Agent Advice for Writing Success

What keeps a manuscript on my desk.

- BY JESSICA BERG, ROSECLIFF LITERARY

Imagine an agent's computer screen: 12 different manuscript tabs open, the cursor blinking, coffee going cold at the edge of the desk. Each file represents the same hope—that this will be the story that stops everything else.

That’s the dream every writer pictures: An agent discovers your pages, feels the spark, and simply cannot put them down. We want that, too. We're desperate for it.

But it almost never happens that way. Most manuscripts lose me after a single chapter. This isn’t because authors can't write. It’s because, when I weigh the demands of my day against what’s on the screen, nothing in the narrative convinces me to stay.

That's really what I’m looking for: a reason to keep turning pages. In practice, three elements determine whether a manuscript lingers on my desk or slips back into the queue: voice, stakes, and character.

VOICE: THE IRRESISTIBLE INVITATION

Voice is the first handshake between you and your reader. It’s not just what you write but how you tell it. That means each character should sound like themselves. Everything from word choice to cadence to tone all have to work together so the pages could only have come from you.

Kristin Hannah's The Women opens in a voice that feels earnest. We immediately understand Frankie’s sheltered perspective because it’s rendered in heartfelt diction that signals both her naiveté and the transformation to come.

In contrast, Sarah Penner’s The Amalfi Curse begins with a lush, atmospheric voice that makes the Amalfi Coast itself feel alive.