10 Agents Looking for Literary Fiction
Where to Query This Week (01.08.25) | Plus why authors should treat the querying process like a job interview
Welcome to Sub Club’s Where to Query This Week!
Happy New Year, writers! I’m coming at you very refreshed after taking some time away from my laptop—which honestly is a very rare thing for me to do, so please applaud!
I wrapped up 2024 with a new novel edit to send to my agent, one I completed in three months, so I was pretty burnt out, to say the least. (If you are interested in how I went about this revision, I wrote about it here!) So I’m very excited for a fresh start and new beginning (I mean, I am an eldest daughter, after all. I live for that shit).
I know so many of you are hoping to finish big projects and/or land an agent this year, and my goal is to continue to be a little corner of the internet that makes that easier for you. Which is why I’m particularly excited to share something new with you before we dive into this week’s guest.
Okay, so we all know that writing the query letter and sending it, and waiting to hear back from agents can feel like the trenches. But before you can even do that, you have to find agents to query, right? And believe me, I know how much of a headache building your list can be.
So how about this? How about I do it for you?
We are now offering Personalized Agent Lists! Each list is customized just for you, lovingly handpicked by me, featuring agents who are currently open to queries.
I’ll curate your list based on your query letter and responses to our quick questionnaire. Along with the agent names, you’ll get:
A brief explanation of why each agent is a great match for your manuscript.
Suggested phrasing for your query letter to help you show how your book aligns with their interests.
I hope this will take a huge weight off your shoulders and allow this nightmarish process to be just a little bit simpler.
Full disclosure: it's $200 a person since this will take an exhaustive amount of time, and I want to handle each carefully. Also, because of this, I am only taking 10 at a time. So, I will be closing this form after 10. If you see that it's closed, there will be an option to join the waitlist. (Or you can find it here.)
Cheers to another year of writing stuff that we hope we can finish and that we hope people will read! 🥂
Okay, onto our featured essay.
This week’s guest is the publisher of She Writes Press, co-host of the Write Minded podcast, and author of six books,
! Below, she shares her best querying writing tips and explains why you should treat your querying process like a job interview.Why Authors Should Treat the Querying Process Like a Job Interview
Too often, I see aspiring authors going about the querying process in misguided ways. They do blanket submissions to any and all agents. They don’t do their research. They query agents and editors at the same time. They’re sloppy or rushed based on some false deadline they’ve set for themselves.
Querying, at its core, is a job interview. If you get the job as a client of an agent, you are going to potentially earn them money. They’re working for you, true, but you’re kind of co-contractors trying to land a deal: the harder you work together, the more potential you have to make a sale and earn more money.
If you forego or move on from querying agents and go directly to publishing houses, this is another kind of job, but it’s still a job. As the author-client of an editor, you’re both still collaborators, working to deliver the best product to the house that’s publishing the book. The editor is an employee of the house, and even though no one says this ever, authors are contract employees who are given loans in the form of advances that houses hope to earn back.
This kind of transactional understanding of how it works should be helpful to any aspiring author who’s anxious about querying, or who has a vision of their target agent or target editor as demigods. Having stars in your eyes about this process or allowing yourself to get swept up in the idea that a particular agent or editor will make or break your dreams is not treating the querying process like a job interview. It’s treating it like a fairytale, and it puts pressure on some poor agent or editor out there to play the role of a fairy godmother, or a genie in a bottle.
Agents and editors aren’t in the business of making an author’s dreams come true. They’re in the business of making quotas and earning money for their agencies and houses. As an author, come to the table as a collaborating partner. Make the case as to why you’d be a good partner. What do you bring? How will you go above and beyond? Why do you particularly want to work for the agent you’re querying or to publish with a particular house if you’re querying an editor who works there?
5 Tips for Good Query Letters
Make query letters personal and let the person receiving the letter know why you want to work with them, specifically.
Make it clear why your book is a good fit for them and their list.
A little flattery can be touching, but too much runs the risk of sounding insincere. Agents and editors won’t mind hearing that you love a particular acquisition or sale they made, but don’t take it too far.
Never tell an agent or an editor in a query letter that you’re going to sell a particular number of copies, nor that you’re going to be a bestseller. Statements like these are cliché and naïve.
Get professional eyes on your query letter before you send it. There are far too many professional publishing experts and editors out there who can offer you feedback for not a whole lot of money before you hit send. Getting your letter well-vetted before primetime makes a difference.
Good luck with your job hunt! Querying is more about hard work and best practices than it is an art, and agents and editors are just hard-working people trying to acquire works they think will sell and become good books. Help them do their job by being a good partner and collaborator, and everyone benefits.
Brooke Warner is the publisher of She Writes Press and author of six books. She’s the former Executive Editor of Seal Press, where she vetted thousands of query letters. Brooke is a TEDx speaker, weekly podcaster (of “Write-minded” with co-host Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo), and she publishes a weekly newsletter, Writerly Things, on Substack at brookewarner.substack.com.
Just a little reminder before we jump into our agent list! This is the last week to sign up for Haley Swanson’s Query Letter Bootcamp, which starts on Saturday, January 11th! Get that damn query letter into shape and land your dream agent this year! Details on how to sign up are here.
» » If you want to ask a question in our Query Hotline, fill out the form here with any questions you might have about querying—whether that’s around agents, indie presses, book contests, formatting, genres, or if you just need someone to tell you you’re doing just fine. (Submit your question here) « «
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10 Agents Looking for Literary Fiction
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