When no publisher is ready to accept your manuscript, you might solicit a literary agent to represent your work. Literary agents present manuscripts with great potential to the publishers. The primary role of a literary agent is to sell books and negotiate contracts. However, your literary agent can also be your biggest motivator, editor, and supporter.

History of literary agents

There was a time in Victorian England when literature and publishing was at its peak. Inevitably, someone had to meet the demands of the unprecedented growth of emerging authors and new publishers. This was when the new role of an agent between the writers and the publishers began to develop. In the years that followed, they proved valuable for the writers as well as the publishers.

Much like today, writers in the late 19th century didn’t want to engage in the business part of writing. They only wanted to focus completely on writing without anything else bothering them. So, the presence of literary agents made life a lot more easier for writers, especially the newer ones.

Initially, the publishers used to despise the literary agents. Over a period of time, everything changed in the publishing world. Today, many publishers have made it mandatory for an author to be represented by a literary agent.

Functions of literary agents

Besides being a good friend and a guide for budding writers, the literary agents perform several functions. Here are some of them:

1. Seeking out new literary works

Many of the literary agents handle multiple projects at a time. The moment they’re done with one, they pick up another one. In order to keep their business going, these agents are always seeking new works. They may use social media channels like Twitter or respond to emails and letters from new writers.

2. Getting the manuscripts ready for submissions

Once your literary agent selects your manuscript, he or she might request certain edits or changes. This is to increase the chances of the manuscript getting accepted by the publisher. The best literary agents always know what’s happening in the contemporary book market.

They know what’s selling and what’s not. For this reason, they always want to represent the manuscripts that carry the highest potential. So, if your literary agent wants certain changes, it is to increase your manuscript’s chances of success.

3. Representing writers and negotiating with publishers

In recent times, most of the book publishers accept solicitation only from literary agents. So, it’s obvious that they represent the writers and negotiate the best deal with the publishers for them. Today, many authors rely on their agents for their book publishing and legal expertise.

You need to be a successful author in order to get a book contract with one of the reputed publishers. If you’re not, all the big publishing companies and even some indie publishers won’t accept your manuscript directly. You’ll have to reach them through a literary agent.

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Sending your novel or a collection of poems to every single publication you know is not advisable at all. It’s simply a wastage of time and efforts. You also need to know what you’ll be getting out of that publication if they select your work. So, here are the three most important things you need to consider before submitting your literary work:

1. Does the publication meet all your requirements?

You must see whether you really like what they publish. Just because a publication is a reputed one doesn’t mean that it will be the right one for you. If you don’t like what they publish, it’s better to look for another one. Especially the one which comes out with the kind of literary works that you like. Next thing to know is whether they’re likely to publish your story or collection of poems.

If your work doesn’t fit the kind of works that they publish, you might be simply wasting your time. Look for publications where your stories or poems will co-exist with everything else harmoniously. The moment you come across such a publication, know it’s the right one for you.

2. Where will your work be published?

There are several possibilities where your literary work will be published. It can be a website, a print magazine, or an ecommerce site such as Amazon. The publisher might also make it available in a print as well as an e-book version. If it’s a website where your work will appear, it will be on a particular page. You might also find it buried deep in a one-page issue.

In case of print magazines, there’s only a limited editorial run. So, these are the things you need to consider along with a few others. Know where your story or collection of poems will be published before the submission. You might want your work to be available only in the e-book format. If this is the case, then don’t send it to a print magazine.

3. How long will the publication take to respond?

Before sending your work it’s always good to know the amount of time a publication typically takes. Waiting for acceptance can be frustrating and this is especially true if it’s a long wait. Most of the well-known publishing houses mention this in their submission guidelines. In case of magazines, you’ll need to turn to a good source of information.

Some of the websites such as Submission Grinder can provide you the right information in this regard. Waiting for more than six months with a 99.9% chance of rejection would be a bad idea. If you’ve come across such a publication, it’s better to move on to another one. Of course, there are certain publications that are worth the wait. However, they’re quite rare.

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Let’s say submit your work to a magazine accepting unsolicited writing. The first thing that they’ll do is look for reasons to reject you. Now, this surely seems quite unfair, but writers have made some fundamental errors in the past which led to this. So, make sure that you don’t make such mistakes.

Choose the right magazine

There are hundreds of publications out there. This makes it absolutely essential to pick the right ones for the submission of your work. If you’ve never sent your work to a publisher before, choose the lesser-known magazines. Although this looks like a good start, do check out their previous issues.

As your works get published in such magazines, you’ll build a good portfolio. This will give you the confidence to send your work to the renowned magazines.

Check for the magazine’s genre or style

Never waste your precious time submitting your works to places where they don’t belong. Every literary magazine will have its own editorial focus and style. Visit the website of each magazine and go through their mission statement and previous issues. See whether your style of writing matches their preferences and ethos.

There are some who may state very clearly that they’re only looking out for a particular genre or style. Believe what they’re saying and move on to a different publication. Never be under the impression that you can change the publishers’ minds with your writing.

Go through the submission guidelines carefully and follow them

It won’t be a good idea to simply collect email addresses of publishers and send them your works. There are certain instructions that the publishers have for writers sending their submissions. All these instructions will be mentioned on the publishers’ websites.

If you don’t follow these instructions, there are high chances of your story not getting read. It is, therefore, absolutely important to follow the submission guidelines. Following them will be a sign of your professionalism. It also gives the impression that you respect the magazine’s publishers.

Submit only completed works

There are many new writers who make the mistake of sending stories that are not yet ready for publishing. They do this in the hope that one of the magazines might give the story a chance. By doing this, they’ll be simply wasting their time. The editors of magazines get a lot of submissions in a day. So, it’s quite unlikely that they’ll spend time reading your story and making changes to it.

This is why it’s very important to send a work that’s complete and reviewed properly. This is a painful process and needs to be done without haste. Your final draft must be polished and make for a good read. If you go through your finished work and see that there’s room for improvements, it isn’t ready.

When sending your work to the magazines, it’s crucial to keep certain things in mind. First is to submit a carefully-prepared draft to one literary magazine. This will be much better than submitting unprepared drafts to many magazines.

It is also essential to prepare yourself for rejections. Getting rejected doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a bad writer. It only means that you’re one of the other writers on their journey.

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