fear" It's a thriller. The working title was "Smell of Fear", but odor sounded scarier.

"Undercover Housewife"
"The Man Outside the Moon"
"Teasing Death in Pittsburgh"
"Cantaloupe Soup"
"Louisiana Fire"

Ugh.

You know, Betty, you can always get to know published authors. It's not hard these days. They have webpages, blogs, and forums.

And they like it when you e-mail them and say, "I loved your book!"

So in other words, my anonymous friend, I shouldn't kiss an agent's ass, I should go to a published author's blog and kiss his ass! Brilliant idea. If you ask me, there's too much asskissing going on in cyberspace. And really, do we really know anyone we meet here? I mean, dateless e-harmony losers aside.

Given that you had 30,000 queries in 2007 and only signed two authors via that route, the odds of landing an agent without being referred appear quite dismal.

However, I believe it's better to know than to not know, so thanks for sharing the info.

I think the blog readers here need to read a little more carefully. Only four of the new clients Kristin mentioned were referred by other agents or existing clients. The other four got her attention all on their own. Yes, two of them met her at a conference first, but if their pitches were good enough to interest her, it's likely it would have worked if they'd queried on paper, too (which one did, actually, just mentioning that they had met).

Hi everyone,

I came to Kristin through her general query process. In fact, of the published writers I know, almost ALL got their first agent with a regular query, so don't get discouraged.

Write a great book. Be professional and persistent, and I firmly believe you'll find an agent that works for your style.

There really is no trick, I'm afraid. Just keep writing.

Best wishes,
Ally Carter

Thanks for posting this Kristin, I find it extremely helpful. I'm impressed with the frontage you give your authors.

"Brooke Taylor...queried me with her novel UNDONE."

I had to read that twice before I figured out that the novel's title was UNDONE, but that the novel itself was complete when she queried you. At first I thought you meant that her novel was incomplete when she queried you, and that the caps were for emphasis. d'oh! (head slap.)

Because of course, writers shouldn't query unfinished novels.

And it is also unfair to say that the person with the intriguing title sold on the basis of that title alone. If the writing wasn't good, it would have been rejected even with a good title.

As Miss Snark used to say, just write well. Quit obsessing.

No matter how you access an agent, be it query letter, conference pitch or a well-placed, friend who is a client, your writing still has to be great. No amount of connections will get you an agent or a contract if your book isn't where it needs to be.

And Ally, if you're still perusing this...I just picked up your first book. I'm not usually a YA reader or a reader of books written in first person, but I could not resist getting it! It looks fabulous.

Great post, Kristin. I have an agent (alas, no publisher yet), but I still read your blog regularly for industry news and tredns, and to pass along tidbits to members of my writers' groups who are looking for agents. This will set their minds at ease on a number of points, and should keep a couple of them plugging away.

Thank god you want adult fantasy.

*keeps polishing manuscript and fretting over her query letter*

Thank you! It's fascinating to see what genres you took on this year. My book is literary fiction, so come January 2nd… ☺

great lineup! can't wait to see them.

*frantically tries to learn how to write a decent query letter*

My thoughts upon reading this post were similar to the first—anonymous—comment.

Though I also feel distinct stress that I need to get this draft of my adult fantasy done.

[Mutters about the pain of having a concise writing style so drafts always have to be expanded and gets back to work]

Gimmie a few months to polish this novel and I can send a fantasy romance your way.

It's a nice feeling when you finally begin to see a pattern happening.

You're quite busy. Funny how life can take a turn in an unpredictable direction. Keeps life interesting.

I've got a historical novel with fantasy elements and a nice little romance. And a query letter...

Have a great holiday season and enjoy the well deserved break. I look forward to reading more of your client's work as I've loved them all so far.

Great, thanks for wanting to see more literary fiction like Jamie.

I'll query on the set date!

Heehee, Kristen, guess what you're getting at the end of January? *More young adult fantasy!!!!* Aren't you excited?

But no worries, you have a month to recover from all these new clients. Congratulations to all of them, by the way.

:) Gabrielle

Right. Come next year, 1 adult sci-fi coming right up :D

I hope you have a wonderful holiday break, enjoying what you like best. :)

Does anybody know what genre are the Harry Potter books belong to?

Thanks for the answer.

Never mind, I found the the answer. They belong in children fantasy.

Your comment about wanting "adult SF and fantasy" is being widely quoted out of context. Some writers are interpreting "adult" rather differently than I think you meant it. You may soon be seeing a deluge of very steamy queries.

Kristin,

For your 8 new clients, I would love to know what genre each of them were. Would you mind sharing?

