What’s the biggest mistake and trap that beginning writers fall into? It’s not poor grammar, bad ideas, or faulty research. It’s thinking that if they only knew someone who could give them a lead they’d get their book accepted. This is like thinking if you only knew someone on the New York Yankees you could pitch for the team.

There are three reasons why connections won’t help the way you think. First, and foremost, a connection will only satisfy your urge to get your work seen and read. This is a natural desire for any writer, but it’s unrealistic for you to think that your friend or connection knows the right editor or literary agent for you. The fit between a writer and a literary agent has to be close for things to work. Chances are your friend or connection knows an agent or editor who specializes in a field different from the one you’re writing in.

But even if the agent or editor is in your same field, it’s still a bad idea to ask your friend to look at your work and submit it because by doing so you’re denying yourself the opportunity to research literary agents yourself. Only by doing the work yourself will you get a feel for the current crop of literary agents. Only by doing the work of researching agents yourself will you learn what they’re looking for. And only by doing the research yourself will you find one who fits your writing.

Third, unless your friend has seen your work, sending it to his or her literary agent sight unseen is a stupid idea. If your work is bad, your friend looks bad for having forwarded it. If your work is good, then you don’t need your friend or his connection. You can get an agent on your own.

But let’s say your work is good and, on top of that, your friend knows an agent in your same field. In that case, you’re still foolish to ask your friend to submit your work to his or her agent. Why? Because you’re denying yourself the opportunity to look for a better agent. How do you know how good your friend’s agent is? Maybe the agent has a poor track record. Maybe the agent is on the point of retiring. Maybe the agent is a bad negotiator and routinely settles for low advances. Why limit yourself like this?

DO THE HOMEWORK YOURSELF


You’re much better off doing the homework yourself. Look for your own literary agent. Then, after you’ve done your research on literary agents, if you narrow your list down to a select few, you can ask your friend, “Who’s your agent?” When your friend tells you, perhaps you’ll recognize the name. More than likely, however -- because there are so many literary agents -- you won’t. In that case, you should politely thank your friend and ask how they like working with the agent. Then go home and research that literary agent. See what books the agent has sold, what kinds of advances the agent gets, and find out how many references in Publishers Weekly there are to that agent. If, after all this research, you find that your friend’s literary agent is in your field, has a good reputation, and gets good advances, you might want to consider adding the agent to your list of people to submit to. But before you ask your friend to send your work to this person, you should compare this agent to the others on your list. Is your friend’s agent so much better? If not, I wouldn’t even bother asking your friend to look at your work.

The biggest book proposal no-no is thinking you can get into publishing through a friend’s connection. Not only don’t you need your friend’s connection, but more often than not, your friend’s literary agent isn’t in the right field and isn’t good enough for you.