Submission Sunday 5.28.23: What Happens Once an Agent Is Interested

What's next? What do you need to know?

Happy Sunday, writers! Thank you for subscribing. So far, we’ve discussed writing your best query letter and how to find literary agents to query. If you’re not a paid subscriber, you can sign up for a seven-day free trial below to read these posts.

Side note: If you still don’t feel like you have the perfect query letter, just a reminder that I work with writers all the time to make that process more palatable. Scroll to Writers Ready to Query Agents here. You might also be interested in taking this online class on Tuesday, May 30 with author Gabino Iglesias.

I’ll offer a one-hour workshop with a talk and resources to help you look for agents, polish your query letter, find comps, and nail your synopsis. It’ll be on Tuesday at 7pm CST. Cost is $20 and includes a query letter critique. Info/register: iglesiasworkshops@gmail.com

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So let’s imagine that you’ve sent out your query letter to your preferred agents, and one or more of them have responded with interest. This interest might take the form of a request for (more) pages, a proposal, a full manuscript, or a phone call.

Before we do anything else, let’s take a moment to celebrate this step in the very long process that is publishing a book!

Ok, now let’s get back to what comes next. What steps do you need to take? What are the most important questions to ask?