Agents: What Proportion of Authors do You Sign Through Unsolicited Queries?

pedroj012 said:

I've been reading more and more that most writers find representation by meeting agents at conferences, or by meeting other writers and getting referred. I guess I'm just wondering if I should stop trying to blindly query, and just focus on meeting people at conferences. Thanks!

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I'm sure you'll get answers from working agents; but when I was a literary agent (for 14 years), I accepted maybe 1% of unsolicited submissions. I know that sounds awful, but if you eliminate all the hopeless, clueless subs, the percentage increases dramatically.

It's always nice to meet the agent in person at a conference or elsewhere, but it doesn't impact on the agent's decision about whether or not to offer representation. That's based on two factors: how much they liked the work, and the chances of selling it.

I've seen many of my writing students find agents through cold querying, including one whose agent ended up selling her YA novel to Random House. If it seems to you that writers are having more luck at conferences, that's probably because writers who go to conferences are a self-selected bunch who are more serious about writing and publishing than your average weekend scribbler.

Here's an in-depth interview with literary agent Gail Hochman (long-time president of the AAR) on what she looks for in new clients. (It's in two parts: first part's about her life, part 2 is the nitty-gritty for writers.) You'll notice that a firm handshake and winning smile are not on her list of requirements.

I got my current and previous agents by going through the slushpile, so it happens. I wouldn't "blindly query" though. Make sure you have a stellar query, put it through QLH if you're not confident about it, research the agents who rep your genre, and tailor your query to each one if possible (as in, say something like, "I'm querying you because you mentioned you were looking for a zombie hamster love story.")

To answer the thread question, a lot. Almost all my author friends (and they are many) signed through sending cold queries to agents. I certainly did. That being said, conferences are awesome ways to get agents too. Don't feel pressure to go if you don't have the means, sending out queries is very effective. But if you want to go to a conference and can afford it I highly recommend it. Not even for the agenting thing but for meeting other authors and having a blast!

I interpreted the question a bit differently from what's been discussed so far. The law of supply and demand pretty much guarantees a low-percentage answer to "How much of the slush pile do you sign?"

However, I would love to hear responses to the question I thought was being asked: "Of your signed clients, how many of them were plucked from the slush pile with no prior acquaintance?"

Actually, I'd be interested in a general breakdown. How many were first met at conventions, how many from slush, how many through word-of-mouth, etc. Do agents ever actively seek out authors or do they just sit back and let the authors flock to them? Any crazy stories of how they met their authors?

I don't really have a dog in this fight. Lacking funds and time to travel to conventions, I'm a slush gal all the way, but it's definitely an interesting topic.

Agent Jennifer Laughran did a post breaking down how many percent of her clients are from the slushpile here.

Putputt said:

Agent Jennifer Laughran did a post breaking down how many percent of her clients are from the slushpile here.

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Oooh, thanks! That's neat!

Some agents might meet some of their clients at conferences and so on: but they will not offer rep without first seeing the writers' works and how do they do that? They ask them to send in a query.

The slush pile is at the root of most offers of representation. It is a system which works reasonably well.

I got my agent through the slushpile.

And like Old Hack said, even with all things going right, a conference request only gets you the first part of the way -- you may be requested to supply a partial...and that's it! (or a full, but same applies) After that you have no more of a chance than someone who got their partial to the agent via the slushpile.

Here's my breakdown for 27 clients:
2- Signed when I auditioned for a development project
1- Met at a conference where I critiqued 2 pages of her work
1- Client referral
6- Knew them in some capacity (almost entirely authors I knew from being an author)
17- Signed via queries.

I think the answer is simple. If you have an amazing book that a particular agent (or many agents!) will love and connect with, then you'll get signed up whether you meet them in person or know someone, or via the slush pile. (I got my agent via the slush pile. Slush pile ftw! But anyway...)

I'm obviously not an agent, but everything I've read leads me to this: content is king. The route to the agent doesn't really matter if your manuscript is amazing, and all of your energy should be about making the writing as good as humanly possible. There are no loopholes or secret handshakes. (In my opinion)

pedroj012 said:

Awesome, thanks for the response. I keep saying this in all the thread questions I've asked, but it seems like everything I thought I knew about agents and queries is wrong. I think the author of The Maze Runner said that he had learned that you need to know someone in order to get an agent.

I still wonder about the proportion of people accepted in each of those categories. I have to think that the percentage of people you accept as clients that you knew previously is way, way higher than the percent of people you accept through queries.

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Probably true, but the people she knew were already filtered. If you know someone well enough to keep up with them, you presumably like them. That's already filtering out people you aren't in the same social group with, same circle as, same general type of life as, mostly (if you're a writer living in the U.S., you probably don't know that many rural South American farmers) and more personal things like just don't gel with, share the same interests with, etc. Then of THOSE people you've already filtered to a very small group of people you've got stuff in common with so you know, they then are writers who then have stuff you might rep, an even smaller group, and then you'd be interested in repping. So yeah, that percentage - people you want to rep of people you know, is a larger percentage, likely, than people you want to rep from queries.

