What do you REALLY need to get a literary agent? 🤔

Answering your questions about querying as a debut, what matters (and what doesn't), and what it really takes to secure an agent offer.

It’s no secret that getting traditionally published is exceptionally challenging, even for talented authors. And debut authors stuck in the query trenches are struggling more than ever. Agents are ghosting more than they’re responding (even with form rejections), wait times are seemingly endless, and your odds of seeing your book on the shelf feel slim.

I get it. Once you have what you feel is a strong manuscript in hand, it can be hard to know what else will actually move the needle and get your book noticed. If anything.

So today, I’m digging into your burning questions about what you really need to land an agent in today’s tough landscape — dispelling the myths and focusing your attention on what will actually make a difference.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Do agents actually look at the slush pile?

• What do you do if you’re just getting ghosted by agents?

• Do you need a big following to get traditionally published?

• Do published short stories help you get an agent?

• Should you join paid writing organizations?

• Do you need an author website?

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Do agents actually look at the slush pile?

There is a myth that pervades in the publishing industry, often spouted by people who feel they’ve been burned by the querying process: that agents don’t even look at the slush pile and will only consider queries that come through a direct referral.

This is false. If an agent doesn’t want to receive unsolicited queries, they’ll just close to queries. Or they will publicly say they are only open to queries by referral. Full stop.

If they’re accepting queries from the public, they want to receive them and do intend to review them.

It’s true that agents who are later in their careers with an established client list may take on fewer clients from the “slush pile,” but if they’re open to queries, they’re still on the lookout for new talent.

By the way, I don’t love the term “slush pile,” because when I worked at an agency, it was my job to do the first round of review through the agents’ query inbox. But the agents I worked for didn’t see it as something bad at all — they were genuinely happy and excited to receive those queries, and they did offer representation to writers who submitted to them “cold,” without a referral.

A direct referral can absolutely help (as in any industry), but if someone tells you there’s no way to get a literary agent without a referral and agents don’t ever look at their slush pile, it’s simply not true.

So don’t let this myth about the slush pile deter you from querying.

What do you do if you’re just getting ghosted by agents?

If you’re querying and not hearing back, it’s easy to feel like no one’s even reading your work — and to wonder whether it’s worth continuing to query at all. Should you just call it quits and just give up?

Take a breath.

There are a few things you can do in this situation: