How does it work?

Hi, LindsayP, and welcome to the Water Cooler!

Before you get started looking for an agent, there are a few things you should know. Yes, an agent can help you "get your foot in the door" with certain publishers, and more and more publishers are requiring agented only submissions (meaning you MUST have one.) Whether your book needs to be agented depends a great deal on your genre and what your goals for the book are.

Several of the agents you mention have their own threads in our "Bewares and Backgrounds" check forum, so you can start over there to find out information about them:

Ashley Grayson Agency. Yes, you should expect to wait for a few more months before you hear back. Since she said the manuscript needed work, did you do additional work on it before you sent it, or did you send her a different ms.?

The Kathryn Green Agency
Matthew Carnicelli/Carnicelli Literary Management. He appears to be a selling agent and has sold a number of non-fiction titles this year to major pubs (according to Publisher's Marketplace)
Scott Mortenson - I can't find anything about this guy. What company is he with?




Next, here are a few things you should start to think about:

1. Don't EVER pay an agent money to represent you. It works the other way around. An agent earns their money by selling your book, not getting you write them a check.

2. Spend a bit of time wandering around the website of the Association of Author Representatives. This organization was established to help writers. Members of AAR agree not to charge reading fees, and treat both writers and publishers ethically. Their Frequently Asked Questions page will help you understand what an agent does for you and gives you questions to ask a potential agent who offers to represent you. While not EVERY quality, selling agent is a member, many are -- and still others have agreed to abide their their ethical code.

3. Depending on the genre you write, you can visit AgentQuery. This site is devoted to providing as accurate of information as possible about sales the agent has made.

4. Visit the Bewares and Backgrounds forum, right on this site. There's an Index of Agents and Publishers where various members ask about the credentials of the companies. Responses are either good or bad, but generally are accurate.

5. Visit Editors and Preditors and Writer Beware (which is a service of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Assocation) so you learn how to stay away from bad agents and publishers. You have to be able to recognize the tricks and traps bad ones try to use on you first, so you don't get stung.

Those are just a few things to get you started. Once you've gone through these, check back here and you can ask any questions that weren't answered!

Welcome Lindsay. Cathy's given you enough info for a great head start. Good luck!

Welcome, Lindsay, sounds like you're batting .500 right now with all of these requests. Hang in there with these agent submissions before you decide about going straight to pub houses. Why? Because agent feedback can lead to better re-writes, and then you'll be in much better shape than you were before.

Triceratops

hi, and welcome to the cooler! awesome job landing the attention of those agents. You'll find plenty of helpful info once you've surfed around the site for a while.

Lindsay. Welcome to AW. Good luck with the book!

Hi Lindsay - welcome to the boards. Glad to see you've gotten some good info already. Good luck.

Welcome, Lindsay.

Welcome Lindsay! I'm a newbie too!

Howdy, Lindsay. Welcome to the Cooler!