Elizabeth Wales (literary agent)with E.C. Murray

What’s the next step after someone sends you a query?

Queries arrive either on-line or through snail mail.  If one seems promising, I generally confer with Neal, my assistant.  I will ask for a complete manuscript if it’s fiction or if it’s non-fiction, two or three chapters.  

How do you find authors?

In addition to queries, I find authors through other reading.  For instance, I read Kirsten Grind’s articles in the Puget Sound Business Review about the collapse of Washington Mutual. It was the largest bank failure in America’s history and yet, received rather scant attention given its importance.  I met with her, asked her if she’d be interested in writing a book on Washington Mutual.  She has since become a cited Finalist by the Pulitzer Prize Committee as one of the top four journalists in her category (explanatory journalism) in the country by a jury of her peers, which is an enormous achievement.

I may read something on-line or in print and approach an author.  Therefore, it’s helpful for writers to be visible.

Delete[I recently read an article in another newspaper and again, asked if she’d like to meet for coffee and discuss the possibility of writing a book.  We are working together now.]

If someone sends a query and doesn’t hear back, what do you recommend they do?

We do our best to get back to people.  We get 50 e-mail queries a day plus snail mail. If someone encloses a self-addressed envelop, they’ll receive a form letter from us thanking them for the query. 

On occasion, our e-mail filters grab queries as “junk”, but this is rare. We try to get back to writers with a timely “no, thank you” if the piece won’t be a good fit for us.

Resending a query you haven’t heard back on is always fine – we may not have seen it.

What if the writer receives a “no, thank you?”

Then, they should give up on us.  The piece is not a good match; we may be just too busy; the work just didn’t capture us – any number of reasons.  Don’t take it too hard.  It just means we can’t help you; it doesn’t mean anything more.  Another agent may see things differently, not be quite so busy at the moment your query comes in and so on. We don’t give reviews of submissions or queries.

What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

1.) Find someone to read, review and offer criticism of your work.  Writers should be looking for good feedback. Develop a core group of supporters. Delete [to review about what’s working until they have an official editor.]

2.) Be sure your work is as good as you can possibly get it before you mail it.

3.) Be visible as a writer! 

4.) Find your genre or books similar to yours in the bookstore.  Read the books and notice the acknowledgements.  See which agents represent these authors and contact them.  Then, when you mail your query, you can tell the agent how you selected him or her.

Thank you, Elizabeth.  I would like to refer our readers to your website which contains additional questions and answers, as well as a list of author and books represented by Wales Literary Agency. www.waleslit.com