What kind of agent to look for

misha_k

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I hope I have this in the right place. Please let me know if I don't.

I've been researching agents the past month and what I'm wondering is what kind of agent to look for. Here's my situation.

My kids and I have written a book set that talks about how they deal with my son's autism from their point of view. One book is from my son's POV and the other is from my daughters. It's the first set in eight we have planned out and I seriously want to see this set published so that we can hopefully do the same with the other ones.

Aside from the book sets I'm also writing a story that shows how my son deals with certain aspects of his world through an autistic mind. I want it to be a fun yet informative book and in that sense it's a little bit different from the book set. This in mind, I'd like to find an agent that will work with these two different ideas.

Along with all this I also have story outlines that would fall into fantasy/supernatural. This is something completely different from the autism-oriented books yet it's a genre I've always dabbled in.

My main focus will be the autism-related stuff yet I have no idea how to present my work to an agent that might be interested in my work. Also, should I try and find a separate agent interested in working with my fantasy/supernatural writing?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

dantem42

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I hope I have this in the right place. Please let me know if I don't.

I've been researching agents the past month and what I'm wondering is what kind of agent to look for. Here's my situation.

My kids and I have written a book set that talks about how they deal with my son's autism from their point of view. One book is from my son's POV and the other is from my daughters. It's the first set in eight we have planned out and I seriously want to see this set published so that we can hopefully do the same with the other ones.

Aside from the book sets I'm also writing a story that shows how my son deals with certain aspects of his world through an autistic mind. I want it to be a fun yet informative book and in that sense it's a little bit different from the book set. This in mind, I'd like to find an agent that will work with these two different ideas.

Along with all this I also have story outlines that would fall into fantasy/supernatural. This is something completely different from the autism-oriented books yet it's a genre I've always dabbled in.

My main focus will be the autism-related stuff yet I have no idea how to present my work to an agent that might be interested in my work. Also, should I try and find a separate agent interested in working with my fantasy/supernatural writing?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My first thought it to find authors of books that you have studied of a similar nature. There are many "living with" type books out there. Google the author's name and the word "agent". Many of the agents of these authors will pop out at you.

You will usually have a problem trying to get a situation with two separate agents. Most agent contracts are exclusive, that is, you can't have two separate agents for two separate books. However, you may be able to if for example, one agent specifically does not do fiction. He/she may agree for you to have a second agent to handle fiction.
 

misha_k

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My first thought it to find authors of books that you have studied of a similar nature. There are many "living with" type books out there. Google the author's name and the word "agent". Many of the agents of these authors will pop out at you.

Thanks for the advice. I have plans to spend some time at B&N looking through books on the subject and getting a list of authors. I also have some authors names from the Autism Society. I can add this step in.


You will usually have a problem trying to get a situation with two separate agents. Most agent contracts are exclusive, that is, you can't have two separate agents for two separate books. However, you may be able to if for example, one agent specifically does not do fiction. He/she may agree for you to have a second agent to handle fiction.

I didn't know how agents worked in regards to writing in two different genres. This helps a lot. This may be something I query about later then.


Thanks Orion. I'll look at that blog.