April 15, 2016 
Lauren 
For most of the time that I’ve been in publishing, I’ve found clients in one of four ways: the slush pile, referrals from clients, seeking out authors for ideas I’ve come up with, or convincing a person I’ve come across to write a book. I’ve long been reflexively skeptical of supposed innovations on the query system—everything I tried for a long time turned out to be a huge waste of time that generated no better results than just letting the slush come to my inbox.
But four or so years ago, I looked at my list and my slush pile and realized how heavily they both skewed toward a narrow range of voices. And as I looked for ways to fix this problem I listened to a lot of wise people (including the fine folks at We Need Diverse Books) on the perils of any system in which gatekeepers simply wait for things to come their way. So now I try to actively participate in things happening outside my inbox, making sure that writers know that my door is open (and my list inclusive).
Authors looking for an agent have a lot of great opportunities now not just to seek an agent, but to reach out to the best possible fit for them and their work. Many wonderful agents participate in these new ways to find clients (and quite a lot of them were on the bandwagon before I got my head out of the sand). And for me, they’re a good way to proactively seek submissions from a diverse pool of authors so I can make sure that my client list supports a wide array of voices.
Twitter pitch parties like Brenda Drake’s PitMad still involve authors querying agents, but it means I get to find those projects that seem like a good fit for my list and invite the authors to send their queries my way. And resources like Manuscript Wish List, co-created by Jessica Sinsheimer and KK Hendin, allow me to highlight book concepts that I’d love to see, which gives me a chance to proactively seek a broader and more balanced list, both via the Twitter hashtag and their fantastic website (for which you can find my profile here). And I’m really excited about the upcoming Twitter event #DVPit, which Beth Phelan created to “showcase pitches about and especially by marginalized voices.” If you’re a writer from a marginalized community looking for an agent, I strongly encourage you to check out that link before Tuesday, because it looks like it’ll be a great event!
I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t overwhelmed by the sheer volume of emails in my Weekend Reading folder, many of which come from sources like the above. I look at my To Read list right now and tremble in fear. But I love knowing that the chances that I’ll find a gem that I have a vision for among those projects is far higher, since I’ve already done some of the work in getting authors who have written the kinds of books I’m looking for to reach my way.
After rereading this post several times, I’ve isolated the problem here. If your e-query box is skewing to a narrow range of voices, isn’t that because you yourself have a narrow range of preferences? And so, regardless of whatever query bells and whistles anyone out there is blowing and ringing, you’re going to end up with the same uninteresting stuff in your in-box (I assume it’s not so exciting or you wouldn’t be worrying about it) that you had originally. Sort of like, if I’m bored with my local grocery store and go to a supposedly better one in the next town, I won’t find my dinner much more exciting because all I like to eat is artisonal organic rutabagas and that’s all I’ll bring home from the new store.
Thanks for your thoughts, but I don’t think that’s quite the issue. My preferences are now and always have been for a wide range of representation, both within the books that I work on and in the clients on my list. But this is not something publishing has been good at (historically or now, though it does seem to be improving). And I have to admit that an author looking at my client list for the first several years I was agenting might not have guessed that I was actively looking for diverse voices. There are also longstanding systemic and socioeconomic forces bigger than publishing that influence who believes there is a seat at the table for them–and who is in a position to pursue that seat. So while I do need to be vocal about my preferences (and do everything I can to back those preferences up in terms of my track record), it’s not enough to say that I’m actively seeking diverse voices if I’m only saying that to people who were already headed my way. That’s why I need to be proactive, to specifically seek out a wide range of clients, in addition to considering the unsolicited queries I receive.
I came across your blog via Twitter and must say I am shocked by the above comment. Although prettily dressed up in all sorts of fancy words, the message is rude. Basically, s/he is calling you narrow-minded and boring. Sounds like blog wanderer is someone you turned down at some stage? I think it is great you spend time actively looking for diverse writers. Thank you for taking an interest. No brown-nosing on my part, btw, I write in another language entirely and for a different market, I just do not like it when people lash out unfairly at someone. Hope you find some wonderful writers via PitMad.