- The Artists and Writers Yearbook is a must, but with my copy harking from 2013, I have discovered the internet to be just as useful.
- At first you apply to three agencies simultaneously, having heard the stories. Then five at once. Then eight at a time. When you start to fear they may all reject you, you begin to wonder how long you should wait until starting from number one again.
- Time is slow when you have queries pending, which (assuming you adopt the above) is always.
- Checking your emails seven times a day does not make time go faster.
- A request for a full manuscript will always fill you with joy.
- A rejection after a request for a full manuscript amends your expectations to ‘best case’ and ‘worst case’ scenario. The ‘worst case’ scenario is that you will receive an unaccompanied ‘no’. The ‘best case’ scenario is that you will get some usable feedback.
- The gratitude you feel when you finally do get tailored feedback is boundless. Agents are busy, we all know, which makes this feedback all the more valuable when someone does find the time to give it to you (thank you, really).
- Rejections pass like unusually-shaped clouds. At first they are something to point out, but soon they go unnoticed.
- Silence from an agent after a query is no reflection on you, but on the time they have spare to respond. Don’t take it personally.
- Despite the above, finding an agent who loves your work as much as you do is still a viable and possible dream. Worrying about what to do should two agents ask to represent you may be premature, but it is an inevitable fantasy.
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M. L. Mackworth-Praed 