Place to do research on agents?

These are 2 good free online resources:

querytracker.net: http://www.querytracker.net/

agentquery: http://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx

Publisher's Marketplace (http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/) is also good, but I believe you need to subscribe to get its full services.

gan_naire said:

I remember being told here of a few websites to go to where I could find a list of active agents, if they were good or bad, how many people they were working with, how many novles they'd sold, etc.

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I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but Preditors and Editors is always a good place to research whether an agent is legitimate or not.

Also, if I find an agent I want to work with, how do I find out how they like to take submissions, like formatting, email or no email subs, etc.

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Agentquery does sometimes have some of their submission guidelines, but the best thing you can do for this is find the agency's website. Google the agent and almost always you can come up with their website where they'll specify how they want their submissions done. Usually you can also find a blog, where the agent may go into more detail about what they're looking for.

And one more quick question, on average, how long does it take to get a response from agents?

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This varies. My agent got back to me within hours of sending out the query, some may not get back to you for weeks. Usually agents have an approximate timeline on their website, usually 4-6 weeks. If you haven't heard back from an agent in about 8 weeks, that's usually the ok mark to nudge them to make sure they got your query. (This is, of course, if they don't specify on their website that no-response means no. )

AW also has an amazingly useful section here. This is where people can write specific information about an agent or agency, and you can often get a good idea of response times. If you Google the agent/agency and absolute write, the relevant thread will most likely be one of the first listed.

Preditors and Editors is good to make sure you're not querying a lemon. Write Beware is also good just to double check that an agent is reputable.

I recommend this blog. It's run by Writer's Digest and profiles lots of agents. Posts are really frequent, too.

gan_naire said:

I remember being told here of a few websites to go to where I could find a list of active agents, if they were good or bad, how many people they were working with, how many novles they'd sold, etc. I had them in my favorites on my old laptop, before that laptop and my beer decided to have a party and piss me off. In the end the computer had to learn a lesson the hard way by being put down via fire, and I had to get a new computer.

Also, if I find an agent I want to work with, how do I find out how they like to take submissions, like formatting, email or no email subs, etc.

And one more quick question, on average, how long does it take to get a response from agents?

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In addition to the sites mentioned below, the AAR (Association of Authors' Representives) has a list of all member agents and questions you might want to ask them.

gan_naire said:

I've been glancing at the websites AgentQuery, AAR and Preditors and Editors, man there are just so many agents out there. I'm mainly into suspense novels, though I have thought up a few psychological thrillers that are borderline fantasy (I think). I'm searching by the suspense agents mainly, but what are some things to look for to narrow a search down and find the one(s) that may be best suited for me? I'm sure theres a place on here for just that conversation too.

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Use AQ or QT to generate your list. Don't try to limit the list at this point. Don't trust AQ or QT to show you the most up-to-date information, as that depends on how often the agents update their profiles.

Now use your google-fu to find out everything you can about each of the agencies on the list. When you decide to Q a specific agent, use the agent's website submission info. If there's no website, no blog, and no Publisher's Marketplace entry, then rely on QT or AQ, but be prepared for some snippy rejects. And no, you don't get to tell them to go fix their profiles, either.

QT shows almost 600 agents repping commercial OR suspense/thriller. (Always include commercial along with your genre/genres when searching, as many agencies that rep all genres just specify commercial.)

Hope that helps.
Stan

Use Query Tracker to find the agents, then go to their individual websites. That's the easy bit, as you'll find out submission guidelines on the websites, and the comments about the agents on Query Tracker will give you an idea about how long they each take to respond.

But if I were you, I'd go deeper. A trick I do is to Google "(agent's name) interview". Often you'll find an interview which'll tell you a lot more about what the agent's looking for than you'll find on their website, and it may also tell you exactly what they like and dislike in a query letter.

And that's why you don't just whisk off the same query letter to every agent. Make sure you personalise each one, and do your research. Takes longer, but every little helps when it comes to competing against the hundreds of other authors who'll be writing to that agency in the same week as you. Anything to get ahead, right?

gan_naire said:

I've been glancing at the websites AgentQuery, AAR and Preditors and Editors, man there are just so many agents out there. I'm mainly into suspense novels, though I have thought up a few psychological thrillers that are borderline fantasy (I think). I'm searching by the suspense agents mainly, but what are some things to look for to narrow a search down and find the one(s) that may be best suited for me? I'm sure theres a place on here for just that conversation too.

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I think this is one of the harder aspects. With minimal legwork you can find out if an agent/agency has glaring red flags. But which agent is the best fit for your work? That takes a bit more time. One potential way is to try to identify some books that are similar to your work. It doesn't have to be an exact fit, but you could see your book sitting next to it on the shelf. Find out who agented the book by reading the acknowledgements or using Google Fu. I'm also a fan of reading agent interviews/blogs to get a feel for what they're looking for and general personality/interests. Good luck.

I like query tracker the best because each agent page has the link to P&E to check them out,