Thanks and happy holidays!

I still find it a little unsettling that one of your clients has my name. Didn't used to be too many of us outside of Sweden.

Now that is an awesome Christmas present . . .

Actually, voice mail would be a cool way to get the word. You could save the message and play it over and over.

Yay! Congrats.

Congrats!!! Sounds like you'll be busy before the end of the year. But at least that should make for a happy new year.

What a great Christmas present for your new client!

Must be a great feeling... :-)

I feel warm and fuzzy all over :)

Linnea, when I first saw your name and gave you a shout out on Nathan's blog, I confused you with that other Linnea, Kristen's client, who is personally known to me (and facing a very hard deadline tomorrow). When I asked by buddy if she was you, she said, NO! There's lots of Linnea's out there!

Who knew?

Anyway, what a great X-mas present some writer is going to get when they check their voice mail.

Ditto on the voice mail.

The new client can faint, scream, go speechless, allwithout you even knowing. So by the time he calls you back, he'll be all composed. Or she. Or it, if it's a dog.

And also ditto on the genre breakdown request.

Gosh, I would love to get that voicemail message. I could keep it forever, and replay it for all my friends and relations ;)

Enjoy your holiday! You deserve it!

Has anyone thanked you for this blog in general lately? You do us a great service here and I am thankful for it. You would be at the top of my query list if only you handled my genre, but you still provide me with excellent information that I will be able to use when the time comes.

Thanks again!

Kristin - I'm thankful for your blog and your insight into the other side of the business. I'm also thankful you are a Monty Python fan because these kids today just don't get it. I say this from my rarefied age of almost-36.

Enjoy your holiday!

Ian

Have a restful Thanksgiving and be sure to give Chutney some gravy on his kibble. Thank you for all the time you put into this blog it is a great source of advice, insight and entertainment.

Ditto what Ian says--although I'm not sure I get the Python reference.

That's a thoughtful response, but 40-50 clients sounds like a heavy load - a huge amount of material to read, polish, submit and sell if each of those clients produces a work every 1-2 years. However, you are a bit younger than me, and working harder now will probably pay off for you later.

I think if I were an agent, I might well do the same at first, in hopes one or two clients would hit it big, and if that happened, I'd perhaps scale back.

I'd also probably hire 1 or 2 sub agents, and split commissions with them, and divide my own workload between direct agenting and managing agents.

Both those things are essentially what I've done at my automobile business. For years I worked there 75 hours a week. Now, I am seldom there 10 hours a week.

I am tempted to ask, "would you rather spend more time with fewer clients," but in terms of your own success, I realize you can potentially do better with a large pool than a small one. Simply because most authors will not hit it big, and there's probably not a lot you can do to change that. So bigger numbers increase your chance of signing a winner.

Did you know Stanley talks about this very thing in the "Millionaire Next Door?" A skilled agent who takes on several hundred authors for 15% is much more likely to end up a millionaire than an individual author, who keeps 85% but whose odds of success are only 1, where the agent's odds are several hundred times greater. So even at 15% the agent will have more winners.

Many of the other comments on the blog make it clear that you're seen as a desireable agent, and I'm sure that increases the number of "likely winners" you can sign up.

Reflecting upon that thought, it seems like attracting good clients is the best thing an agent can do to ensure her success, much more than, say, polishing the work of less good clients.

And finally, the ability to pick "good" . . . that is the million dollar question here, and in record production, and movie making too. How do you choose the next winner?

I'm sorry to ramble on. It's the Aspergian in me that make me ponder random questions like that. I gave my neighbor a ride home from Springfield today. He teaches here at the University and was encouraging me to write a business book soon. Maybe I will.

Have a good holiday.

Woof!

This is one of the first agent blogs that I have come across. It's interesting seeing that side of publishing.

Have an enjoyable holiday!

Dear Kristin and all her blog readers

Have a great Thanksgiving. Eat too much turkey, drink too much wine (but don't drive home), and definitely eat too much warm apple pie.

All The Best,

Rebecca

I would think that it would also matter what type of client is involved. After all, a celebrity who
'writes' an autobiography will not need as much attention over time as the novelist who puts out a book a year.

And let me add my thanks to Kristen for this wonderful blog.

Dawn

Wasting away again in Margaritaville...

Love the site. :)

I can vouch for the fact that Kristin's extremely organized. That probably goes a long way in her handling the number of clients she does. As she said, that's an individual thing. Not unlike parenting, I imagine. ;-) Of course, she also has the Divine Sara. And Miss Chutney the Wonderdog.

