This was excellent advice. To the point. Pragmatic and reality based. On TH-cam, there are too many smoke blowers soothing the egos of failing narcissists. Thanks for telling the truth
Indeed! For up-and-coming or independent writers hoping to make a name for themselves in the US publishing industry, the road might be intimidating, particularly given the fierce competition for publishing deals. Because they can efficiently sell your work to respectable publishing organizations, obtaining a book agent can be a wise choice.
LOVED this. It feels great to feel confident in terms of "next steps." Navigating this for the first time is daunting, but this is fantastic support. Thank you.
So happy to help. We're glad the content was helpful and hope it inspires you to keep going even though it truly is a daunting task! There is much to be proud of in the process. Keep going!
I love your video and explanation of how much it is needed for writers to get behind their work so much that we reel people in through social media. I have an X account but no newsletter or email list. I understand we need to look at the whole process as if it is a job and build an email list of contacts… not sure what angle to use… does your book cover that? A way to pander (which is what it is) to people to build a list? This is all very new to me (as I know I’m not the only one). Thank you for sharing these valuable videos.
Thanks for your comment! Yes, Kelly's book goes in-depth into platform building. You can also find some information in this blog post to help you get started: knliterary.com/2019/05/20/building-your-author-platform/
Hello Kelly, thank you so much for taking the time to break this all down for us. I can only imagine how many people you have helped fulfill their dreams. For me personally you have certainly issued a reality check and expanded my time horizon. Let the work resume.
I love this, Kelly! I'm a freelance editor and thought I already knew a good deal about finding an agent. But you have some fabulous ideas in this video that I never would have thought of, like looking in the acknowledgments of similar books in your genre to learn who the agent was. I'm going to do that today for a client of mine. Thank you so much! I'm a new fan and subscriber.
This is a wonderful explanatory video filled with great ideas and the "how to" of getting an agent. Thank you so much, Kelly. I look forward to following your pointers and will keep you in the loop on my (memoir) agent search. You are supportive, generous, and encouraging. Much appreciated.
Thank you. This is very helpful. You were right when you said we were not going to like step 2! Ughhhh. That one is the most daunting to absorb, but I don't want it to get in the way of the all the rest.
thank you so much for taking the time to record and share these videos! This video in particular is super helpful and contains so much information. thank you again and again!! i love you!! your demeanor and your warmth are so beautiful to watch :-) Keep sharing!!! :-) :-)
Many thanks for this helpful content and the positive energy you put out! This is awesome! I'll follow your advice and will update you when I brake through
Thank you! Lots of great info for a beginner like me! I'm in the process of editing and am finally beginning research to get an agent. Good times!! and scary of course :) Keep the videos coming!
Danielle, We are so glad you found the video helpful! Finding an agent can be quite the process, but a very exciting one! Believe in yourself and your story and you'll hopefully land on the perfect agent to help you along the way! Thanks for watching! More videos to come!
I was thinking the exact same thing. My next thought was “hasn’t authors been published for hundreds of years without en email list or social media, and isn’t that what publishers are supposed to do?”
I think one of the hardest things for would-be authors to understand is reality. It is strange that an author would not be able to empathise with the daily pressures and economic needs of literary agents and publishers. Just think, for a moment. Would someone be more likely to invest in you relative to the hundreds of other quality submissions if you have an enthusiastic list of eager buyers who you can reach on email? It’s a tough question. But have a think and see if the answer occurs to you. Your comment echos the narcissistic entitlement that so many failed would-be authors suffer from. Take personal responsibility. You will go so much further.
TheT, sweetheart, you need to calm down. Your attitude is very self entitled and stems from a complete lack of an ability to do logic. If an agent and then a publisher cannot do their jobs and instead must have the author hand over huge contact lists and create platforms online... They're not too particularly good at what they do.
