Agent Guides

Today, I decided to showcase some of my favorite agent/editor’s guides I’ve made, and explain a bit of my process.

So, as I’ve previously mentioned, my own agent’s guide helped me a lot in getting visibility—likes, dms, referrals, etc. I’ve always spent way too much time playing with Canva, first with moodboards, then trends, then this. I figured it’s something I enjoy, and even if it didn’t help in terms of getting an agent’s attention, it was a fun time for me.

Pinterest and I used to be besties, before it was flooded with AI (sometimes hard to spot), and then I moved on to Unsplash and Pexels. I still use Pinterest on occasion, or sometimes I mix them all to have more variety.

Unsplash and Pexels are trickier to use, and you have to test various tags and word combinations until you find something that fits the aesthetic you’re going for. I search a lot of “Gothic”, or “Horror”, or “Fantasy”, because those lean themselves better for the type of stories I write. I also scroll through the pictures at random, and keep everything that might be useful in the future, even if it doesn’t fit what I’m looking for at the moment—I know the kinds of books I write.

You know how you can make boards on Pinterest for each of your projects? You can do that on Unsplash and Pexels, too!

Then I use Canva’s templates for inspo, or just use the same structure I know works, and I also make my moodboards there. The good thing about Canva is that you can edit colors to make the images go better together. Another thing I like to do is finding a specific photoshoot—you can click on Unsplash/Pexels’ artists’ profiles and see if they took any other photos at that same location/with the same model—and using multiple photos to make it more coehese.

I try to include tropes and themes because I know those are eye-catching, and my pitches tend to be on the shorter side, hooky, and not as detailed as a query blurb would be. I crosspost if possible, link my guides to trends (like the bisexual books that I’ve showed as an example—scroll down to see it!), and used to add any sort of good news in a quote retweet.

If you have a minute to share these authors’ pitches, that’d be a bonus! Writingtwt has its ups and downs, but it can be a terrific place for showing support and making writing friends:

Agent’s guide to THE SOUL CANVAS, click on the pic!

I’ve recently started playing around with other formats, thanks to Instagram.

If you’re ever interested in getting one, I don’t charge for them (but I do have a ko-fi if you want to leave a tip, but that’s up to you!), and you can either dm me, leave a comment, or email me, whichever you prefer ♡