My experience as one of Kristin's clients is that, for the most part, being an author is not a crisis a day. Well, okay, maybe with me it is (or Kristin feels like it is). But for the most part, once the contract is settled and the author is happily typing away, there's not a lot Kristin need do. Hours, uh, I mean WEEKS go by where I don't need to cry on her shoulder. I mean, talk to her. Then we'll hit a few days when we talk dang near hourly because of something the publisher is or is not doing.

I would imagine that when I'm being quiet and well-behaved (a rarity, surely), some other client is having a crisis du jour. But it's not as if she's dealing with all of us at the same time, daily.

I feel as if we're her little flotilla and she give us our missions, launches us and we go merrily sailing across the seas of literary-dom, and only when we hit a rock do we grab the ship-to-shore and shout, "Kristin, help me! Mayday!"

And she comes zooming in on her super-duper Kristin-copter and saves the day.

Can you tell I'm deep in deadline hell and punchy? ;-) ~Linnea

I'm not sure I get the Python reference.

"Wafer thin mint," the last thing Mr. Creosote, an enormous glutton, ate before exploding. From the film Monty Python and the Meaning of Life.

Sane and happy? Wow! That's some impressive multi-tasking. Happy Thanksgiving to you.

I would imagine that taking on a hundred romance novelists would be more of a headache than a source of significant profit. Lots of whining and "shoulder-crying" and meltdowns, all for books that don't make that much money.

Christ, can't anyone say anything positive about agents, publishing or writing in general? I'm so sick of hearing about the lousy money. Does anyone make a living at this nonsense?

Hmm, well obviously my attempt at humor fell flat with Anon11:19 and jerrygirl. Note to self: do not try to be funny with only four hours sleep.

Anon11:19, I don't imagine romance novelists have any lock on the whining market. I've been a private detective and a news reporter. I've seen lots of whining attorneys, editors, columinsts, paralegals and the like. My daughter's in upper management IT. She regales me with stories of whining programmers. Now bloggers, well, for the most part they're a cheerful, upbeat bunch but an occasional sniffler does break through.

jerrygirl, money is nice when you're an author (very nice) but most of us write because if we didn't we'd explode. And I'd guess a significant number do make a living. And overall I think Kristin's blog is extremely positive about agents and writing. But it's also realistic. Writing may be an art but publishing is a business. When both those aspects are given attention, things just seem to work out better. ~Linnea, still in deadline hell, still working on four hours sleep but very aware that deadline hell is preferable to no deadline at all.

Are there times when being previously represented works against an author? Like, what caused the breakup? Especially when you know the other agent involved, either personally or by reputation.

Too bad you missed that one but there will be others.

I was just looking at your website, and I see 21 clients on the "clients" page. Reading today's post about missing a potential new client, I wonder . . how many clients does it take to be full?

In my automobile business, we recognize that we'll lose 7-9% of our customer base every year despite our best efforts, because people die (affects you), move to another city (no effect for you), get divorced (???), go broke and no longer drive a fancy car (??? for you)

You must have some attrition as an agent. And you have a certain capacity. There's also the question of how many of the authors on your list are actually working on a project and needing your help at any given time.

Is there a "rule of thumb" literary agents use to determine capacity?

If I were looking for a new agent (which I am not) I'd look at the client list, and if I only saw 2 or 3 names I'd be worried. But wouldn't I be right to worry if I saw 40 names, too? How many is too many?

Some idle thoughts for you on a cold Monday night. I wish I were back there in Denver in that mountain weather. Woof.

And to think . . . you actually came to the TC and bought my book. I did not even think what a special honor that is, with all the free books you get as an agent (I get lots as an author and you must get more), and the countless submissions you must receive. Frankly, when I think about it, I'm amazed you have time to buy and read ANYTHING.

Despite that, I hope you like it and you'll tell me what you think at the end.

best wishes
John

Merry Turkey Holiday.

John Elder Robison has a good question. I hope you'll answer it in a post sometime.

I'll ditto the request to answer some of John's questions! Good ones.

Interesting to see that luck can have an impact on an agent, just as it does for an author.

I can't think of another agent out there I'd rather have represent me and my work.

I guess the author in question must have thought you weren't going to be able to represent them? Otherwise it's difficult to imagine them not waiting for you!

I think the author made a huge mistake.

I think things happen for a reason. If the writer you thought highly of didn't have the time to wait for your response (which you wanted to give but just couldn't get to), then it wasn't meant to be. Maybe at a later time in his/her career. Maybe not. Life happens.