Top Three Tips for Selling Your Novel Without An Agent

by guest blogger Dani Pettrey.

I know what you are thinking: You can’t get to editors without an agent. However, that’s not true. In fact, I received a publishing contract sans agent. While I do have a fabulous agent whom I’ve been with for years now, I didn’t sign with her until months after my debut novel released. I did, in complete transparency, sign with a different agent right after I received the contract offer as the idea of negotiating a contract on my own terrified me. Looking back, I can see that I rushed into it. There wasn’t anything wrong with that agent. He’s great. He just wasn’t the perfect fit for me. 

 Which is exactly why it’s important to hold out until you find the right agent. Don’t try to force a fit or settle for a mediocre agent as I’ve seen many pre-published writers do. If you sign with an agent, you want them to be a partner with you for the rest of your career and that’s certainly not a relationship you want to jump into lightly. 

While I do highly recommend finding the right agent, it’s always better to go without an agent than to sign with the wrong one. Now, does that mean you stop writing or stop pursuing publication until you find the perfect agent for you? By no means, and that’s what this article is all about: how to get published without an agent if you haven’t found the right one yet. Once you have a publishing contract, you have much more headway in garnering an agent’s attention and it puts you in a better position to, hopefully, sign with your dream agent—as in my case. 

Until then, here are my top three tips for landing a contract without an agent: 

1) Enter contests: I know many of you just cringed. Contests can be brutal, but sometimes you get excellent feedback. I entered a number of contests before selling and several of them helped me really hone my opening chapters. While this is an important part of the process, the key when approaching contests in the most beneficial way is to not fall into the ‘polish the first three chapters trap’. I know many a writer who has fallen prey of this trap. Working and reworking and polishing your first three chapters until they shine and then being able to final in contest after contest. 

This is great, but you still need to write the rest of the book. The key is that when you final, if the judging editor asks to see more, you have the entire manuscript to send him or her. I know my editor has found several authors via judging their contest entries. I also know several agents who have done the same. Go for it! Just keep writing.


2) Get involved: Join in the writing community. Editors and Agents are part of the writing community along with fellow writers. Take time to get to know your fellow writers, to learn from experienced authors, to follow agents’ blogs. Get to know the agents out there. Discern who might be a good fit for you and join in the conversation on their blog posts. Now, I’m not suggesting stalking. Really I’m not. What I’m suggesting is showing genuine interest in what is happening in the writing world, making connections, and really getting to know the community you’re entering into. 

Yes, writers get published without ever interacting, but why chose that route, even if you are an introvert. Contrary to what most people think, I’m an introvert. I love people and sharing time with them, but after a while it is draining and I need some quiet time to recharge. But I value the friendships I’ve made along the way and value the wisdom I’ve gleaned from various agents’ blogs. I am beside myself in amazement at the mentoring available to aspiring authors through individual authors and via organizations like ACFW. If you haven’t joined ACFW, you really have to. It’s full of wonderful people and amazing resources. Joining was the single best thing I did as an aspiring writer. 



3) Attend conferences: I know that conferences can be expensive -- believe me, I do. But they are so worth it if there’s any way you can make it to them. I highly recommend ACFW and I’ll tell you why in a minute. However, if you can’t make a national conference, make a regional or local one. There are a number of wonderful regional conferences out there where you have the amazing opportunity to sit down and chat with agents and editors face to face. Some that come to mind include Marlene Bagnull’s Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer’s Conference and its sister conference in Colorado, Blue Ridge Christian Writer’s Conference, as well as Oregon’s Christian Writer’s conference. The list goes on and on. Why am I such a big proponent of writing conferences? Because that’s how I met my future agent as well as my editor. God bless my editor. I finished my manuscript and felt God leading me to attend ACFW that year. It was last minute and my super supportive hubby said to go for it, so I did, but I was so late registering that I couldn’t get appointments with either the agent or editor I most wanted to speak with. 

But when God has a plan, there’s no thwarting it. My first night there my publisher participated in the Spotlight Session. The editor mentioned he was looking for what I wrote so I approached him afterwards (actually I leapt from my chair the second he finished speaking and nearly bowled the poor man over), and he was gracious enough to ask to see the first three chapters. A few weeks later I got an email from him requesting the full manuscript and a few weeks after that an email saying he was taking it to pub committee. Within two months of the conference I had a contract in my hand. It was amazing. I truly believe that if God has a plan for you and your writing, He’ll provide the opportunities. Just be open to His whisper. 

I do want to point out that this wasn’t my first conference nor my first manuscript. I’d been attending conferences for a handful of years and had written several manuscripts prior to selling so don’t get discouraged. Just keep writing, keep praying and wait for God to open the door. 


Any fellow authors out there have any other tips to offer? How did you sign with your agent or get your book contract? 

Aspiring writers and readers, I’d love to hear any questions you have about the submission process and how to prepare for conferences. I’m here all day and happy to answer questions. 

Thanks so much to all the wonderful ladies of Seekerville for hosting me! 

Blessings,

Dani

Dani Pettrey is a wife, mom, grandma, and the author of Cold Shot, the first book in the Chesapeake Valor series, and the Alaskan Courage romantic suspense series, which includes her bestselling novels Submerged, Shattered, Stranded, Silenced, and Sabotaged. Her books have been honored with the Daphne du Maurier award, two HOLT Medallions, a Christy Award nomination, two National Readers? Choice Awards, the Gail Wilson Award of Excellence, and Christian Retailing?s Best Award, among others.

She feels blessed to write inspirational romantic suspense because it incorporates so many things she loves?the thrill of adventure, nail-biting suspense, the deepening of her characters? faith, and plenty of romance. She and her husband reside in Maryland, where they enjoy time with their two daughters, a son-in-law, and a super adorable grandson.

Cold Shot

In college, Griffin McCray and his four best friends had their lives planned out. Griffin and Luke Gallagher would join the Baltimore PD. Declan Gray would head to the FBI and Parker Mitchell would go on to graduate school as a crime scene analyst. But then Luke vanished before graduation and their world--and friendships--crumbled.


Now Griffin is a park ranger at Gettysburg, having left life as a SWAT-team sniper when a case went bad. The job is mostly quiet--until the day he captures two relic hunters uncovering skeletal remains near Little Round Top. Griffin just wants the case to go away, but charming forensic anthropologist Finley Scott determines that the body is modern--a young social justice lawyer missing since spring--and all evidence points to the work of an expert sniper. When FBI agent Declan Gray takes over the case, past and present collide. Griffin soon realizes he'll need to confront some of the darkest days of his life if he--and those he cares about--are going to escape a downward spiral of murder that crosses continents.

Leave a comment today for a chance to win your own copy of Cold Shot (Chesapeake Valor) & a $10 Starbucks card. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.


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