I often get asked how I got my book deal.  My answer is: Not easily! It took me four years to complete the book that eventually became THE COMPANY YOU KEEP.  After I was finished writing the book, it didn't take me long to find an agent with a prominent literary agency in New York. I thought I had it made. After I signed with my agent, I would would jump every time the phone rang. I assumed it would be my agent telling me she had gotten a six-figure offer for my masterpiece.  Sadly, that call never came.  Aside from interest from one publisher, who never would give us a yes or no answer, my book was turned down by every publisher my agent submitted it to. The reasons varied from not enough suspense to dislike of my main character Kendra Clayton. Needless to say , I was extremely disappointed.

After I'd been with my agent for about a year, many of the new African-American imprints: Harlem Moon, Striver's Row, Dafina, and Sepia started accepting submissions. To say I was excited about these new imprints would be an huge understatement. I just knew my baby could find a home with one of these new imprints. I contacted my agent and asked her if she'd submit to the new imprints. Her answer: "No." "Why not?" I asked. Her answer: "Oh, they probably won't doing any mysteries. Look, I've submitted to every place I can think of. You need to decide if you want to work on a new book or get a new agent. Just let me know."  It suddenly hit me that this woman was not interested in my career or seeing me published. She was interested in the sale and her commission. When my book didn't sell right away, she simply lost interest, which should have been apparent to me by the way she only answered my questions after I emailed her several times and sometimes not even then.  I'd been getting major bad vibes about her for months but figured having a disinterested agent was better than having no agent at all.  After she refused to submit to the new imprints, I cut her loose with a very nice email, that she never responded to, followed up by a letter, also not responded to.  Lesson learned:  A disinterested and unmotivated agent is worse than having no agent at all!

After I parted ways with my agent, I decided to self-publish. I quickly found out that I didn't have the personality, drive, and most importantly, money to be a successful self-publisher.  And after I discovered the numerous typos and grammatical errors in the self-pubbed version of THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, which was published under the title THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY, I was so embarrassed I stopped promoting it.  It was an expensive lesson learned.  A year after I self-published, I decided to give getting pick up by a traditional publisher one last shot.  I was having no luck at all finding a new agent to represent me. So, I decided to approach some publishers directly. The summer of 2003, I submitted the first three chapters of THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY to several editors that excepted unagented submissions. One of them was Glenda Howard at BET Books.  Months later, a week before Christmas of that year, Glenda contacted me at work and told me she'd finally gotten a chance to read my chapters on the subway ride home the night before. She really liked what she'd read and wanted me to Fed Ex her the rest of the book. I sent her the manuscript and tried very very hard not to get my hopes up. Three weeks later, I FINALLY got the call I'd been waiting YEARS for. I was offered a three book deal! Even though, I had gotten a book deal all on my own without the help of an agent, I decided to get an agent to negotiate the deal since I had no idea what I was doing. A writer aquaintance of mine recommended me to her agent, Richard Curtis. I signed with Richard and have had no complaints whatsoever. 

So what is the moral of this long ass story besides believe in yourself, never give up, blah blah blah blah blah? The moral is: Agents are great to have BUT having one doesn't guarantee that you'll get a book deal. There are many publishers who accept unagented submissions.  Here are some listed below! Just click the links and you'll be taken to the submission guidelines of each publisher.  PS: Please follow the guidelines. Don't send your whole manuscript if the guidelines specify only sending the first three chapters or only a query letter.  Also, most publishers are inundated with submissions.  Be prepared to wait several weeks to several months before getting a response. Oh yeah, and don't give up and believe in yourself!

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH ANY OF THESE LINKS, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT angela@angelahenry.com AND I'LL SEND YOU THE CORRECT LINK.



BET Books-Publishers of Arabesque, Sepia and New Spirit.

Dorchester Publishing-Recently started a new line of African-American romance novels. But also publishes mysteries, westerns, and sci fi. Click here for general guidelines.

Hard Case Crime-Publishes crime novels.

Harlequin-Romance publisher with numerous imprints.

Silhouette Bombshell-Division of Harleqin publishes novels featuring a strong, sexy, savvy heroine who finds herself in high-stakes, precarious situations.

SoHo Press-publishes a wide range of literary fiction.

Tor Books- Will be launching a trade paperback chick lit line and is seeking submissions. Guidelines are in PDF form.


Happy hunting!

Hi Angela,

Thanks so much for sharing your story. I'm currently on the agent hunt. Its no fun.

LaShaunda

LaShaunda,

I know exactly how you feel. When I was looking for an agent I must have gotten a zillion no's and some of them weren't very nice. Many of them never even bothered to reply. One agent I queried asked me to send her my manuscript. I got a response from her two years later AFTER I already sold my book. One agent from LA saw my listing on Publishers Marketplace and called me to personally request a copy of my manuscript. He kept me waiting for months then told me he wasn't interested. I could go on and on. LOL! We must be crazy to put ourselves through this trauma.

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