Finding what agent represents who, and which books?

mesh138 said:

1. Let's say there's an agent you are interested in, but you're not sure what books he or she has sold, only what sort of books they have sold. How could you find out some of their sales?

2. Let's say you write a certain style, and wanted to locate an agent who has sold books similar to yours. MAybe you're like Stephen King. How would you locate his agent. (Just as an example.)

3. Thanks.

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1. Most agents list their authors on their websites. Check those authors and books.

2. I type in the author's name and "agent". For instance, I just tried "Andrea Levy" (an autor who writes similar books to mine) and "agent", and googled. The first entry was David Grossman Literary agency - question answered!

To find out what the agent sales are try subscribing to Publishers Weekly, the weekly magazine, and Publishers Marketplace (http://www.publishersmarketplace.com), a searchable database of agent deals (it doesn't contain deals for all agents though). If you run across a book that fits in with what you're writing, look at any acknowledgements by the author; sometimes they mention the agent. Plus, run a general search on the agent on the Internet.

Occasionally, that information is kept confidential, but you can usually find out after a while on Google.

Good questions. This is a recent resource I've found that I believe only works on children's books, but if anyone's interested:

Something About the Author, a reference book series published by Gale constantly updates its list of author biographies and in many cases gives the author's agent and/or agency. In cases where the agent is not listed, the author's e-mail or contact information is listed so you can contact him/her and ask who represents his or her work.

Gale publishes other reference books that give bios of authors who write for adults, but I'm not sure if you can find the agent listed there.