Why do most literary agencies keep submissions open all year?

[SarahC]

I got my first rejection back from a few submissions I made. The agency stated in their form rejection that they receive over 300 submissions per week (!!) and only take on a few clients a year (!!!). I had to go back and check that I'd read that correctly. That is 15,600 submissions per year. To take on "a handful" (whatever that means - 10, 20, fewer?) of clients. I imagine if that is the case for this agency, it is also the case for many others.

Why in their right minds would agencies want to wade through 15k submissions every year just to take on a couple of clients? Think of the amount of time and work that involves. Which got me wondering why so many agencies keep their submissions inbox open all year? Why would they want that amount of queries?

I also can't imagine they spent more than about 20 seconds looking at my submissions package - no shade, but how would they have time to do anything else if they spent any more time on it than that?

The process seems...flawed...to say the least.

I have to say, I've started tentatively researching self-publishing, although it does seem to favour writers who can write fast and produce lots of books, preferably involving quite niche erotica (Know of someone who does very well for herself writing "bully romance")

 

[RK Wallis]

Sorry about the rejection

Those odds sound right. I've also seen the odds expressed as 98 or 99% of writers won't get published.

IMHO several reasons could drive agents - they love books, they're keen to find the next JK Rowling, they love the excitement of gambling, they want their next paycheck and the boss told them to get this job done before they go home - and probably many more. So we may only have 20 secs to grab their attention.

Done the right way (subject to your circumstances), self-publishing is def a valid choice.

 

[Jake E]

Sorry about the rejection

Those odds sound right. I've also seen the odds expressed as 98 or 99% of writers won't get published.

IMHO several reasons could drive agents - they love books, they're keen to find the next JK Rowling, they love the excitement of gambling, they want their next paycheck and the boss told them to get this job done before they go home - and probably many more. So we may only have 20 secs to grab their attention.

Done the right way (subject to your circumstances), self-publishing is def a valid choice.

I feel for agents. I really do.
I imagine the vast majority of what they receive is utter garbage. It must be soul destroying to have to wade through piles of bad prose, awful concepts, and cliché to maybe find something that could be polished up to sell... Maybe.

 

[CageSage]

Once upon a time, when I read a slush pile for a small (very small) publisher, he gave me 100 mss to assess every weekend. I got $10 for each filled out proforma attachment. What he took home each weekend was about 200, but there was always another pile waiting ...

A story can be dismissed after the first paragraph, and he had strict rules for what to NOT pass onto him as worth reading. Very strict.
One spelling mistake, one comma in the wrong place, wrong formatting, etc. A long list of what knocked them off the list, things he hated, like opening a story with a character's name (he called it lazy writing - everyone has their pet hates), or using different fonts or colours, or having sticky notes to explain things. He was also not fond of prologues and pulled them from the sub before it got sent to me (if it didn't go in the bin first - which most of them did because they read like explanations of the world the reader needed to know in order to understand the story, or the ubiquitous 'this is where it started' letter/soliloquy, etc.).
And only one to consider putting up for consideration. I'll paraphrase because it was a long time ago (1990s): If you forget you're reading and get to the end and want to dig around for the rest of the pages (I only got the first 5/10 pages of each one), put it on the 'good' list. There weren't many.
I think it's more common now for editors/publishers to read their own slush pile - but I'm sure the personal likes/dislikes get the same dissing/tossing treatment just as fast.

Not all 'earning' authors are romance or erotica. Some of the best money is for other genres. Andy Weir is an example. It's not romance. The second highest earner (eBooks and print) is MTS (Mystery, Thriller, Suspense), followed by SFF (Science Fiction & Fantasy). There are many, many authors earning six figures (and many earning nothing at all - it's a long tail).
And there are a lot of subgenres under these big umbrellas, but it also needs to be said that a lot of books have been ousted from top 100 slots since 'zon changed some rules to stop the main titles taking up every category/genre slot (done late last year). This will be a good thing when it settles down (anyone remember how many 'genre' categories Harry Potter books took top slot in last June? Double figures). Which means, in a few months the clarity of top 100 lists will become less muddy. Good stories will do better than they were and become more visible, and great stories will always shine.

And remember, the whale readers of romance don't usually read outside romance, so you're not missing out on a potential reader if your book isn't romance, and if it is, you need to keep up with the market there (it's a monster in every respect, breaking as many writers as it enriches) - especially the recent changes.

 

[E G Logan]

It must be soul destroying to have to wade through

Long time ago I had a job where part of it was to read unsolicited manuscripts. These were short stories and I reckoned I used to 'process' around 600 a week.

When I first started I was determined to give everyone a sporting chance, so I ploughed on, reading till the end – and finished up working evenings and weekends. Remember this was only part of the job.

Eventually the clear light of self-preservation dawned, and I finally accepted that, with the best will in the world, not all unsolicited manuscripts deserve to be read in their entirety. Some not much beyond the first two or three paragraphs.

I do NOT believe agents when they say they get huge numbers a week and they imply that they read all of every one. They couldn't, and they don't.

 

[SarahC]

I just couldn't believe the numbers, and it made me wonder why they don't just have specified submission windows so they aren't inundated and can spend more time considering. It must be an absolute grind wading through so many.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Agenting is sales work. Step one is to find a salable product. Takes a lot of work. What if the bestseller you want finds your window closed? Too risky. Keep the window open, and keep looking. If I were a clever agent, I would create an online group so writers could vet each other's stories and submit the best for my review, then I could sell their works to publishers. Maybe even invite an innovative publisher to participate. Happy ending for the agent, the author, the publishers, and the reading public. Or maybe someone already had that idea... call it Litopia.

 

[PCFrontier]

Hi SarahC,
Good luck with those submissions.

As agent Pete teaches, the first 700 words are crucial. I doubt literary agents go past the 700 if they do not see commercial potential.

The good thing is literary agents work in the private sector. Literary agents have to find new best selling writers to generate money otherwise they risk losing their jobs. That's the hope for all aspiring writers, despite the bad odds.