How Do We Find New Clients?

At Books & Such Literary Management it is important for us to find authors who have saleable projects. No agency is ever closed to new clients. Some of our clients stop writing, some stop selling, and sometimes the market is looking for something new— fresh takes on nonfiction or new genres for fiction. We’re always looking.

But the question we’re often asked is, how do we find new clients.

Queries: Our agency has requested many a proposal and manuscript and signed many a client from a well-written query. Our instructions for querying us can be found on our website.

Client Recommendations: One way to skip the query process is if one of your friends is a Books & Such client and they recommend that we take a look at your work. The tricky thing about this is that the client needs to know your work and sense that you would be a good fit for us and we would be a fit for you.

Editor Recommendations: Every once in a while, one of our favorite editors will call us up to tell us they discovered a promising writer who is not represented. They ask us to take a look. Most editors prefer working with agented authors because we can handle the tricky things that may arise.

Conferences:  We all know that conferences can be a great place to get noticed by agents and editors. All our agents have eventually signed authors we first met at a conference.

But when that doesn’t work. . .

This year we decided to set up the kind of non-conference that would work for us. Instead of the typical ten-minute meet & greet with agent/author appointments at conferences, we asked ourselves, what if we took a handful of pre-vetted writers and spent three full days with them? Could we identify authors who are almost ready for publication and help them polish their queries, proposals, and books? We knew that many writersoffered writing classes, but perhaps meeting with seven experienced agents would offer something valuable and different from other such classes.

Our Books & Such Writers Intensive was born out of that need.

We knew we couldn’t take time away from clients— our first responsibility— so we decided that we would each set aside non-agency time to mentor a small group and teach. Since in-person conferences take us away from our desks for almost a week including travel, we decided to do an online intensive. Three solid days of mentoring, round tables, brainstorming groups—all centered not on generalizations but on each writer’s work-in-progress–and a bit of teaching. It felt doable.

Our first Intensive happened last month and it was a huge success.

Our attendees sent their writing and applications in advance so that we could choose those we sensed were close to publication. We knew we needed to keep it small since each writer would receive three hours of intensive mentoring with an agent. And we wanted to allow them to get to know the other agents and other attendees as well. We guessed a dozen or so writers would be about right. We ended up squeezing a couple more in because we were intrigued with their writing.

For us it was perfect.

Feedback from the attendees has been over the top as well. They loved spending three days with agents, learning about the industry and working on their own careers. We stressed that they needed to set the time aside for those three days, just as we were doing. One writer’s husband insisted she get a hotel room so she could focus on writing away from the family. Sweet!

It was challenging for us in that we had writers from all US time zones, including Alaska and Hawaii another one from down under and one from Asia. Some of us had to get up at the crack of dawn and others worked late into the evening (so did the writers in far-off places), but it all worked out. With time to get to know each attendee, we could see the real possibilities that we might well have missed at a writers conference. Plus we made more than a dozen new friends.

You might ask if we found any clients. Yes indeed, and we’re waiting for others to work on the things they discovered about their books. (Several of the writers discovered they needed to redirect their projects in significant ways; so it’s not like a guarantee that representation will naturally follow being accepted into the Intensive.) But it was a win-win. The attendees were not obligated to us; some may decide on other agencies, and that is all right too.

Here are a few quotes from attendees:

I often struggle to feel comfortable around agents and editors, but I can honestly say I felt right at home with you this week. I walked away with more confidence and clarity going forward. I already knew Books & Such was a highly respected and upright agency, but meeting you all in person gave me an even deeper respect and appreciation. I know it wasn’t easy, but I really appreciate the time and care you put into this Writing Intensive. I’ve been telling friends and even mentioned it on my podcast. I hope you will offer this again. I wish I had had something like this sooner.- SS

I was impressed with how much we got through. I had time to ask all my questions and then some. Rachel was attentive, professional, and encouraging. Her perceptions and insights into what I had written helped me see what was actually making it onto the page, and how to better bring the heart of the story into the summaries. This process also helps me understand my story itself better.- RG

Connecting one-on-one with Cynthia was the most helpful part of the three-day adventure for me. Being able to ask and receive answers specific to my project was SO helpful. Having time to talk through concepts and intentions was invaluable.- SHS

Could this be for you?

If this kind of non-conference sounds like it may be up your alley, we’ve scheduled another one for February. Information is on our website.

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