@@legalfictionnaturalfact3969 that’s why a would be author might prefer a literary agent who can do that work. Now, back to the question - why would the best literary agent in the whole wide world prefer an author who has zero proven enthusiastic would-be readers over an equally good author with a list of over 20,000 enthusiastic fans? Tough one. But I reckon you’ve got this. You might not be a logic, psychology, business or economics author but just try really hard. Good luck. I believe in you.
I love your work, helps a lot! I plan to publish a coffee table book in the textile/ fashion category and have done already a big part of the homework ( proposal, market research, sample pages...). Any recommendations how to find an agent? thanks so much!
So happy we've helped! A great place to start is looking at other coffee table books in the same genre. Authors usually thank their agents in the Acknowledgments section in the back of the book. From there, you can check out their websites and social media to see what the agents are looking for and when they're accepting new clients. Don't forget you can always book a free call at knliterary.com to help you along the way!
I really like your video, thank you! I took notes on the key points you made and hope my journey is fairly painless. That said, I'm writing a business book based on 16 years experience working for the National Security Agency. The focus is on leadership and what NOT to do. Do you think that would fall more into leadership or NSA books? Should I try both?
Glad it was helpful! It sounds like you're focusing more on the leadership aspect, but it really depends on how you write it. A book coach or editor will be able to help you with this in depth.
I am as a Kurdish, have gone through a tragic story in my life. I was persecuted during Saddam Hussein regime. Then I arrived to United States and I became U.S military linguist during fighting against ISIS. I have just finished my fiction and non fiction novel about my life. I am looking for an agent to publish my book in United States.
Kelly, I have a question for you. I am writing a transformational book, and my introduction begins with me talking in the third person. I complete it with my own voice about me. Is this okay? LOVE this! Thank you so much!
Without seeing the specifics of your book it’s hard to give a clear answer, but in general it’s best to choose one point of view and maintain it throughout the entire book. I hope this helps!
I have a friend who's a death row prisoner who's in the process of writing a book and looking for help understanding the ins and outside of everything. I print stuff out and send to him. What advice would you give him?
You could send him a copy of Kelly's book, "The Book You Were Born to Write." It has a huge amount of helpful information for each stage of the writing and publishing process.
Well, I could not be more embarrassed! Arizona does not play the Daylight Savings Time Game, and I thought my 1st Literary Agent call was for today. (15 minutes) I was not only wrong on the time, but WRONG DAY! Sigh! I was very excited about it. So, here is a question for you, Kelly: Is this initial phone call JUST BETWEEN ME AND THE LITERARY AGENT, or do others join in, as well??? I sincerely apologize for the confusion. Just trying to figure all of this out! (I LOVE THIS VIDEO OF YOU!!!) Dee Dee
Your first call scheduled with us will be between you and an editorial matchmaker from our team. They can speak with you about your project and literary agents at that time if you wish!
I have 14 volumes of unpublished Bio books of extensive travels in the middle east, and Asia, posthumous publication is used to describe a literary work that is published after the death of the writer, these Bio's would fall under this, I call the books the Indiana Jones of the middle east, I have the authors entire life in my hands, so many artifacts and pictures, art work, that could be included in promotion of these bio's, let me know if you can help out, you sound like you know what you are doing. cheers p.s I do storage lockers, these are very detailed Bio's In Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tibet, Mecca, Hawaii and more dates in the 50's when written
Hi there! It sounds like you have a lot of wonderful material to work with! You can always reach out to us at knliterary.com to schedule a free call, but you might want to dig into the material first and see if you can come up with a story line or an outline. We know the research process can be overwhelming, but knowing the story you want to tell will help to navigate the entire process. Hope that helps!
Really, these big publishers should be looking for either a huge email list or a great book. The author should not have to do both. Either the publisher is great at distribution and promoting a book, or they need to be handed a big contact list to hit up. The author should be free to do both if she wishes, but this should not be expected from the publisher.
There are millions of books published every years you think authors have that much time to publicize their contents before hand so everyone can get the idea to steal.
