Self-help/Spiritual Book- agent trouble

Isa_Halley

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I'm finding it very hard to find agents that would be a good match for my book. There're so many agents out there for fiction. When it comes to self-help/spiritual genre so to say there are not many options.
It must be someone who would resonate with what I'm writing about.I spent hours looking, made a very small list but I'm not convinced.

I'm just thinking I'll just send it to everyone! Trying to decide who to send it to makes me crazy! How can I know who will be a good match now anyway? I begin to think that it's a matter of luck and fate.

I found an agent who sounds absolutely amazing and a good fit, but I can't see a steady record of recent sales- it's not good, is it?
Or What I'm learning from the agent's website sounds good, she represents my genre, but when I check out her Twitter account it turns out that she Follows Donad Trump!!!
It's a bit of a turn-off.... UPDATE: just read that this agency is a mess. Good to know.

Or maybe I should just go with my gut, and keep it simple. Maybe the agent doesn't need to be a buddha she just have to be good at selling books?


But I have to start querying. There's no point in wasting time.

So I need someone I will get on with- on the same page, with a good track of sales, spiritual yet business savvy, - I'm probably asking for the impossible combination.

Can you offer any advice? :)
 
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susangpyp

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I'm not sure what you mean by "resonate with." They either know the markets or they don't. Not every agent who reps your book is going to necessarily believe what you believe. The number of agents who rep self-help isn't that small and not all of them know a thing about self-help or what sells, even if they say they do. I had several agents tell me that the relationship field was saturated, I wouldn't sell a new book in the genre, and that my book didn't stand out. It's had an Amazon Top 10 ranking in the divorce category for over 7 years now (without falling out of a top 10 spot). So they obviously didn't have a clue. I didn't want an agent who didn't believe in my book anyway. So although comments like that can be upsetting, it doesn't necessarily mean they know what they're talking about.

I also had a recent go-round with agents (my first agent retired and I'm working on my 3rd book). One agent said she'd love to take a look at my book proposal, but I had already selected another agent. A few weeks later, the same agent said she didn't represent "that type of book" to the exact same query letter (IOW, she answered the same email twice with completely different answers weeks apart.) I forwarded her the first reply just to let her know that maybe she might want to keep track of her query responses. But what makes an agent wake up one day loving on a query and a few weeks later she hates the exact same query? Who knows.

The thing is to get the queries out there to the agents that rep self-help. Query in small batches. If you're lucky enough to get feedback, you can tweak the query for the next group you query.
 

cornflake

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Am agent doesn't need to believe the things in your self-help book to sell your self-help book.

A lot of non-fic goes direct to publishers though, so if I were you, I'd also check what publisher you might be after and whether they take submissions.

Also, you probably know, but you just used 'querying' so.... you query non-fic with a proposal, not just a query letter.
 

Isa_Halley

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I'm not sure what you mean by "resonate with." They either know the markets or they don't. Not every agent who reps your book is going to necessarily believe what you believe. The number of agents who rep self-help isn't that small and not all of them know a thing about self-help or what sells, even if they say they do. I had several agents tell me that the relationship field was saturated, I wouldn't sell a new book in the genre, and that my book didn't stand out. It's had an Amazon Top 10 ranking in the divorce category for over 7 years now (without falling out of a top 10 spot). So they obviously didn't have a clue. I didn't want an agent who didn't believe in my book anyway. So although comments like that can be upsetting, it doesn't necessarily mean they know what they're talking about.

I also had a recent go-round with agents (my first agent retired and I'm working on my 3rd book). One agent said she'd love to take a look at my book proposal, but I had already selected another agent. A few weeks later, the same agent said she didn't represent "that type of book" to the exact same query letter (IOW, she answered the same email twice with completely different answers weeks apart.) I forwarded her the first reply just to let her know that maybe she might want to keep track of her query responses. But what makes an agent wake up one day loving on a query and a few weeks later she hates the exact same query? Who knows.

The thing is to get the queries out there to the agents that rep self-help. Query in small batches. If you're lucky enough to get feedback, you can tweak the query for the next group you query.

Thanks so much for your insight Susan!!! It's much apreciated. Congrats on the great success of your book! True.... they are not experts in self-help! And I do believe that in most cases they are not.
So how are they deciding if they take on a self help book or not?
 

Isa_Halley

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Am agent doesn't need to believe the things in your self-help book to sell your self-help book.

A lot of non-fic goes direct to publishers though, so if I were you, I'd also check what publisher you might be after and whether they take submissions.

Also, you probably know, but you just used 'querying' so.... you query non-fic with a proposal, not just a query letter.

Thanks a lot Cornflake :) Well I was thinking about sending straight to publishers but after getting some intelligence I learned that an agent is able to negotiate a better contract etc and knows all legal bits which I don't.
Not necessarily, I checked many agents' websites they want a) just a query letter first then if they like the sound of it they request a proposal b) a guery + proposal and even specifically say that a guery letter is a must.
 

susangpyp

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Am agent doesn't need to believe the things in your self-help book to sell your self-help book.

A lot of non-fic goes direct to publishers though, so if I were you, I'd also check what publisher you might be after and whether they take submissions.

Also, you probably know, but you just used 'querying' so.... you query non-fic with a proposal, not just a query letter.

No, you query first and ask if they would like to see the proposal. You don't just send a proposal. Way to annoy an agent.

- - - Updated - - -

There are some publishers who will not take unagented submissions.
 

susangpyp

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A lot of agents will say "Relationships" or "Psychology" and not necessarily "Self-Help." And though some have that on their site or Agent Query or Query Tracker or Writer's Market entry, some will even say, "I have no idea why you sent this to me, I don't rep this type of book." So it's good to query and if they are interested, they will ask to see the proposal.
 

Siri Kirpal

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If you have a large platform (translation: readers/fans), then this is an easy sell by proposal. If you don't, it's much harder, unless you know someone...and even then. Both of my books, both of which are spirituality texts, I sold directly to publishers. I didn't think to query the first to agents. Found a publisher right away. The second I tried to find an agent. Ended up with enough rejections to wallpaper the Taj Mahal. I've tried querying my memoir, but only to agents so far. Lots of personalized "Gee, this sounds great, but I won't be able to sell it" rejections. Likewise lots of personalized "You're a good writer and I'm sure it'll sell, but I'm not the agent you want" rejections.

So, if you aren't well known, your best bet may be directly to publishers. Go ahead and try agents first if you like. Make sure you have a proposal. (No one grows up reading book proposals for fun, so learn the basics.)

You have my best wishes.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

DrDLN

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I thought agent is normally a requirement for fiction books because the number of submissions is so high that publisher needs agent to help sort out. I never used an agent for self-help series. But I am not suggesting that authors don't use agents.
 

DanielSTJ

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Am agent doesn't need to believe the things in your self-help book to sell your self-help book.

A lot of non-fic goes direct to publishers though, so if I were you, I'd also check what publisher you might be after and whether they take submissions.

Also, you probably know, but you just used 'querying' so.... you query non-fic with a proposal, not just a query letter.

+1.

Solid, great advice.
 

veinglory

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I sent a proposal directly when that was what the publisher specified on their website. The proposal was accepted in that case. It's all about following the instructions.