Understanding US publishers and agents

Lineykins · Sep 7, 2011

I'm from Australia, and I'm trying to get my head around publishing and literary agents in the US. Hope you can help.

I've seen talk of the "big six" publishers in the US - can someone please tell me who they are?

Also, is there a similar "big" group of agents?
Is there a group of literary agencies that are commonly thought of as the "big agencies" - in terms of size and or sales? Or in terms of prestige?

And further, do these groups differ if looking solely at publishers/agents of YA or Children's books?

Please note, I'm aware that the "big" players are not necessarily the best match for me or my work, I'm just curious about learning about this on a more general basis.

With thanks.

mickeyDs4 · Sep 7, 2011

The big guys you're thinking of are like Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Houghton-Mifflin. The big agencies I know of is the William Morris Agency and they do everything from models to authors. I use this site for my agents: http://www.agentquery.com/ On it you can search by genre. Best thing I've found to do is use Google and see what comes up. That's how I found that site. Grab you the newest version of Writer's Market. It is the best reference out there.

seeAlliwrite · Sep 7, 2011

Hail fellow Aussie!

The big six are HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster.

As MickeyDs4 mentioned, there are some very big agencies, like William Morris, ICM etc..

I also think agentquery is great and I'd definitely get a copy of Writer's Market (not the Aussie version if you're interested in the US only, though).

The best resource I've used when changing agents has been Publisher's Marketplace. I subscribe to that (at around AUD$20 per month), but there's a free one you can subscribe to as well called Deal Lunch or something, I think. If you subscribe to either the free of the paid version, you'll get deals that have just been made coming straight to your In box. I think this is a great way to learn about who's selling what and who they're selling it to. This way, you can match up your manuscript with agents who have recently sold similar manuscripts and who have a definite interest in your kind of material. At the end of the day, that's far more important than the size of his/her agency.

Becca_H · Sep 7, 2011

Throwing in http://www.querytracker.net/

Similar to AgentQuery. A good, comprehensive list of agents, and statistics/comments about them.

froley · Sep 7, 2011

Good to know for us confused Antipodeans!

Lineykins · Sep 8, 2011

Thank you, Allison, that was exactly the info I was wanting.

Thanks for the links Becca and Mickey - very handy!

Froley - nice to know I'm not the only one confused (I think, lol).

I guess by the lack of reponse to the agent part of my question, that there is no "big six" or "big five" or whatever, when it comes to agents? If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.

Many thanks
Lineykins

seeAlliwrite · Sep 8, 2011

Lineykins said:
I guess by the lack of reponse to the agent part of my question, that there is no "big six" or "big five" or whatever, when it comes to agents?

No worries!

No, there's no 'big six' agencies or similar. However, Publisher's Marketplace has a top dealmakers section with the top 20 dealmakers/agents and you'll often find the same 20 in there (especially in the top 10).

Sage · Sep 8, 2011

PM is the place to find the top selling agents in your genre most recently (as far as those reporting deals. Not all agents do and not all report all their sales). AQ and QT are excellent places to start looking for agents open to querying for your genre, as well as to find querying guidelines (but check their website anyway).

And of course, don't forget to try out Bewares, Recs, and Background Checks here to get more information about the agents, including people's past experiences and such up-to-date info as turn around and whether they're on vacation or open to queries, etc.

Lineykins · Sep 8, 2011

Thanks again, Allison, and thank you Sage.

Understanding US publishers and agents

Lineykins

mickeyDs4

seeAlliwrite

Becca_H

Where am I again?

froley

Lineykins

seeAlliwrite

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

Lineykins