Lots of authors do find the time and often are required to work on and publicize their content before publishing. It's just how the industry works today - publishers need to know that your ideas will sell. Here's a video we made covering the fear of ideas getting stolen: th-cam.com/video/q9MVeNHAuTU/w-d-xo.html
Great video - I have written a literary memoir- I just signed up for your 30 min video on that genre. I had a very tired agent who never seemed to wrap his head around my manuscript. Am interested in finding one who can. My email is fieldjo at aol - I subscribed & thank you.
![[TH] VALORANT Champions Seoul - Lower Bracket Final - LEV vs TH](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fyYkI80GG4o/mqdefault.jpg)
Your enthusiasm cuts through my depression. I will not give up.
Proud of you, Bryan! Wishing you all the best! You got this 🙌
This was excellent advice. To the point. Pragmatic and reality based. On TH-cam, there are too many smoke blowers soothing the egos of failing narcissists. Thanks for telling the truth
Thanks for your comment!
Indeed! For up-and-coming or independent writers hoping to make a name for themselves in the US publishing industry, the road might be intimidating, particularly given the fierce competition for publishing deals. Because they can efficiently sell your work to respectable publishing organizations, obtaining a book agent can be a wise choice.
Thanks for commenting!
LOVED this. It feels great to feel confident in terms of "next steps." Navigating this for the first time is daunting, but this is fantastic support. Thank you.
So happy to help. We're glad the content was helpful and hope it inspires you to keep going even though it truly is a daunting task! There is much to be proud of in the process. Keep going!
Yes, Kelly this was great! You are awesome!
Thanks so much for your kind words!
I love your video and explanation of how much it is needed for writers to get behind their work so much that we reel people in through social media. I have an X account but no newsletter or email list. I understand we need to look at the whole process as if it is a job and build an email list of contacts… not sure what angle to use… does your book cover that? A way to pander (which is what it is) to people to build a list? This is all very new to me (as I know I’m not the only one). Thank you for sharing these valuable videos.
Thanks for your comment! Yes, Kelly's book goes in-depth into platform building. You can also find some information in this blog post to help you get started: knliterary.com/2019/05/20/building-your-author-platform/
@@knliteraryartsthank you
This was wonderful. Thank you :)
You're so welcome. Thanks for watching!
Hello Kelly, thank you so much for taking the time to break this all down for us. I can only imagine how many people you have helped fulfill their dreams. For me personally you have certainly issued a reality check and expanded my time horizon. Let the work resume.
Wow, this is the most helpful information I have found on finding an agent! Thank you for sharing! I can't wait to check out your website!
We are so thrilled you have found the video so helpful! Thank you for watching!
Super helpful info! THANK YOU!
I love this, Kelly! I'm a freelance editor and thought I already knew a good deal about finding an agent. But you have some fabulous ideas in this video that I never would have thought of, like looking in the acknowledgments of similar books in your genre to learn who the agent was. I'm going to do that today for a client of mine. Thank you so much! I'm a new fan and subscriber.
Thanks, Arlene! Very happy to hear that our videos help both you and your clients.
This is a wonderful explanatory video filled with great ideas and the "how to" of getting an agent. Thank you so much, Kelly. I look forward to following your pointers and will keep you in the loop on my (memoir) agent search. You are supportive, generous, and encouraging. Much appreciated.
Thank you. This is very helpful. You were right when you said we were not going to like step 2! Ughhhh. That one is the most daunting to absorb, but I don't want it to get in the way of the all the rest.
Thanks for sharing. Yes, some of these steps can seem a bit daunting, but you can do it!
@@knliteraryarts Ok. You're the experts and you're probably right and I'll do it! But I'm not happy about it yet.
I've told others! You are amazing and your enthusiasm is so contagious. You really keep us going with these and other tips. Thank you from a "newbie.'
