Do you have dream agents and how did you pick them?

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kaitie

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So I've got a question for you guys, which technically I suppose I already asked. ;)

I always see people discuss how you should go through a list of agents and pick out your top choices and the ones most likely to want your stuff. Thing is, I can't figure out how on earth people figure that out. I do have a few "top choice" people for myself, but those are either people who have blogs I read regularly or just someone who has what looks like a good combination of "What I'm looking for" listed somewhere.

What gets me about the process is that I know absolutely nothing about these people. Sometimes they'll give a sentence or two saying what they want, sometimes they'll just give genres. Even when someone says, "I like humorous novels," or "I like character driven stories," or whatever, how do I know that my opinion of what that means is the same as theirs?

The only thing I could even think of would be to read books agents represent and try to pick the ones most similar to my own, but there are hundreds of agents, and I certainly don't have the time to read through books represented by all of them to see which ones are similar, and even in that case don't some agents turn down authors on the basis of, "I already have a book like that?"

I always see people talking about their top picks, or having narrowed a list down to just a few agents, though, and I really would love to know how you do it. I've been working on a list for my current WIP and I feel kind of the same way about it that I felt last time I made my list--that there's no way of knowing who might be a good fit and the best choice would just be to send to anyone doing my genre and letting them decide.
 

Linda Adams

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I don't see how people get top choices either--but, for me, it's because of how I organize. I can't relate to prioritizing "To do" lists--everything on the list is important. Same thing for the agents--everyone on the list is important.

However, I've had agents come off the list, as in, I'm not going to submit to them. That came from doing research. One, when I visited his website, had such a irritating attitude that I instantly realized we'd never get along. Another (if he repped by new genre) would have never made it on the list because of some very ill-advised blogs he posted.
 

BrooklynLee

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There's so many agents that I found I needed to narrow them down. Obviously by genre, and if they were looking for new authors. But then I also looked at how they presented themselves -- it's fairly easy with some agents to find a statement on a web site or a blog or in an interview that tells you what they are looking for and help you get a feel for them. I found a few agents floated to the top in that way. Ultimately though, I think it's impossible to rank them unless you know far, far more about the agents than most people do.

I also found that once I started dealing with actual agents there were other ways to sift them (speed of response, level of enthusiasm, things like that)
 

kaitie

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I don't see how people get top choices either--but, for me, it's because of how I organize. I can't relate to prioritizing "To do" lists--everything on the list is important. Same thing for the agents--everyone on the list is important.

However, I've had agents come off the list, as in, I'm not going to submit to them. That came from doing research. One, when I visited his website, had such a irritating attitude that I instantly realized we'd never get along. Another (if he repped by new genre) would have never made it on the list because of some very ill-advised blogs he posted.

Yup, I've taken people off for the same reason. Sometimes if I read a thread on here and see a bunch of people raving about how awesome an agent is, I'll go add them to my list if they aren't there already (and they do the genre of course), but even in those cases I'm not sure I'd call one a dream agent per se. Just someone who sounds like they'd be good to have if they'd happen to be interested in me.
 

Wayne K

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This is my dream agent. Forget the Pulitzers and the Nobel prize winning authors he has, listen to the audio.

He asked me for the first fifty pages, so who knows?
 

kaitie

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Wow, way to go! I think the couple of people I'd actually go so far as to say I really, really would love to have are all such long shots it would never happen in my case haha.
 

Julie Worth

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Ultimately though, I think it's impossible to rank them unless you know far, far more about the agents than most people do.

I also found that once I started dealing with actual agents there were other ways to sift them (speed of response, level of enthusiasm, things like that)

This is exactly right. Generally it's easy to say which agents you don't want while it's impossible to say which agents you do, because your dream agent is, first and foremost, the one who falls in love with your work.
 

shaldna

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My dream agent is one who shares my vision for my work and is able to sell it. I don't have a particular agent that I want, but I do chose my queries based on who agents authors who writes similar stuff to mine.
 

kaitie

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That's what I think, too, Shaldna. Even the agents I like right now I might not get along with if we were to ever meet or talk for real. I don't actually know these people, so for me it's more someone who thinks they can sell my work and is passionate about it.

So how do people narrow? I mean, if I'm looking for everyone representing say commercial fic, suspense, and/or action/adventure or whatever, that's a TON of agents. When people say pick the person who looks like the best fit, how on earth do they know that?

I do plan to go for the, "query every single possible person before giving up" route still, but I'd like to have the people I think would be best near the front.
 

Wayne K

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I put a lot of time in the selection process. I picked my last agent because he makes movies out of books and I think this book would make a good movie.

Recent sales are another thing to consider.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I don't care if he or she doesn't love the book as long as they can sell it to someone who does.
 

shaldna

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So how do people narrow? I mean, if I'm looking for everyone representing say commercial fic, suspense, and/or action/adventure or whatever, that's a TON of agents. When people say pick the person who looks like the best fit, how on earth do they know that?


I start by taking a good hard look at what I have written. Lets say it's a sci fi. Great. That's loads of agents, right? Ok, so lets narrow it down, what sort of sci fi is it? Is it techno babble? Softcore? Real world? Space set? etc etc.

For instance, if I had written a modern day man vs machine/nature a al Jurassic Park or Westworld then I wouldn't query an agent who's primary list was filled with spaceships and laser guns.

Similarly, if I had written a YA vampire novel (gah!) then I would first look at those agents who were currently repping any of the multitude of black covered supernatural YA's out there.
 

Julie Worth

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Maybe I'm alone in this, but I don't care if he or she doesn't love the book as long as they can sell it to someone who does.

