HOW TO FIND A (REAL!) LITERARY AGENTby A. C. Crispin. Introduction.

Agents–When Do You Need One? Getting Started–Compiling a List, Researching Agent Listings, and Following Submission Guidelines. How to Recognize Real Agents.

Writing the Synopsis. Writing the Query Letter. Sending Out Your Query Letters. Playing the Waiting Game. Make Sure Your Manuscript Lives Up to Your Query. The Psychology of Querying.

The following article lays out the basic elements that I teach in my “How to Get a Real Agent” workshop. Some parts will seem familiar to many of you, because they amount to “conventional wisdom” on the subject. But I’m going to cover the introductory stuff anyhow, because there’s always the chance that some of the folks reading this are reading it for the first time. Okay, so you’ve written something.

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You’re proud of it. You think you might want to get it traditionally published.

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You’ve heard about literary agents, but not how a writer finds one — or what kind of written works customarily need agents. Here’s how to determine whether you NEED an agent. If your work is one of the following, you won’t need to start an agent search, because reputable agents don’t handle: poetry, short stories, articles, or essays.

Any agent that claims to specialize in poetry or short stories is an amateur or a scammer. Agents make 1. 5% of what the author makes — so for a poem, or a short story or article or essay, it’s simply not cost- effective for a literary agent to handle that kind of work.(Before someone chimes in to say that they heard that Famous Author’s agent handles his poetry or short stories, this can be true…for Famous Author. But in a case like that, the agent is not doing it for the commission; the agent is doing it as a favor to his or her client. That doesn’t mean it’s true for you, with your first sale yet to come.)You also won’t need an agent if your work is aimed at any of the following: self- publishing, niche or specialty publication, regional publication, and most small presses. These kinds of companies will read un- agented work, and you can submit to them yourself, with no third party involved.

In the case of some non- fiction, an agent may not be necessary either. Publishers publish more non- fiction than fiction, and I know of some non- fiction authors who did fine submitting their work un- agented, even to big NY commercial publishers. When in doubt, read publisher guidelines and research books that fall into the same category as yours. Also, keep in mind that an agent will almost always get a writer a better contract, advance, etc. In the case of genre novels, there are still some big commercial publishers that will read un- agented manuscripts.

Category romance is one such, and there are still a couple of science fiction and fantasy markets that accept un- agented work. HOWEVER, their slush piles are huge, and it can take six months, a year, or even more for your work to be read. So you’re still better off having an agent, because you’ll get a quicker response.

In general these days, if you’ve written a novel, or what they call “creative non- fiction,” (which includes works like memoirs — think Angela’s Ashes), and your goal is publication with one of the big publishing houses, you really need to sign with a reputable literary agent with a decent track record of sales. If You Have Determined You Do Need an Agent: For the sake of this article, I’m presuming that “you” (the universal “you”)  have completed a book. I’m presuming that the book has been revised and edited until it’s as good as you can make it. I’m presuming that you’ve asked a couple of writer friends to beta- read the book, and then used their feedback to improve the book even more. And I’m presuming that the book has been proofread and polished until it’s really ready to go out. So how do you start searching for that agent?

The first thing to remember is that you must research each agent before you submit to them. That’s because the internet is rife these days with scammers — con artists posing as literary agents or publishers — and amateur “agents” who have no clue what they’re doing. Incidentally, the scammers aren’t out to steal a writers’ book. Their only interest is in separating a writer from his or her hard- earned money. And those amateur agents may be well- meaning, but they don’t have the professional publishing contracts, or knowledge, to sell your book — so signing with one of them means you’ll simply waste valuable time, and possibly money.

Writer Beware wishes we had a dollar for every writer who has written to us to say, “I submitted my book to Agent X, is this agency reputable?”  (All too often, the answer is “no.”)If your book is fiction, and fits neatly into a genre, try this. Watch The Grift Online Full Movie. Take a notebook to your local bookstore(s). Look up all the books on the shelves in that bookstore that are remotely like yours. If your novel is fantasy, for example, and has a half- elf as a protagonist, and it is set in the modern world, that would fall under the sub- category we call “urban fantasy.” In science fiction there are sub- genres, too, such as alternate history, military science fiction, post- apocalyptic science fiction, etc. Sub- genres exist in mysteries and romance novels, as well.

Cozies” are different from hard- boiled PI novels, which are different from police procedural novels, which are different from forensic- scientist- as- detective novels. For romances, there are entire lines aimed at particular stages in a woman’s life, such as “second chance at love,” and so forth. So try to narrow down your search so it’s as close as possible to the kind of novel you’ve written. Look inside the books you take off the shelves.

Note down the title, author, and publisher or imprint in your notebook. Then look at the Author Notes or Acknowledgments section. You’re looking for a note where the author thanks his or her literary agent. Many authors do this.

When you find it, note the agent’s name and agency. If you do this kind of searching in books in a couple of bookstores, chances are you’ll wind up with a list of agents or agencies. Next, it’s time to start checking and expanding your list. Go through Writers Market, the hardcopy book, or online at www. Watch Trade Of Innocents Online Forbes here. Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents is another helpful resource. Good online sources to use to cross- check for information are Agent.

Query and Query Tracker. They’re free, and they do “vet” the agents they list. Be warned:  many online listings don’t bother to check whether the agents are “real” or not. You can also do a web search on the agent’s name (though never just type “literary agent” into a search engine; doing that will result in a list of scammers).

Most agents have websites these days. Learn how to evaluate an agent’s website so you can tell whether the agent is “real” or a fake. A good clue to “real” is a track record of sales to recognizable publishers. An obvious clue to “fake” is no mention of track record, or a client list that doesn’t include any published writers. Another good resource, especially if you have trouble finding an agent’s name or finding info about their track record, is the Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Check board at the excellent Absolute Write Water Cooler.

There are hundreds of discussion threads there on literary agents (and others), many of which include hard- to- find information and warnings about nonstandard business practice. The most important thing to remember is that you are collecting info on these agents to try and get a feel for what the agent likes, what his or her literary tastes are. Watch Wreckage Online Freeform there.

Doing this kind of research will also ensure that you don’t waste your time querying agents that have gone out of business, died, have zero sales, etc. In your research, you’ll also be looking for the agent’s preferred submission guidelines. You can usually find these in the market resources referred to above, though the most up- to- date source is the agent’s website.

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