Thanks so much, Bernice! We love hearing that. ☺
Brilliant. Very clear and provides information I had not seen before!
thank you so much for taking the time to record and share these videos! This video in particular is super helpful and contains so much information. thank you again and again!! i love you!! your demeanor and your warmth are so beautiful to watch :-) Keep sharing!!! :-) :-)
We're so happy the videos are helpful to you. Thank you for your kind comments. Happy to keep the videos coming!
Excellent video. Thank you for posting it. And many kudos for responding to all these posts!
This is awesome information! Will schedule a call soon!
Great, Jeff! We look forward to hearing from you!
Many thanks for this helpful content and the positive energy you put out! This is awesome! I'll follow your advice and will update you when I brake through
You are so welcome. Thanks for watching! We're thrilled to hear that you are finding the content helpful.
This video is invaluable----Thank you for such a pragmatic action plan. I've already started putting it into use!
You are so welcome! I'm so happy to hear that you are putting a plan into motion. Let us know how it continues to go for you.
Thank you! Lots of great info for a beginner like me! I'm in the process of editing and am finally beginning research to get an agent. Good times!! and scary of course :) Keep the videos coming!
Danielle, We are so glad you found the video helpful! Finding an agent can be quite the process, but a very exciting one! Believe in yourself and your story and you'll hopefully land on the perfect agent to help you along the way!
Thanks for watching! More videos to come!
Excellent breakdown thanks so much would love to see a follow up video especially in this Covid climate
Thank you! a goldmine for the writers!
You're welcome. I'm so glad it was helpful!
Thank you Kelly... awesome guidance
You're welcome! Thanks for you comment.
Extremely useful, thank you.
That was amazingly helpful!
Your videos are incredibly helpful!! Thank you so much!!
You are so welcome. Thanks for watching!
So what you are saying, if I don't have a platform through social media, don't bother writing a book
Absolutely not! Having a social media platform is simply a way to grow your audience as well as help find a literary agent a bit easier. -ayesha
I was thinking the exact same thing. My next thought was “hasn’t authors been published for hundreds of years without en email list or social media, and isn’t that what publishers are supposed to do?”
I think one of the hardest things for would-be authors to understand is reality. It is strange that an author would not be able to empathise with the daily pressures and economic needs of literary agents and publishers. Just think, for a moment. Would someone be more likely to invest in you relative to the hundreds of other quality submissions if you have an enthusiastic list of eager buyers who you can reach on email? It’s a tough question. But have a think and see if the answer occurs to you. Your comment echos the narcissistic entitlement that so many failed would-be authors suffer from. Take personal responsibility. You will go so much further.
TheT, sweetheart, you need to calm down. Your attitude is very self entitled and stems from a complete lack of an ability to do logic.
If an agent and then a publisher cannot do their jobs and instead must have the author hand over huge contact lists and create platforms online... They're not too particularly good at what they do.
@@legalfictionnaturalfact3969 that’s why a would be author might prefer a literary agent who can do that work.
Now, back to the question - why would the best literary agent in the whole wide world prefer an author who has zero proven enthusiastic would-be readers over an equally good author with a list of over 20,000 enthusiastic fans?
Tough one. But I reckon you’ve got this. You might not be a logic, psychology, business or economics author but just try really hard. Good luck. I believe in you.
Great post!
Thanks for watching, we are glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you kelly, great info!! I will definitely be sending you a query letter soon.
Yay! Glad you enjoyed the information.
Thank you!!
Thank you for watching!
Thank you so much xoxoxo I love your energy btw
Your videos are amazing!!!
Thank you so much! Thanks for watching.
Can I self publish on kindle then proceed to find a literary agent?
I love your work, helps a lot! I plan to publish a coffee table book in the textile/ fashion category and have done already a big part of the homework ( proposal, market research, sample pages...). Any recommendations how to find an agent? thanks so much!
So happy we've helped! A great place to start is looking at other coffee table books in the same genre. Authors usually thank their agents in the Acknowledgments section in the back of the book. From there, you can check out their websites and social media to see what the agents are looking for and when they're accepting new clients. Don't forget you can always book a free call at knliterary.com to help you along the way!
