I was reading an interview with a literary agent over on Galley Cat and among her answers, one thing stood out. The agent, an independent who is just broadening her client list to take on young adult fiction, mentioned the number of manuscripts she reviews.Quite often you’ll hear a literary agent saying they are swamped by manuscripts or drowning under their slush pile, but it’s not often they attempt to put a number on what they actually look through.
Are they really drowning, or just dipping their toe into the pool?
For this agent, Kate Epstein, the founder and president of the Epstein Literary Agency, it came in at 1,000 manuscripts in a four-month period, which is 250 a month, or about 8 a day. And this was just for her YA submissions.
That’s quite a lot, especially when you factor in the many other things that an agent spends their time doing, from building relationships with publishers, to tracking trends in publishing, negotiating rights, getting to grips with contracts, checking payments and, yes, blogging and even Tweeting - these all eat up valuable time.
The following are Kate’s exact words from the Galley Cat interview: “in almost four months I've probably reviewed more than 1,000 submissions and made two offers of representation”.
So if you’ve ever wondered what your odds were on getting an agent, they are perhaps 2 in 1,000 or roughly 500:1 against. But don’t be disheartened. This needn’t be as downbeat as it might sound. The advice we give here on this website, in the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and at our events for writers is all aimed at helping you to shorten those odds.
And for every simple improvement you make to your submission and your submission strategy (I say this, as there’s the bigger picture to consider here, such as pinpointing agents who are a good match for your manuscript), you are improving your chances of gaining representation.
Keep at it and you could be transforming your lot from rank outsider to odds-on favourite.
Good luck!
Claire
(Publisher)
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Literary agent Kate Epstein Tweets advice and commentary for writers as EpsteinLiterary
Siddhartha on May 8, 2010
Good information for prospective authors. There is a huge debate right now about where the publishing industry is going right now, from small independents to self-publishing and everywhere in between.
One thing is not changing though; you need an agent. You need an agent to advise you and review documents, and to represent you in negotiations.
And if you think there are no negotiations in self-publishing, take another look.
I would quibble with your math, however. The odds are 500:1 against getting this agent, not getting an agent. Presumably many of the authors she decided against representing will find a home elsewhere.
With agents, it’s not always about good writing, it’s about finding a good fit.
Claire Fogg on May 9, 2010
Hi Siddhartha, Thank you for commenting and yes, I hold my hands up about the maths - my aim is really to give a flavour of the number of MSS that an agent might dealing with, and why that good fit you mention is so important.
Fran on May 9, 2010
Phew. Glad about Siddhartha's comment. I was dead depressed.
Kate on May 10, 2010
There was a particularly high influx of submissions in that period, I think, as well--around mid-March they slowed again, though being on GalleyCat is overwhelming me again! (In a good way.)
There may have been a subset of manuscripts in that (approximately) 1000 that had been submitted to every agent in the book. I'm guessing of course.
Another thing to bear in mind is that if I didn't have a thriving nonfiction side, I might be eager to have more fiction than I am. It's cute to say, I fall in love, and make an offer, but at the same time agents expect to edit, so it's not all gut.
Finally, if you rock, that ups your odds; one of those offers was made to someone who got a second offer of representation. Lightning struck her twice. (She signed with the other agent.)
Claire Fogg on May 10, 2010
Hi Kate - thank you for stopping by and adding the above - all very interesting and fantastic news for writers who rock!
(Oh, and I think you must be right about the subset which goes to every agent. We certainly hear from readers of the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook that they work their way steadily through the agents section.)