In 2025, what is your best resource for finding spec fic/sci-fi agents who have connections with "The Big 5"?

[Cairo Amani]

Hello community! [If this is not allowed, please redirect me]

I've been out of the game for 10 years. (My last published short was in 2016, and the last time I queried a novel was around 2018).

Back then, I lived in NYC, was fresh out of Sarah Lawrence, was constantly attending and speaking at writing events, and was in contact with all my writer friends, a few of whom have been published by the Big 5.

Fast forward to now, I've been working in tech for a decade, writing only as a hobby, and am completely distanced from that world. I live in Vegas.

My main source of finding agents looking for work like mine is MSWL.

What are your favorite sites for finding established agents who could get eyes from TOR, for example?

 

[Stytch]

Go down to the book store and open the end of every book that catches your eye. most authors will thank their agent there.

 

[Maryn]

I'm kind of old school in my method. My presumption is that if there is indeed such a website, every agent listed on it is going to be overwhelmed with queries from people who discovered the site. Some of them may have a manuscript the agent will want, but most will not, or are not yet ready. They'll query anyway, thereby tying up the agent who should be available for me and my manuscript.

So I go to multiple bookstores and look at what would be my competition if I were already published. I subtly photograph spines or covers. I read dedications and acknowledgements, where some authors will mention editors and agents.

At home, I do my research and figure out which agents repped the authors of the books I photographed, add it to the agents named in acknowledgements, and there's my A list.

 

[Cairo Amani]

I'm kind of old school in my method. My presumption is that if there is indeed such a website, every agent listed on it is going to be overwhelmed with queries from people who discovered the site. Some of them may have a manuscript the agent will want, but most will not, or are not yet ready. They'll query anyway, thereby tying up the agent who should be available for me and my manuscript.

So I go to multiple bookstores and look at what would be my competition if I were already published. I subtly photograph spines or covers. I read dedications and acknowledgements, where some authors will mention editors and agents.

At home, I do my research and figure out which agents repped the authors of the books I photographed, add it to the agents named in acknowledgements, and there's my A list.

Excellent point and strategy. Thank you!

 

[Iris Tea]

Adding that if you're on netgalley, it's very easy to see which upcoming books (available on netgalley as advanced reader copies) are being published by which publishers (TOR, William Morrow, Sourcebooks, etc.). All you have to do is find the books in your genre that are published under the publishers you're interested in, search up the authors and see who they're agented by.

 

[Mevrouw Bee]

Buy a $10 day pass from Publishers Marketplace and do a few searches?

I find the old "look at the acknowledgements within books" thing is a real crapshoot for me. Too many don't have one at all.

 

[lizmonster]

I haven’t queried in about as much time as you have, but I just filtered on QueryTracker for my genre, then researched agents one at a time. I got in the habit of checking AW first - often if there have been agent or agency dust-ups, Bewares is the best place to find the details.

Has MSWL improved? For spec fic agents, I found almost none of them that kept it up to date.

 

[Brigid Barry]

There's a site (either Query Tracker or AgentQuery) that when you look up an agent, you can see a list of their clients (maybe Publisher's Marketplace?). From there you could possibly cross reference the publisher's web site or look up the author and where they're published.

 

[lizmonster]

I might also be remiss if I didn't mention I've had 2 agents who repped multiple Big 5 authors, and they were both terrible. So don't be afraid to take a chance on a less-experienced agent if you click with them.