Finding an Agent

You send an extremely well written query letter to the agent you want to attract. FOLLOW the guidelines of the agent and the agency that you are querying.

GO TO: www.agentquery.com to find an agent that fits your genre, etc.

If you go to the Share Your Work section here-- the password is vista --you will find lots of help in the query letter department.

Good luck. Excellent writing in your query is of the utmost importance. There is also a lot of helpful information at agentquery.com that you can read.

In my experience, getting a publisher is easy, but getting a good publisher that will pay you is virtually impossible unless you first have an agent. A good agent. And getting a good agent is even more impossible than getting a good publisher. Unless you’re already published, that is. That might seem circular, and it is to some extent, but there’s a way out. If you can get short stories published in journals of note, those are perfectly good as publishing credits. Get enough of them, and eventually agents will take you seriously and actually read your query letter. This may take a while, though, anywhere between five and ten years. Because good journals are as swamped as good publishers and good agents.

In addition, some things that worked very well for me was to start reading the blogs of agents out there, especially ones I was interested in querying. You can learn a lot about the publishing industry through that, and what agents like and dislike, and who might be a good fit for your work. I aslo read a few books from each agent's client list to get a feel for who liked what. The more you know about the industry in general, and the agent/agency in particular, the better off you'll be.

Oh, you don't need to be published to get a good agent (sorry Julie!) All you need is a really great book. I was an unpublished, slush pile query and I made it. It's all about the book

Danthia said:

Oh, you don't need to be published to get a good agent (sorry Julie!) All you need is a really great book.

Click to expand...

Yes indeed, if your book is superior to the books already out there, and with a good dash of luck or a great deal of perseverance, it's possible to bypass the bio creating step. Lots of things are possible, but don't happen too often. But even with a great book, you won't get it published unless you can convince an agent to read it. And so you have to write a query letter that is so intriguing that they just have to. A few people have a knack for that. I've seen dynamite letters from people in marketing companies, for instance. Letters with a 50% success rate. But most people really suck at writing that sort of thing. It looks easy, but it isn't.

You ask the eternal question.

The first thing to do is complete your manuscript (since it's fiction) and be as sure as you can that it's as good as you can do, in all aspects, including editing and comments from beta readers and/or your critique group.

Research agencies and make a list of those who handle your type of work. Research the agents in each agency to whom you have to submit. Try and find out their likes, dislikes, who they handle, books they have placed, pubishers they have worked with, etc. Ultimately, make a list of those to whom you want to submit.

Write a fabulous query letter. This is your potential ticket to the ball. If it's bad or fair, you lose. If it's terrific, there's a good chance the agent will read some or all of your work.

Write a brief succinct cover letter which you can alter and use if an agent requests same.

Write a terrific synopsis (for the same reasons as the query letter).

Follow the agent's guidelines when submitting.

Submit to about 8 to 10 agents at a time. I suggest that after the first group is sent you wait 2 months before sending out the next group of 8-10. That way you may get the benefit of personalized responses from some of the first group. After sending out the second group of 8-10, continue to send out groups every 3-4 weeks. There's no science to this, so may you choose to do as others might suggest.

Keep accurate records of what sent, when sent, how sent, names, addresses, replies, etc.

Constantly rewrite (if necessary) while waiting for agents to reply and work on your next book.

Good luck and have patience--you'll need it!

Keep records