I really like your video, thank you! I took notes on the key points you made and hope my journey is fairly painless. That said, I'm writing a business book based on 16 years experience working for the National Security Agency. The focus is on leadership and what NOT to do. Do you think that would fall more into leadership or NSA books? Should I try both?
Glad it was helpful! It sounds like you're focusing more on the leadership aspect, but it really depends on how you write it. A book coach or editor will be able to help you with this in depth.
that is so informative
Thank you for watching! --Ayesha
I am as a Kurdish, have gone through a tragic story in my life. I was persecuted during Saddam Hussein regime. Then I arrived to United States and I became U.S military linguist during fighting against ISIS. I have just finished my fiction and non fiction novel about my life. I am looking for an agent to publish my book in United States.
Kelly, I have a question for you. I am writing a transformational book, and my introduction begins with me talking in the third person. I complete it with my own voice about me. Is this okay? LOVE this! Thank you so much!
Without seeing the specifics of your book it’s hard to give a clear answer, but in general it’s best to choose one point of view and maintain it throughout the entire book. I hope this helps!
I have a friend who's a death row prisoner who's in the process of writing a book and looking for help understanding the ins and outside of everything. I print stuff out and send to him. What advice would you give him?
You could send him a copy of Kelly's book, "The Book You Were Born to Write." It has a huge amount of helpful information for each stage of the writing and publishing process.
Well, I could not be more embarrassed! Arizona does not play the Daylight Savings Time Game, and I thought my 1st Literary Agent call was for today. (15 minutes) I was not only wrong on the time, but WRONG DAY! Sigh! I was very excited about it. So, here is a question for you, Kelly: Is this initial phone call JUST BETWEEN ME AND THE LITERARY AGENT, or do others join in, as well??? I sincerely apologize for the confusion. Just trying to figure all of this out! (I LOVE THIS VIDEO OF YOU!!!) Dee Dee
Your first call scheduled with us will be between you and an editorial matchmaker from our team. They can speak with you about your project and literary agents at that time if you wish!
I thought literary memoirs are separate and distinct from most other non-fiction categories-? Treated more like a novel?
Hi,
Do you help with Query Proposals?
Thank you
Yes, we do.
@@knliteraryarts may we set up a phone conversation
I have 14 volumes of unpublished Bio books of extensive travels in the middle east, and Asia, posthumous publication is used to describe a literary work that is published after the death of the writer, these Bio's would fall under this, I call the books the Indiana Jones of the middle east, I have the authors entire life in my hands, so many artifacts and pictures, art work, that could be included in promotion of these bio's, let me know if you can help out, you sound like you know what you are doing. cheers p.s I do storage lockers, these are very detailed Bio's In Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tibet, Mecca, Hawaii and more dates in the 50's when written
Hi there! It sounds like you have a lot of wonderful material to work with! You can always reach out to us at knliterary.com to schedule a free call, but you might want to dig into the material first and see if you can come up with a story line or an outline. We know the research process can be overwhelming, but knowing the story you want to tell will help to navigate the entire process. Hope that helps!
Do you have a resource on how to grow your email list to 75,000?
Really, these big publishers should be looking for either a huge email list or a great book. The author should not have to do both. Either the publisher is great at distribution and promoting a book, or they need to be handed a big contact list to hit up.
The author should be free to do both if she wishes, but this should not be expected from the publisher.
There are millions of books published every years you think authors have that much time to publicize their contents before hand so everyone can get the idea to steal.
Lots of authors do find the time and often are required to work on and publicize their content before publishing. It's just how the industry works today - publishers need to know that your ideas will sell. Here's a video we made covering the fear of ideas getting stolen: th-cam.com/video/q9MVeNHAuTU/w-d-xo.html
Great video - I have written a literary memoir- I just signed up for your 30 min video on that genre. I had a very tired agent who never seemed to wrap his head around my manuscript. Am interested in finding one who can. My email is fieldjo at aol - I subscribed & thank you.