Pitching to a Literary Agent When You Have Multiple Projects
By Mary Kole
Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
Here’s a great query for writers who have multiple projects and are considering pitching to a literary agent for potential literary representation. But do you send one thing? Do you send all of your book ideas? Here’s the question in full from one of our Good Story Learning members:
I'm curious about pitching to a literary agent when I have multiple projects. For instance, I'm in the process of sending out queries for project A while writing project B. By the time I receive agent responses, I may be prepared to submit project B. Is it unreasonable to deliver another proposition to a rep who turned me down within 3-4 months of my initial submission? Will this be seen as irritating when pitching to a literary agent, or, because picture books can be completed faster than other genres, could this frequency be tolerated?
Pitching to a Literary Agent: Not Every Thought is Saleable
I share the following advice with my picture book author clients: only out of ten of your picture book ideas/manuscripts will be good enough for pitching to a literary agent. There's no doubt that crafting a children’s picture book is somewhat simpler than novel writing—it is much easier to create, revise, and fine-tune a 600-word manuscript than it is to attack a 90,000-word novel. But there are writers out there who have multiple novel projects, or a mix of shorter and longer work.
I'm a bit hesitant when authors respond to the "pitching to a literary agent" question with too much eagerness. If a writer contacts me with multiple submissions and leaves little time in between projects, I want to help them tone down their impatience and eagerness, and for a number of reasons. (Patience is one of the writer tools that you should develop regardless, as it’ll help you for the rest of your writing life.)
When you’re pitching to a literary agent, you may get valuable feedback that will help you on your writing journey. (If you don't get any feedback at all, that's a sign in itself. Check my article about types of query rejections for more information.)
You should also take time between submission rounds to grow as a writer, rather than jumping back into pitching to a literary agent as soon as you have the next project “ready.” (Most writers moving at this rapid pace will not be revising up to industry standards, and are querying an agent before they should, hence the quotation marks around “ready.”)
Keep your relationship to potential writing agents positive by not flooding them with projects. The more time you give them to look over each one, the more likely you are to offer something viable and maintain your connection. When I was agenting, I had around six picture book clients who could give me 10 manuscripts each in a good year. That could easily add up to 60 books. If I sent them out to every editor that acquires children's books, that would be 480-600 books submitted in one year. That's about 10 books per week. At the time, there were around 300 editors actively acquiring picture books. And I had no interest in saturating the market, as that would send the message that I wasn't all that selective. Now consider that the average agent’s slush pile can amass tens of thousands of submissions per year. A lot of writers are pitching to a literary agent, and some pitch multiple projects.
Considerations for Pitching to a Literary Agent
I’d suggest that you focus on quality, not quantity. Remember, just as you’re pitching to a literary agent, that agent is pitching to publishers. When I was agenting, if I had a great rapport with an editor, or if we have collaborated previously on projects, or have similar tastes, I would reach out to that editor more frequently than some others. For example, five or ten projects may be sent this editor's way over the course of a year. My goal, when I was agenting, was to elicit this response when the editor saw my email: “Oh wow! I haven't heard from Mary in a while and know she only sends out the best, so I'm excited to hear about this one!”
But if I’m sending that editor an email every few days, it’s probably more of an: “Oh no, another email from Mary. What does she have for me and how quickly can I get it off my desk?” That's why agents are so selective—so that editors don't groan when their name pops up in their inbox. (And to make book deals, of course.) This should be the same standard you strive for when pitching to a literary agent as a writer. That way no one groans when you contact them a second, third, or fourth time that year.
Slow down, work carefully, revise fully, and reap the potential rewards.
For those eagle-eyed readers who are wondering just what kind of editor would write an article with the clunky phrasing of “pitching to a literary agent” over and over on her website, I applaud you for noticing that this reads awkwardly. Please note that I picked this keyword phrase on purpose, as part of my SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. If you’re curious about writer marketing techniques, check out Good Story Marketing.
Click here to purchase Successful Query Letters, my book on query letters, including over forty examples with comprehensive notes on each one. There’s a ton of submission advice, best practices, and insider information in these pages, and you’ll really enjoy seeing what other writers are doing in the slush.