Manuscript Wishlist
Before we jump into how to query, let’s talk about finding the right agent and where to look for one.
Yes, there are tons of websites out there that say they have the surefire way to find the right agent, but one size does NOT fit all in this situation. An agent is going to be the one who shops your book around to publishing houses, gets the deals started, and generally is a cheerleader for your book. You need to make sure you’re querying the absolute best people for that job. This is the #1 reason I loathe cold querying. It isn’t helpful and very rarely gives you a good idea of your marketability. Sure, the agent you query could have a stellar reputation, amazing clients, and be representing your exact genre, but if they aren’t looking for new manuscripts, you’re gonna come up empty every single time.
This is where Manuscript Wishlist comes in.
It’s a website dedicated to helping authors find agents that are looking for them. I’m honestly a little shocked to see how many authors do not know this even exists. Now, before I go any further, please do not go on there and see what people are looking for and try to write those things. Writing to market is a terrible idea. I promise. It shifts too quickly. By the time you’re finished and have something worthy of querying, more than likely the market has moved on completely and it’s flooded again. Seriously, do not do this!
But I digress.
MSWL is an amazing tool for writers that are ready to query. You go on there, click on ‘Find Agents & Editors’ and you’ll see a list of agents currently looking for manuscripts. You can even narrow it down by genre.
When you click on their names, you’ll find something that looks like this:
It lists that she’s an agent right under her picture, the types of genres she’s interested in (ps. there are more, but I just clipped this section out so you could see what I was talking about), and then a link to her submission guidelines. Oh, and you can favorite the ones you like to go back and check out later.
Most agent profiles look like this and underneath the genres, a lot of the time anyway, it’ll say things like “I’m looking for the next To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” or whatever the case may be. They give you comp titles right on the page!
I could seriously gush about this website forever, but I won’t. This is already pretty long, but one more thing before I sign off.
They also have a new section that allows you to purchase consultations with some of the agents to get personalized feedback. I haven’t tried this feature just yet, but I do plan to check it out and report back when I have some time. Their main page will have events and info, so it’s definitely worth bookmarking!
Overall Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars
