How I Got My Agent
I know it’s a cliché, but I’ve loved writing ever since I was a child.
I used to spend days and days coming up with new story ideas, from blobby aliens forced to take part in a set of Triwizard Tournament-style trials in order to escape Earth, to mystical adventures in the woods with a talking owl, to vampires, magic and some early examples of the romantasy genre I’ve grown to love so much. I even collaborated with my friends to write a full-length script adaptation of Cinderella for my school pantomime! In short, writing was my hobby, my sanctuary—and a long-coveted career goal.
That all changed, however, when I turned 18. Disillusioned by education after so many long years, I finished sixth form with two A-levels and the realisation that I didn’t have the grades to study creative writing at university. This, in my mind, meant I’d never become a professional author—and so I quit fiction writing, went to art university to study photography, and spent the next three years trying to marry my two interests, eventually landing on photojournalism as a possible career path.
But therein lay another issue: I didn’t have a journalism degree; I had a photography degree. Nobody was going to give me even an entry-level position without experience and credentials. So I did what any plucky 21-year-old graduate would do, and launched my own magazine, Parallel, on which I worked (alongside a team of 20+ volunteers) as an editor, writer, and photographer. The magazine ran for three years, with readers all over the world, before the money ran dry. However, my experience led to a copywriter job, which led to a photojournalist job at my local newspaper, which led to an editorial assistant job… which led to me realising that, actually, I didn’t want to pursue journalism after all.
Cue another two years of trying to figure out what on earth I wanted to do with my life, working in marketing and advertising while running a wedding photography business on the side.
Then, one day, I saw that one of the writers from Parallel had been shortlisted for a coveted creative writing prize. A little while later, she had a literary agent, and then a book deal! Fascinated and awed by her journey, my interest in creative writing was rekindled—albeit hesitantly. It had been years since I’d written fiction, and I’d never had much success in actually finishing any of the books I started writing.
So I dusted off the old craft books my mum had bought me so long ago, started researching and planning and plotting—and attempted to write my first book.
It took me 1.5 years to finish that first book, a contemporary police procedural thriller set in Cornwall featuring Mallory, a photographer, as she helps a local detective solve the murder of a bridesmaid at one of the weddings she photographed. And it was… not bad. Not good, either, but not terrible. The writing was a little clunky, and the plot was a little dull, but it was passable as a mediocre first attempt.
Yet despite its mediocrity, I, of course, attempted to query it.
I sent it out to 10 agents, all in the UK. And when I didn’t hear back from anyone within a week, I decided it must be terrible, and shelved the project—and moved onto the next.
And book number two? That was something special.
I wanted to try my hand at a genre I had always loved both reading and writing: fantasy. The story follows Rowan, a human girl who falls in love with a faerie and crosses the veil into his realm—only to descend into paranoia as she discovers that although faeries are incapable of lying, they’re experts at keeping secrets. And as soon as I got started, the words just flew. I wrote 99,000 words in the space of two months, spent a few days refining and revising, and immediately began querying. This time, I sent my query out to both UK and US agents. And, to my surprise, there was actually some interest! I received my first full request within two weeks, and another just a day later. But as the weeks turned into months, and queries and full requests turned into rejections, many of them citing the oversaturated fae romantasy market, I started to lose my confidence.
Never one to give up, however, I decided to distract myself from the woes of querying by writing yet another book. I took on board all of the feedback I’d had from agents thus far, and revisited the faerie book to see what needed improving. The main thing I noticed was that my world-building was lacking substance, so I went into the next book with a challenge to improve on my world-building skills. More than anything, though, I wanted to write the type of book that I loved to read: one with a big ensemble cast of characters, a huge world with politics and conflict, a romance arc, betrayals, twists and turns. Immediately, I fell in love with it. The characters were amazing, the plot was both quiet and epic, and the world was so much fun to create.
So I stopped sending out new queries for my previous manuscript, and focused on finishing the new one. In the end, I queried 75 agents (13 in the UK, the remainder in the US & Canada) on my second attempt, and had 69 rejections, 6 full requests, 5 full rejections and 1 R&R over a period of 5-6 months.
But onto book number three, which follows an assassin, the soldier she’s trying to kill, and the circus fortune teller helping both of them… without the other knowing.
By this point, I had joined Twitter/X, and was posting frequent updates on my progress, snippets, and partaking in pitch events. And the interest in this book, TS&TS, was overwhelming from the get-go. People – writers, readers and agents alike – were responding incredibly positively to my pitches and my snippets, folk were supporting me and encouraging me to finish, and I was so excited by the potential this book had—and itching to get querying!
But instead of rushing into it like I had with the previous manuscript, where I hadn’t waited for feedback, sent it to betas or even, really, given it room to breathe… I took my time. I wrote 108,000 words in three months, then spent another couple of weeks getting feedback on my opening chapters, and finding people willing to beta read the finished book.
After tinkering with my opening chapters for what felt like the hundredth time and two rounds of edits (one based on my own reread, another based on the feedback of my five beta readers), I was finally ready to query. I posted an ‘Agents Guide To…’ pitch deck on my Twitter, with a message to agents to keep an eye on their querying inboxes, or let me know if they were interested in reading more.
To my shock, agents actually responded. Some commented directly on the post, asking me to submit to them; others privately messaged me. I quickly went about sending my query to them, along with any agents who’d liked my posts during previous pitch events, as well as a handful of agents who hadn’t directly contacted me but who were on my list as dream agents.
I got my first full request within three days. Then another, and another. Within the first five days, I had six fulls out. Six days, eight fulls. Eight days, 13 fulls.
It was absolutely wild.
At this point, I threw the idea of batch querying out of the window, and sent out every single outstanding query.
After two weeks, I received my first email asking to set up a call.
Four days later, I received another.
And to my delight, both calls were offers of representation.
In the end, I signed with someone who had been a dream agent ever since I started querying: Ciara Finan, of Curtis Brown literary agency. The moment we started chatting on our call, I knew she was the one. Not only was she incredibly passionate about my book, but her editorial vision was completely aligned with mine. Working with her to turn my book into something truly amazing has been so exciting, and I can’t wait to see where this journey goes, not only with TS&TS but with future projects too.
And for those who love stats, I sent 51 queries in my third and final querying journey, which resulted in 24 query rejections, 21 full requests, 6 no responses, and 2 offers of representation over a period of 1 month and 23 days.
So, that’s my querying journey! I started out absolutely clueless, and ended up with the agent of my dreams. But I couldn’t have achieved it without the support of the writing community and the friends I’ve made on Twitter/X, and the amazing Discord writing group I’m a member of. And I certainly couldn’t have achieved it if I’d given up after the first or second book—and that’s my main piece of advice. KEEP GOING! Keep writing, keep creating new work, keep improving your craft. You will never bloom if you allow yourself to stagnate.
Thank you for reading!