Open/Closed Status page for literary agencies
QueryHacker is a new video series that highlights the difficulties of querying for neurodiverse people and shares tips and tricks to make that process a little bit easier. This suggestion came up in Episode 001, available now on our YouTube channel.
If a literary agency is looking for a way to make their website more accessible for querying folks, including those who are neurodiverse or otherwise disabled, here is an example of a simple page they can add to their website.
The idea is to have a simple Open/Closed Status page with a date stamp showing when it was last updated. The page lists all the agents in the agency with their status next to each name. These names are clickable, linking to additional information about what that particular agent is looking for.
The following is a sample of what this page might look like:
Open/Closed Status
Last updated October 3, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.
Senior Agent Idris Alba – CLOSED
Senior Agent Lizzo – OPEN
Agent Abigail Breslin – CLOSED
Agent Viggo Mortensen – CLOSED
Agent Mercedes Mason – CLOSED
Junior Agent Dua Lipa – OPEN
Junior Agent Ana de Armas – CLOSED
Please click the name of the agent you’re interested in to learn more about them and what they’re looking for, and visit our Submissions page for general instructions on how to submit your query.
The page could be updated as often as the agency feels is appropriate, but weekly might be a good timeline. Monday morning, for example, agents can weigh in over email or Slack with their current status. Then, the person in charge of the website takes a few minutes to update the page. If no query inboxes have opened or closed since the last update, they simply change the date of last update.
It’s as simple as that! A quick and easy page to maintain that makes the lives of querying authors immensely better.
We can’t, of course, make agencies change their websites or how they do things. Maybe they’ll see this suggestion, maybe they won’t, but we will be sharing tips that writers can implement in our new video series. Watch QueryHacker Episode 001 now!
