Question RE: Finding an Agent

I think the answer to this depends on what you want. There are a lot of small publishing houses that do not require you have an agent in order to submit to them. If that is the route you want to go then by all means submit to those publishers.
Now with that said most of the bigger publishing houses will not look at an unsolicited MS or one that is not sent through by an agent.

So if you goal is to get an advance, and perhaps be pubbed by one of the big houses- yes you most likely need that agent and yes they are hard to get.

But if you have smaller goals- don't require that advance and are content to have your book published by a smaller house- by all means submitt- but smaller doesn't mean they aren't as picky. Your MS better be in top shape before you sub it anywhere-

Agents work best if you want to be published by a big publisher. Some big publishers do have open submissions, but you'll be waiting a couple of years on those responses... a few non-responses from agents is peanuts compared to that.

If you're not getting any positive responses to your query letter, the issue is probably the query letter.

GFanthome said:

Is it a genre thing, where securing an agent tends to work best?

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Yes.

There could be more than one reason you're getting the response you are, but genre is one possible one.

In some genres, you can do better by approaching the publisher directly.

Many agents have gone to a "no response means no" policy because of the reactions they've gotten from less-than-civil recipients of rejection letters. Not all agents have this policy, and the ones that do usually specify themselves as such on their websites.

If you want to submit to smaller markets, then you might be able to find an editor who will read your manuscript without an agent (though some of these take months, if not years, to get back to unagented submissions). If you want to submit to larger markets, then you're usually better off with an agent opening the doors for you.

Also be aware that if you're submitting to both agents and editors, then you need a submission list to provide your agent if you sign with one; he/she won't be able to submit to the same places you've already sent your MS.

kuwisdelu said:

Yes.

There could be more than one reason you're getting the response you are, but genre is one possible one.

In some genres, you can do better by approaching the publisher directly.

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Care to offer an example? I'm not disagreeing, I just cant think of one off the top of my head and I am curious.
quan lot rbi do boi dep xe day doi ao so mi nu thoi trang cong so chup anh cho be
My opinion: go for agent first, then go for a publisher on your own if you want ... I say that based on my experience of not doing that and regretting it.

profen4 said:

Care to offer an example? I'm not disagreeing, I just cant think of one off the top of my head and I am curious.

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That's my understanding of how it works in erotic romance.

GFanthome said:

My experience has been that agents don't even bother getting back to you about whether or not they're interested. I have far better luck and a phenomenally better response rate appealing directly to publishers themselves.

Is it a genre thing, where securing an agent tends to work best?

Your thoughts.....

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I would disagree with your first sentence in the section I quoted above. Agents do tell you if they're interested.

What would be the point otherwise?

kuwisdelu said:

That's my understanding of how it works in erotic romance.

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Ah, yes. I never thought of erotic romance. That said, if one could find an agent who represented that genre, I suspect they'd do better going with the agent, than going without them. But that is not a genre I'm familiar with so I could be very wrong. ao nguc rbi do boi xe day cao cap cho be ao so mi cong so ban buon quan ao cac loai cho thue trang phuc chup anh