Do Poets Need Literary Agents?
Plus Louisa on the radio, Hamlet in Reading Abbey Ruins, and another author event for Caversham Writers.
In April, Caversham Writers hosted literary agent Carolyn May McGlone in a special event at Fourbears Books. The audio recording of that Q & A with the group went out in that week’s newsletter:
What Literary Agents Are Really Looking For
What does it actually take to get your book into the hands of a publisher? Last Wednesday, Caversham Writers got some answers from Carolyn May McGlone, founder of the May Literary Agency, who joined us for our Ask the Agent evening.
One question that didn’t explicitly come up was whether literary agents are really looking for poets.
It came up this week in our Wednesday meeting, when I announced that Carolyn’s agency has now opened up for submissions. On her website submissions page, Carolyn says the following about what she’s looking for:
I’m keen to hear stories that encourage empathy and hope, which inspire and/or champion new perspectives, and which speak to your heart and soul.
But most of all, I am looking for texts that are uniquely YOU.
Show me something that no-one else could write.
She goes on to be more specific about the genres she wants submissions in:
Adult & Children’s Fiction (Picture books, Middle Grade and YA)
Adult & Children’s Non-Fiction which provokes discussion and broadens minds
Under-represented voices with new perspectives
She is also explicit about what she doesn’t want: Sci-Fi, Horror, Cookery & Crime. (There goes my murder mystery set in the kitchen of a spaceship where the killer turns out to be Dracula. I even had recipes.)
What’s not mentioned at all is poetry.
Which raises the question of whether literary agents represent poets at all, or do poets even need literary agents?
In the group discussion on Zoom this week, Curtis mentioned that in his experience there are poets he knows who have agents, but that representation happened only when they were picked up to write memoirs or essay collections. The poets were already established in the world of poetry by winning prizes or getting published in major journals.
The poet and senior editor at Writer’s Digest, Robert Lee Brewer, addressed this question in a blog post in 2015. He wrote:
For the most part, poets and literary agents do not mix. When they do, here’s what is usually happening in 99.9% of situations:
Poet has already made it. Big time. Poet Laureate, books published by one of the big NYC publishers, and so on. Or...
Poet has a novel or memoir. Or something else of value that sells. Because poetry, for the most part, does not sell well enough to keep an agent in business.
Poet is being exploited by someone who calls themselves an agent. In this case, the “agent” is representing the poet for an upfront fee (and usually fees).
All of which backs up what Curtis said.
Brewer’s post was answering a question he gets asked frequently: “I am looking for an agent to assist me with marketing a book-length manuscript of poetry.” It was about feedback or critique from a professional as much as it was about representation.
Louisa recently sent me a link to just such a service - one that lets you hire a real, vetted literary agent to critique your query letter, an entire book, or anything in between - including individual chapters and synopses. You search for agents by price, years of experience, and genre, then submit your work and pay via that agent’s own form.
The service is from the agent-finding website QueryTracker and is called qtCritique.
Poetry? The home page says you can “submit any of your writing for critique, from novels to query letters to poetry.”
There’s no information about pricing for the service, but it’s free to sign up for and get comparison quotes.
Whether it’s a service that’s worthwhile at all, I can’t say. Depending on what stage you’re at with your work in progress, you might be better served hiring an editor instead, but if you feel you are ready to submit, then getting an agent critique might be appropriate.
Member News
Louisa Guise has her own spoken word radio show starting next Wednesday! It’s on Radio Dacorum, a local community-based station serving the Hemel Hempstead area in Hertfordshire.
The pre-recorded show will clash with our Caversham Writers meetings, but Louisa will let us know where they can be listened back to. Good luck, Louisa, have fun with it.
Open Air Theatre at Reading Abbey Ruins
It’s July already, which means our friends at Progress Theatre are gearing up for their run of Hamlet starting on July 15th.
To book, visit the Progress Theatre website, where you can also read about their history of putting on open air events in Reading going back to 1994.
Ask the Author! Meet Owen B. Lewis
In September 2024, author Owen B Lewis joined us via Zoom to talk about his writing and path to publication.
We spent some time talking about his YA fantasy novel The Waterfall Warrior. The second book in the Wilcroft Chronicles series is out now, and Owen will be joining us in Fourbears Books to talk about The Wildfire Hurrier on Wednesday, August 12 · 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM BST.
You can register for this free event on our Meetup event page:
Our Last Meeting
Write Night: Your Work in Progress
Lots of progress this week, from lots of members. Curtis has until October to get the first draft of the second volume his memoir to his publisher, so is busy editing the latter chapters. Louisa wrote a press release for her radio show. Richard completed tweaks to his Hiroshima poem. Stuart carried on reworking an old manuscript of a novel based in Northern Ireland.
Amy has got back into writing her novel, inspired by her attendance of the recent Book Finishers Summit, an annual free event with over 30 online talks covering everything from first drafts to marketing a book. Moira is also back on track with her novel, and David is nearly finished his - only about 6,000 more words to go.
Next Week's Meeting
Writeshare Night - Read Your Work To The Group (online event)
Wednesday, July 8 · 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM BST
In this event members have the opportunity to read out their work to the rest of the group and get some instant feedback. You do not have to read anything out if joining this event, just listen and comment if you wish.
What to expect: We shall take turns to introduce and read out our writing (10 minutes maximum) and then have a short discussion on the piece we’ve heard. Anyone that doesn’t get a turn this time we will prioritize for the next one.
The aim is to encourage our writing by having this space to share it and getting some spontaneous responses. We ask as always that this should be constructive and positive.
This event will be online via Zoom, register to attend on Meetup to get the link:
Free To Join, Free To Attend
As you know Caversham Writers is free to join and free to attend and I want it to remain so. That doesn’t mean it is free to run, though. I organise the group meetings on Meetup.com who have seen fit to double the fees paid by group organisers over the last year.
This has led to many groups shutting down or moving platform. I like to think of Caversham Writers as a local group with a global reach and I want us to remain open to voices from all over the world. Meetup provides that global reach so I intend to stay there, but would welcome any contributions toward the costs of running the group.
So if you enjoy this free newsletter and our weekly free events, please consider helping out by buying me a coffee at the link below.
I’m not keen on sorting things into ‘genres’.
I really want to read your murder mystery set in the kitchen of a spaceship where the killer turns out to be Dracula. (with recipes.)
Thanks for the shout out! If anyone reading this is from the Hemel Hempstead area (inc. Dacorum, Tring, Watford), and wants to be featured on my new spoken word show, the form you need is here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/K2n1Q4zUvL Also, thanks for delving into the world of agents for poets, maybe we don't need them after all (but if anyone wants to represent me, shout out)!