How to approach an agent
Congratulations! Your brilliant book idea is ready to pitch. Make sure you don’t fall at the last hurdle.
Keep it simple. Your cover email should include a brief description of you and your book, and then attach everything else an agent asks for in one or two word docs.
Rather than emailing to find out if an agent wants to see an attachment, send it anyway to save time.
Do your research and make sure the agency represents the category or genre of book you are writing.
Rather than a generic ‘dear sir or madam’ try to approach an individual agent, there should be information on their website, instagram or twitter to help you discover the name of an agent might be interested in your book
It’s fine to submit to more than one agency but do tailor each query to the agent or agency, and avoid copying in lots of agents.
We prefer not to receive memory sticks, hard copies of manuscripts, phone calls, gift boxes or parcels. Emails are best and we read everything.
Revise your approach if you keep receiving rejections, and do keep trying: you only need one agent to fall in love with your work!