Literary Agents & Querying
Targeting agents, writing queries, and tracking submissions.
Chapter i·What this topic covers
Querying rewards three things: a finished manuscript, a target list of agents who actively represent your subgenre, and a personalized query that proves you have done your homework. Agents are inundated; specificity wins. A typical successful querying round is six to eight weeks of preparation followed by twelve to twenty-four months of submissions in batches of eight to ten agents at a time.
What you’ll find here
- How to build an agent target list from QueryTracker, MSWL, and recent deal data.
- Query letter anatomy: hook, mini-synopsis, bio, comps, housekeeping.
- Synopsis writing for adult, MG, and YA: one page versus three pages.
- Tracking responses, handling offers of representation, and rejecting offers cleanly.
Who this is for
Traditionally-publishing-bound novelists and serious nonfiction authors.
Chapter —·Articles
How to find a literary agent for your book: an honest field guide
A step-by-step field guide to finding an agent who actually represents your kind of book.
Read article ArticleHow to use AI to pitch a book to agents
Finding agents, building comps, drafting the query and synopsis, tracking submissions — without sounding like a machine.
Read articleWriteLoom's Pitch studio drafts the query letter, builds the synopsis, and tracks the submission round in one place, so every agent on your list gets a tailored package without copy-paste between tools.
See the Pitch studio