Should I Mention This?

jruby said:

I'm sure this has been asked before, in fact I remember reading it somewhere, but I can't find it. I was reading this book recently and since it's like what I'm writing I looked up the agent for the author. Should I mention that because the agent reps this book, I thought mine might be a good fit. Or should I not mention it?

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It's a gut check moment - could be the agent will be impressed with your research and think, "Great, I'd love another book like that!" or it could be the agent will think, "Well, but I sold that one, and I have that authors next book, which is also like that one, so i don't have room for another."

So, it can show some personalization, which might help, a bit... but in all likelihood it probably won't hurt or help all that much - the agent is going to see the pitch and then decide on that whether to look at the included pages.

~suki

YES!

Personalization is great. Tell him you're writing to him because of that book.

Agreed. Definitely mention. Any genuine reference to one of the agent's clients' books starts you out in a very nice place.

The only thing I'd suggest is to use a little caution with how you do it. Perhaps the agent has been looking for another book just like his/her client's, or maybe the agent feels s/he has already done that, or is full up on that sort of book, or doesn't want to rep competing titles. Rather than saying something like, "I know you repped IGUANA IN A FUR COAT, and I've written BIG LIZARD FEELS THE CHILL," you may want to consider just stating that you're a huge fan of IIAFC, and that while your writing is similar to the author's in A, B and C, yours does X, Y, and X. And then let the query show that.

Good luck!

I did that. You can also phrase it in a way that doesn't say "this is just like that." You can say it has a similar tone, style, voice, theme, etc.

If the two books might be in direct competition for each other, say two mysteries series about amateur sleuths who solve crimes by reading tea leaves for clients in a sleepy seaside town, then you might run into some trouble. But if your book falls inline with the type of book an agent already reps, it's often a plus.

I think a nice and commonly-utilised phrase is somethign like "(my novel) BIG LIZARD FEELS THE CHILL will appeal to fans of Eddie Lizzard's IGUANA IN A FUR COAT" (to steal Giant Baby's cute example titles!)