I can't imagine this happening for fiction, unless the writer has a track record.
 

Wayne K

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I can't either, I'm just saying as long as s/he sells it, they can hate it for all I care
 
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Phaeal

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First I collected all the agents who rep my genres. This gave me a 138 page data base (4 or 5 agents per page.) Then, according to my research into preferences, authors repped, sales, reputation, AAR membership, etc., I ranked all the agents. The dream agents are 1*. The super agents are 1. The good agents are 2. Fair, 3. No way, 4. Great or good but not currently accepting unsolicited queries, 5. Oh, and because this isn't complicated enough, an agent can be 1- or 2+, and so forth. The fives get a second rating -- how they'd be rated if they WERE taking unsolicited queries. ;)

I have a fair number of provisional dream agents. I won't know if they're really dreamy until I have actual contact with them. As it is, I change my rating of an agent as I collect more information, some of it concrete (more sales), some of it subjective (like or don't like the tone of websites, blogs, interviews, rejections/requests.) I also watch the Bewares forum closely -- very interesting info there.
 

kaitie

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Here's something odd to consider. My current story is...goodness knows what it is. A superhero amusing/semi-actiony occasionally suspenseful story. My next one is potentially fantasy, even though in my mind it fits horror/suspense better. My last one was straight up suspense.

Do I guess that I can call them all suspense and get by with that, or would I really need an agent who could sell all the different genres? Isn't that something an agent would tell me, though?

My first list was easier haha. This one's complicated.
 

Ken

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Here's something odd to consider. My current story is...goodness knows what it is. A superhero amusing/semi-actiony occasionally suspenseful story. My next one is potentially fantasy, even though in my mind it fits horror/suspense better. My last one was straight up suspense.

Do I guess that I can call them all suspense and get by with that, or would I really need an agent who could sell all the different genres? Isn't that something an agent would tell me, though?

My first list was easier haha. This one's complicated.

... maybe post a brief synopsis of your next work in both the fantasy and horror forums to see if members would qualify it as containing enough elements of the according genres to be classified as one or the other or both. G'luck :)
 

kaitie

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Well, I count suspense/horror as a spectrum category. I know I'm weird and agents don't, but I can see it being a bit horrorish and a bit suspenseful. I haven't written it yet to know which dominates. ;)

The current one I'm going to have to hear back from betas before I decide. It's weird. Or maybe it's obvious and I'm just weird. Also an option. It's a comic book with a hint of satire in novel form. How's that? ;)
 

Mr Flibble

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Dream agents = agents who rep authors I love. They love a book, I love it, better chance they'll love me.


There is a prominent agent I could query. But I've read books by several of his clients and didn't really like any of them. The chances of them liking my stuff is minimal to non existent. It doesn't matter how prominent an agent is, what their sales record is like, if they don't rep stuff I enjoy, we're probably not going to fit.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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My dream agents were simply the top agents in my genre, based on who their clients are (do they write stories similar to mine), sales, and based on their reputations among other agents and writers.

They've all rejected me. So now they've moved from "dream agents" to "jerk agents." :D
 

ChaosTitan

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This is exactly right. Generally it's easy to say which agents you don't want while it's impossible to say which agents you do, because your dream agent is, first and foremost, the one who falls in love with your work.

This is how I chose to sign with my agent.

When I was querying, I sent queries to agents whose clients I'd heard of or liked, of who I've read about online, or whose blogs I followed. They were making deals and they had active Urban Fantasy/paranormal authors on their lists.

I had two partials out with two of those heavy hitters, and a full out with a less-heavy but still well-known agent when I received an offer of representation from an agent I never queried. I was referred to him by an agent I had queried, so all I really knew about him is he had a boutique agency, several fiction and nonfiction clients, and one pretty new UF author (whose first deal he'd just made).

He read it over a weekend and offered on a Tuesday. After communicating with the other three agents, I accepted his offer. And even though I was only his second UF author, it was his enthusiasm for both the book and my future that really sold me. He loved the book, loves my writing, and he fights for the best deal he can get me. In less than two years, he sold six books for me.

That's the kind of agent I want. Agents are advocates for your career, not dime-a-dozen salesmen.
 

Southern Girl

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Hmm. Good question. For me, it falls into two categories. Dream agents who I think will pimp my work to the nth degree, and dream agents who I really like as individuals.

There's only one that falls in the last category, and only because we've gotten to know each other over the course of a few months. I'd love to work with her because I get her and she gets me. As far as how aggressive she'd be with my book, I'm not sure ...but I have a lot of faith in her.

The former category has about a handful of names, all agents who repped other authors in my genre and who made huge sales for them. But I don't feel like I "know" them as people, so I don't know how well I'd get along with them.

So it's hard to say. In the end, I'd like to have a combination of the two. :)
 

CheyElizabeth

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I've long since stalked YA agent's blogs and twitters, so I had a rough list of who I liked as a person to query.

Then I got a subscription to Publisher's Marketplace. I took my huge list of agents who rep YA and searched them, ranked them in order of the most deals made, then the order of most deals made with my type of YA book, then those became my super awesome top agents.

Of course, personality wins over all. I have two *dream* agents based on website/blogs/twitters they've posted that make me think my book would be awesome for them.

In all, it took about 2 years research to gather my list of about 50 agents.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Learn which books the agent has sold. Read several of these books. You don't have enough time not to read them. There is no other way to know whether the agent will like your voice, your type of story, has the same sense of humor, etc.

Investing some time up front can save time tenfold on the back side.
 
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