Anyone can send a query. Read agent blogs and find out the percentage of queries they receive that aren't related to what they rep, aren't even queries, are barely English, are insane, are impossible to rep on their face (my 450,000-word biography... this 8-part series...), and once those are removed, consider the percentage of signed from submitted as a means of comparison and I'd wager it'll be closer than you think. Then consider that of what's left, the agent is betting on the query in a way they're not if they know the person, and yet still sign more from queries.

I would imagine that networking in writing is like networking in any other field: it's very important for a variety of reasons. I'm not big on writing conferences (I'm an academic and spend enough money on conferences as it is), but I've found other forms of networking to be incredibly valuable. I've made plenty of new beta-reader and critique swap friends, shared information about querying and publishing, compared notes on experiences with agents and publishers, etc, etc, etc. So I wouldn't think of conferences/networking as solely being about getting an agent.

On the other hand, several writers I've connected with got publishing contracts or an agent through knowing other writers. Social networks (in the sociological sense; not talking Facebook here) are extremely powerful tools. Part of the value of an MFA is the networking, in my opinion. So I wouldn't discount networking/conferences as an important way to reach out to agents and publishers.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes you should be building your social network at conferences, etc, as a writer. It might lead to an agent/publisher, but most likely it will just make you a better writer and better at the business side. But you should also be doing the querying thing as hard and as well as you possibly can.

As has been said, there's no secret handshake. You have to write the best damn novel you can.

pedroj012 said:

Awesome, thanks for the response. I keep saying this in all the thread questions I've asked, but it seems like everything I thought I knew about agents and queries is wrong. I think the author of The Maze Runner said that he had learned that you need to know someone in order to get an agent.

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If that's what the author of The Maze Runner said, the author of the Maze Runner is wrong.

I still wonder about the proportion of people accepted in each of those categories. I have to think that the percentage of people you accept as clients that you knew previously is way, way higher than the percent of people you accept through queries.

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That's not what I got from Ms Hubbard's response. It breaks down to these percentages:

27 clients = 100%
7.4% - Signed when I auditioned for a development project
3.7% - Met at a conference where I critiqued 2 pages of her work
3.7% - Client referral
22.2% - Knew them in some capacity (almost entirely authors I knew from being an author)
63% - Signed via queries.

Lonegungrrly said:

I'm obviously not an agent, but everything I've read leads me to this: content is king. The route to the agent doesn't really matter if your manuscript is amazing, and all of your energy should be about making the writing as good as humanly possible. There are no loopholes or secret handshakes. (In my opinion)

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Your opinion is right. Spot-on, in fact.

I could be wrong, but I took the comment more like, if MH knew 24 authors and signed 6, the percentage there is 25%, but if she received 1000 queries and signed 17 authors from those, the percentage there would be .17%.

I live in a little backwater town nobody has heard of and only had a couple short stories and magazine articles published when I wrote my first novel. My first four books were all published by small presses because I could not, for the life of me, land an agent. I sent hundreds of queries and got referrals from authors like James Rollins, and still nothing.

Then I wrote my fifth book. Nobody wanted it. I rewrote it, sent it out again and BAM - got offered a contract for four books. I took that contract and sent it to my dream agency, trident Media Group, and BAM again - got an offer of rep the next day.

So it took five years and hundreds of queries, but it happened to me, and I've never been to a conference or even met an agent, I'm just a guy out here in middle of nowhere.

I'd say meeting the agent at a conference probably helps you get a request for pages even if your query isn't all that great (well, as long as you make a good impression on the agent). But in the end, I'm pretty sure they're looking to see if they can sell the book. I doubt meeting writers at a conference has much sway once the agent's looking at the material.

Also, as someone said above, there's a big difference between every writer who sends a query and those who go to conferences.

I'd say meeting the agent at a conference probably helps you get a request for pages even if your query isn't all that great (well, as long as you make a good impression on the agent). But in the end, I'm pretty sure they're looking to see if they can sell the book. I doubt meeting writers at a conference has much sway once the agent's looking at the material.

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That's my take on it, too. I think meeting an agent at a conference helps to get them to ask for your pages. After that it's what they read.

But while we're on conferences, I'm going to give a little pitch to Taos Summer Writer's Conference, but only because the wonderful and talented Allison Hunter and Alexis Hurley are giving their weekend seminar again. I learned more about the agenting process and what they want (plus they helped write everyone's queries) than any other event I've attended or from reading books and blogs.

It's in the middle of July, and Taos is pretty cool. Well, actually it's hot, but you know what I mean.