"Six months ago, a killer began terrorizing the city by publicly executing those he felt deserved his wrath. I was able to weave together the strands of his mysterious past and learned the horrific truth about his ancestry. During my search, the killer turned his sights not just towards me, but to those I loved."
That's a bullet-point summary of novelist Jason Pinter's hardboiled work. Each book in his thriller series focuses on the adventures of Henry Parker, a lonely and brilliant journalist.
Pinter's newest novel, The Stolen, just hit bookshelves this month. To celebrate, Pinter is our special guest all week.
Today's discussion cut to the heart of the writing business, giving aspiring mystery writers a glimpse into the agent-search process that befuddles most young authors. Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
You mentioned at the reading that you sent your book to a number of agents. Would you mind explaining that process a little bit more? Any advice for writers struggling with the tricky art of agent query writing?
Jason Pinter:
I empathize with writers going through the agent search. Finding an agent can be harder than getting published. Continue reading...
When I was ready to query agents, I knew I wanted two things:
1) that the agent worked at an established agency with sales to reputable houses
2) I wanted an agent who was young enough to understand my sensibility but with a good track record as well
Since I was an editorial assistant when I began to query agents, I really didn't know who was who and certainly didn't have many contacts. A colleague recommended about half a dozen agents to me who fit the criteria I was looking for.
Two of the six responded favorably, and I met one of them for coffee and we just hit it off. Not only did he like what I'd written, worked for a respected agency and had a good client list, but he had editorial suggestions to make my book stronger. That sealed the deal for me.
Authors need to do due diligence when it comes to finding an agent. You might be tempted to sign with the first agent who expresses interest, but if they're not reputable they can irreparably harm your career. It's 100% true that it's better to have no agent than a bad agent. Use resources like publishersmarketplace.com to make sure any interested agent has sold books to reputable houses.
If they haven't, or can't/won't provide you with a client list, your submission will end up at the bottom of an editor's very large pile, and likely won't be read for months, if at all. You wouldn't hire the first employee to send you a resume, so don't put your career in the hands of the first person to say yes.
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