Agent for Esoteric novel

[Cactus Land]

Hi Everyone,

I have just finished my fourth novel and as you guessed it, it has a strong esoteric theme. I think it would be a very good fit for Llewellyn and Weiser, but I would rather approach them with an agent. Any ideas on agents who work with them or who are interested in esoteric fiction?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[IDGS]

Mod'll probably move it, but this kind of post would probably do better in "Ask the Agent."

[amschilling]

Agree it probably should be moved. But you may want to define what "esoteric" means to you. That's kind of broad, since esotericism "is not a single tradition but a vast array of often unrelated figures and movements, there is no single historical thread underlying them all.[12]" (Wiki's words, not mine). Who might be interested really will depend on just what the subject matter is; there's a big difference between alchemy and Christian Theosophy, after all.

[Susan Littlefield]

Cactus,

!

Nobody can really provide you with the name of an agent, as you will most likely need to query numerous agents. You will need to do that research on your own. Have you tried Query Tracker yet? It's an excellent research tool, and you can search under several categories.

Good luck!

[Cactus Land]

Hi, sorry about that, makes more sense of course that it is here. As far as esoteric, I mean related to novels like Brother of Third Degree, and especially Maria Szepes very good novel, The Red Lion. This novel is very much about alchemy, astrology, gnosticism.. the Hermetic tradition so to speak. Also, is there a way to look for agents by publisher... I am very interested in Weiser and Llewellyn and I would love to find an agent who works with them, instead of going direct....

Thanks again for all your help..

[BenPanced]

It's probably easier to find authors of work similar to yours and find out who their agents are, rather than searching by publisher > author > agent.

[blacbird]

I was at my local Barnes & Noble just yesterday, and didn't see a section for the "Esoteric" genre. In querying an agent, I wouldn't use that word. If it's realistic literary, maybe call it that.

But you'll probably be better off to toss in a dragon or two, and a magic amulet and a quest.

caw

[mayqueen]

Ditto the suggestion to look for authors who write books like yours and find out who represents them.

[Theo81]

You may find it difficult to find an agent if your book is so niche it would only be suitable for those publishers and I don't know if there would be any point - this is one of those instances where I wonder if you'd be paying somebody for things you can do yourself.

While agents can get you better deals, they are never going to be able to get you a a better deal from a press too small to give you one.

I'd go through the authors published by these guys and see if you can find out their agents. If none of them have them, there's your answer.

[Old Hack]

There are quite a few publishers which deal with esoteric non-fiction: I used to edit it for a packager, and so worked with a lot of the publishers concerned, many of which were big publishers with good reputations.

Cactus, I don't know why you're so set on these two publishers: there are plenty of others which publish in this area, including the Big Five. I note that both of the publishers you have in your sights take unagented submissions: Weiser does, and so does Llewellyn.

However, I don't think either imprint publishes fiction, and if I'm right, you're not going to be able to place your novel with them.

If your work is good enough, and commercial enough, you should find an agent interested in it if you do your research properly. But a big part of that is looking at what agents and publishers are interested in, and if you've written a novel there's no point targetting publishers which only publish non-fiction.

[callalily61]

I'm at work and my Net access is limited, but check out Prometheus Books. I think they take unagented fic.

[profen4]

Originally Posted by blacbird

I was at my local Barnes & Noble just yesterday, and didn't see a section for the "Esoteric" genre. In querying an agent, I wouldn't use that word. If it's realistic literary, maybe call it that.


caw

Totally agree. When I read your question the first thing I thought was, esoteric novel? Does the op mean something that is geared for a niche audience? I'm having a very hard time thinking of a novel that would be geared for a niche audience.
quan ao nu han quoc do lot nam cao cap dung cu tap an cho be vay lien cong so nu quan ao ban buon chup anh cho be re dep
And yes, you can search which agents have made deals with certain publishers - go to publishers marketplace.

[Cactus Land]

Hi Everyone,

Great feedback, you have really got me thinking again about how to approach this..I suppose what I have really gotten out of this is I should focus on getting an agent who has sold similar books, as I don't know enough about this market...

Thanks again