Pitching Your Manuscript to an Agent

Let me preface this article by staing the obvious! Agents are individuals and their opinion is just one opinion. (Although I appreciate that when you've been on the receiving end of several rejections, it may not feel that way.) Also bear in mind that because they are indiviauals different agents will be attracted by different aspects of your pitch. A visual person might be attracted to a mood board, while others may find a list of tropes or themes helpful. There is an element of chance if you rely too heavily on either of these to pitch your manuscript. However, there are things you should include in any pitch to try to minimise that element of chance.

1) In any pitch remember to include the genre of your book, its working title (a publisher may change this) and the word count of your novel. These details give the agent something to work with. Bear in mind that agents will have prefences for the genre they work with, so save yourself time and grief by checking that your chosen agent is interested in your genre. Make sure you know which genre your book falls into. If you cannot tell the agent, they are unlikely to be interested because it makes the work difficult for them to sell to a publisher.

2) A catchy one-line elevator pitch or tagline is helpful. It will make your pitch stand out from the many others the agent receives. While they are hard to do well, it is worthwhile taking the time and effort to get this right. The agent will look for a short pitch that tells them: who the main character is, where their journey starts includes the inciting incident which is the catalyst that changes things for the main character and then where that character goes and who with. This sets up the genre too because it tells the agent if the story is a romance, a horror story, or if your main character goes on a quest, is involved in a battle and so on. The agent needs to understand what is at the heart of your book. 

3) Equally important to any agent is that they understand your manuscript's USP, Unique Selling Points. These are hard to get across in a short pitch but you need to get across what makes your book special. (Remember, the agent makes their living selling your work to a publisher so they need to be able to get through your pitch quickly and get behind the premise of the story to be able to convince a publisher to take on your work.) Think about what makes you excited when you talk about your story and what makes your story stand out from the many other stories with similar plot points, themes or tropes? An agent will be more easily drawn to pitches that tell them about the book beyond vague emotions.  

4) It is useful to an agent if you can mention other books or authors whose readers might be interested in your story. These help them to work out the vibes of the book and how they could market it, but they do not tell us about your plot. So do not rely too heavily on comparisons and do not make your work sound derivative or unoriginal.

5) When you are pitching to an agent, follow their guidelines and always be polite and professional. If an agent is closed to queries do not assume you are the exception. They are busy people. Only pitch to agents interested in your genre who are open to queries at that time. If you email your pitch every few weeks, this will only get your email deleted. Most agents will reply to your query one way or the other and it is wise to give them at least three months to do so. They are all, without exception, extraordinarily busy. There is no rule against resubmitting a manuscript after a rejection, if you have made substantive changes to the piece. Otherwise, accept that your work wasn't a good fit for that agent and move on.

6) Remember that pitching and finding an agent or publisher is hard for everyone and you are not alone. Rejections are usually subjective and not personal and may have nothing to do with the quality of your work. There is a lot of luck and timing with getting published (at every stage). You never know what is around the corner for you. So don’t lose hope of finding the agent or publisher that is right for you.

Murder in Edinburgh by Val Penny will be published by Joffe Books in May 2026.