Whaddya know?!
Some recurring questions (and a special bonus 🍌)
Hello to new and returning subscribers,
☀️ Thank you for being here 📗
I’ve been asked many publication-related questions by students and writer friends over the years. Below are a few of the ones I hear most frequently.
Do I need an agent if I want to publish a book?
It depends. If your objective is to publish with a corporate press (as in a Big Five imprint, i.e. Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, or HarperCollins), you will very likely need an agent. Some big presses now have limited submission periods once or twice a year as part of their DEI missions when they allow non-repped writers to query or submit a manuscript, but those windows are small.
If you’re aiming for an independent publisher, many accept unagented submissions. There are also book contests (more on this below), and they do not require an agent—only a manuscript submitted during the contest submission period, often with a fee required.
There’s also the self-publishing option, which has no gatekeepers. I’m generally not an advocate of self-publishing because it’s very difficult to get reviews, to enlist bookstores for events, and in general, discoverability is even more of a challenge than for a traditionally published book. And unless you hire an editor, a book designer, an artist for your cover, a proofreader, a copy editor, a publicist and/or a book marketing specialist, you’ll need to perform all of these functions yourself.
If all you truly want is a physical book, one you only intend to share with friends and family, self-publishing is of course the best option.
Are literary contests worth the money?
If you win! Glibness aside, they can be, yes. But choose them judiciously—most require a submission fee of $20 or more. If you do decide to enter contests, I advise setting a budget, e.g. $100-200 annually - or whatever you can comfortably afford. These fees can be claimed on your taxes as expenses if you file as a writer.
I published my first book, the story collection Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry, after it received AWP‘s 2009 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. I’d worked with two different agents by that time—one, for reasons still unknown to me, was fired shortly after her agency signed me on.
When a poet friend suggested entering a few contests (I remain in your debt, David Welch!), I thought, “Okay. The agent route isn’t bearing fruit, so…might as well try a few.” I’d entered some over the years since graduate school, but not very many (Why would I want to pay $25 for a rejection letter? I often joked.) Fortunately, that year, the gamble paid off.
A detailed list of book contests can be found here.
I’m working on a book. Is it okay to query an agent before it’s finished?
Not usually. Not for fiction—the book should be complete and very polished before you begin querying. (Perhaps especially if this is your first book.)
Book-length memoir/personal narrative nonfiction should generally be in final draft form too before you query.
If you’re writing researched nonfiction, however, it’s not unusual to query an agent after you have written the proposal and the first few chapters. Agencies usually specify on their submission guidelines pages what they require in a nonfiction query. (A preview of the most recent agent list I’ve put together can be accessed here.)
Do I need to publish anything before an agent will take me seriously?
Publications in reputable periodicals in particular—literary magazines, newspapers, or glossies—can be helpful in attracting an agent’s interest, but you don’t need to have published any of your writing before you query.
For obvious reasons, most agents are only interested in how good the work is you’re querying them about. It doesn’t matter if you’ve published in The Paris Review or NeverHeardofIt Quarterly if what you’re sending out isn’t ready for an agent’s (or more likely, an assistant’s) eyes.
I’ll answer more questions during the second fall Bookish meetup on Saturday, November 2 (9:30 AM PT/11:30 AM CT) for monthly and annual subscribers. If you’d like to sign up, subscriptions are currently discounted.
Bonus question/non sequitur: Do you know a good recipe for banana bread?
OMG, yes, I thought you’d never ask!
Banana Chocolate Chip Bread (or muffins)
Ingredients: 2 cups (250 g) unbleached all-purpose flour; 1 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar; 1/3 cup (80 ml) canola oil; 4 ripe mashed bananas (very ripe is best); 1/4 cup (60 ml) water; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 cup (175 g) non-dairy semisweet chocolate chips (I use regular choc chips if I don’t have the non-dairy ones); 1 cup (150 g) chopped walnuts (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C or gas mark 4) and lightly grease your bread pan or muffin tins (or use muffin liners or a nonstick spray)
- In a medium size bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together, then add the mashed bananas. Stir in the water and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and the chocolate chips (and walnuts, if you choose), and stir to mix.
- Pour batter into the greased bread pan; if making muffins, fill the cups halfway.
- Bake bread for 30-40 mins, testing at 30 mins - if skewer or toothpick comes out clean, the loaf is done. For muffins, bake 20-25 mins - until they are golden brown, testing for doneness at 20 mins or so.
(Recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)
⭐️ One final note: if you’re in the U.S., vote! As a yard sign I saw yesterday stated: “If we vote, we win.” Election Day is November 5 (voter registration can be done online in many states, or in person at the DMV and other municipal offices).
Now there are recipes, too! Love it!
Curious on your take about getting an agent not necessarily for the Big 5 but to level up in presses/career. There's a lot of "bigger" small indie presses that you still can't get to without an agent. I've struggled with how to target these agents. I used to think I had to target the junior/new agents because they might be more likely to look at me versus someone well established in their list, but the person more established in their list is more likely to take risks on new writers because they have more financial room? Writing the query letter is awful all the time, but narrowing in on the right agent feels like a science I don't understand. I do scan Publisher's Marketplace and look at the agents who are making these deals with places like FSG but then those people are always closed and/or unreachable without a referral. Sorry this is long! Thank you!