I just finished my crime thriller novel’s latest editing round, and I’m almost ready to send it out to literary agents. But before getting into all those submissions, I contacted an agent from New York and booked a fifteen-minute consultancy call that included her analysis of the first ten pages of my manuscript.

I was psyched about an agent evaluating my work because I sent the manuscript to two other writers/workshops intructors/editors beforehand and they all had good things to say about the story and the characters. So, I was optimistic even tough the novel still required some developmental editing and fixes that my beta readers suggested.

I had some experience working with agents but never about my work. As an acquisition editor for a small indie publisher in the US, I once worked with an agent for a renowned author in the horror arena but never in the crime thriller sector. And I never had an agent evaluating my work before, either.

The dynamic with the agent was very similar to my previous experience with editors and publishers. Agents, aquisition editors and publishers are looking for books telling great stories, an aunthentic voice, and solid characters with relationships within the context of the story. But above all your writing has to entertain. This is why I believe story trumps everything else. I think the events in your story or how the plot unfolds creates an entertaining or boring experience for the readers. There other things that draw you in when reading.

I’m thinking about things like quirky characters, subcultures, voice, prose style, twists, etc. I guess you can see it that way too. All of those things I just mentioned make up your story. They create the entertaining experience your readers crave when they buy a book in your genre. But story still trumps everything else. By story I mean the events(the things that happen to your protagonist), the impossible situation your put your character into, and in crime fiction, the criminal event or conspiracy. I guess it all comes down to finding a solid grip on the story you want to tell and knowing what the readers in your genre expect of a book like yours.

Okay, back to agenting. So basically, the process is simple. An agent will read your manuscript and pick up on the good, the bad and whatever else the book is lacking or needs. Agents, like publishers, need to sell books. They are a part of the chain of book publishing, so they have to be aware of what publishers are looking for and what has potential to sell books and at the same time keep an eye on the genres they work with and possibly any trends as well.

For writers to pique an agent’s curiosity you have to consider those things when writing/drafting and especially when preseting your book to them. For example, I went into the meeting without a pitch. And it was the first thing the agent asked me about. What’s your pitch for this book? I had to come up with a two sentence pitch on the fly, and I did well thank God I didn’t freeze. She was into my concept/pitch and understood what my novel was about. I was either lucky or I’ve been working this manuscript for so long it’s become easier to improvise and show the core of the novel to people.

The literary agent read my query letter and my novel’s first ten pages, and then we met online on a Zoom call. She was very polite, understanding, and professional. She was always to the point and gave me some insights and fixes I’ve already applied to my manuscript. And I must admit it’s much better now than before.

The agent pointed out that the first ten pages needed more context, backstory, and relationship dynamics. I fixed it to show more moments of the relationship between the protagonist and the main characters in the story right away, providing a backstory that I had included in the second chapter and that I moved to the opening. As the protagonist takes on an investigation, I also added more time to analyze the crime scene further and create scenarios in his mind about what had happened. This added a total of 1,500 words, totaling 105,000 words and 400 double-spaced manuscript pages.

On the plus side, she mentioned that the writing was excellent and professional, was filled with mystery and intrigue, and raised many questions in her mind. And because some of these questions weren’t answered in the story with the context(and the other fixes I told you about) that she required, she chose to pass on it.

That wasn’t a bad thing. Like I told you I’m optimistic. I know how hard is to get an agent’s attention these days, but my novel getting reviewed by an expert who evaluates and promotes books was an step forward. Now I feel my novel has a good chance of getting some attention from other genre-specific agents and publishers. But who knows what will be? I still have to do some market research to find a good fit for my book.

My next step is to send this new version to my beta reader and discuss the changes with him so I can finalize the last edits, do some research and finally start submitting it to agents.

I’ll keep you posted.