Agent Interview: Paula Weiman

Striking narrative voices

Sharon Creech, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, William Goldman, Aimee Bender, Kristin Cashore, Brenna Yovanoff, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Catherynne M. Valente, Lemony Snicket, and Shaun Tan were all formative authors when I was developing my taste. Some more recent favorite authors include Helen Oyeyemi, Kacen Callender, A.M. McLemore, Naomi Novik, Tamsyn Muir, Courtney Summers, and Nghi Vo.

Every agent brings a unique perspective and sales strategy to the projects they work on. My approach is very international both because of my background in literary scouting for translation and because I'm a New York-based agent working with a London-based agency.

Make sure that you've revised your work to the fullest extent you can before you query. I see a lot of interesting concepts that I have to turn down because the execution isn't quite polished. Your query material isn't just an opportunity to share the one book; it's also an opportunity to demonstrate that you have the skill to revise, as well as the confidence (and patience) to let the draft speak for itself without further revision when you've determined that it's ready.

The ideal query letter lists your title, genre, length, comps, and a one-sentence pitch at the very beginning. This is followed by a one- or two-paragraph summary that establishes setting, character, stakes, and most of the plot. Ideally the summary will be written in an engaging narrative voice that's similar to the writing style in the sample, and the query letter will end with a brief bio that shares an interesting detail about the author that's not necessarily about their writing, but I don't hold it against authors when they don't include those elements.

I often see writers mislabel the genre of their query in order to submit a project for consideration in a category I don't represent. I understand the urge to tweak the label so that you can get your query material in front of a larger number of agents, but it's not very effective. I can tell from the summary or writing sample when a genre label is incorrect and if my inbox is closed to a specific category, it does mean that I'll pass even if the concept sounds interesting. Likewise, if I don't typically represent a given genre, that's because I don't have the background to effectively represent that kind of project or relationships with editors who acquire those types of books, and calling it a different genre won't change my ability to sell the book.

I don't need to know a huge amount. I like to know a sentence or two about someone's life outside of writing and if they have a personal connection to the story they've chosen to write. If someone has previously published a novel, that's great to know, but I'm not usually concerned with whether or not a writer has prior publication credits.

I schedule a call with the author to discuss their project, ensure our visions for the book align, and get a sense of whether we'd be a good long-term professional match. I then offer representation and give them some time to consider my offer (two weeks is standard), during which I'm available for any questions they have. After they accept my offer, we sign an agency agreement, onboard them with the agency, and begin preparing their book for submission to editors.

It shifts day-to-day. I always start by checking my inbox to see if there are any updates on client projects that require action from me. From there, it's a mix of following up on outstanding submissions, meeting with editors, creating pitches and planning submission strategies, project management for books that are under contract, and whatever else comes up on a given day.