Does anyone know a good agent?

[AlienGirl]

I haven't actively sought publication in a couple of decades, but I'm thinking about trying to get serious about writing again. I'm pretty sure that to do this I'll need an agent, but I have no idea where to look for one or how to get one to notice me.

Does anyone here know a good agent? Or know where I can find one? I feel completely lost in the world of submissions and cover letters...

Tucker

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. you are much more likely to secure the services of an agent if you have

a completed manuscript in hand. You can always check out www.writersmarket.com and do a google search for "predators and editors" which is the best resource for sussing out who is a good editor/agent and who is preparing to screw you out of hundreds of dollars.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Spell it "Preditors and Editors"

It's a great site. Here's the link:

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/

By an odd coincidence, I just added that to my links page today.

Another one to check is Writer Beware:

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

[Taxloss]

3. I like my agent.

But he's UK based. So I can't help much.

Submissions and cover letters have a low hit rate. Consider setting up a website or a blog to showcase your writing. Agents do trawl through them - snagging an undiscovered talent is gold dust to them.

The important thing is to keep writing - dn't just write one thing you're really proud of and pin everything on that. Write, write, write.

[joeybee12]

4. Interesting idea about the web site...

...that idea has been going through my head these days, Do you know anyone who has set one up? Would you contact agents just letting them know about it?

I should start one and ask people here (unpublished as of yet) if they want to contribute.

BTW, are you in the UK also? As well as your agent, I mean!

[petgoat]

5. Look at the acknowledgements in a book you respect and see

if the agent is named there.

Then you have an instant lead-in for a personal letter to the
agent--why you like the book in question, how yours is similar
and how it's different.

[politicat]

6. Best advice I've ever read on the subject:

http://qwertyranch.blogspot.com/2005/09/finding-agents-and-publishers.html

It's short.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. That's very out-of-date advice

That was that standard way to do things some years ago.

The publishing world has changed, and not for the better. Nowadays, a manuscript sent to a major publisher by an unknown writer heads into oblivion, in most cases even if the writer starts with a query letter and is then told to send the ms. in.

The way things work now, it's best to start with query letters to agents.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

8. You're right

I don't know of any serious publishers - the kind that pay well - who accept "over-the-transom" mss. My publisher only accepts submissions from agents.

As for query letters to agent, I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but that's not any kind of way to go, either. The days of agencies - reputable ones, anyway - even reading beyond the first paragraph of those letters are long gone.

My agent told me that their agency, a small literary agency, gets more than 5,000 query letters a year. People send candy, cookies, stuffed animals, photos, all kinds of stuff just to get someone's attention. And it all gets thrown away. They used to respond, but they no longer do that.

The only way I know of now to get an agent to look at your work is to know someone who's already represented and ask that author to read your work. If he or she likes it, ask if it can go to the agent. That'll get you in the door, for a start.

It's such a rough business. I think it's harder to get an agent than it is to sell a book.

[Robert Cooper]

9. And your mailing address is? ;-)

Seriously, that's very depressing for those of us who aspire to be paid writers.

How many Shakespeares are out there who don't know an author with an agent?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. Indeed.......

And with conglomerates buying up the publishing houses, as they did in the '90s, the formulaic stuff just keeps getting rewritten, over and over. When I go into bookstores - which is an almost daily occurrence - I marvel at the stuff I see, so much of it uninteresting to me.

At the same time, I've railed for a while about the provincialism of Manhattan literary agents and editors/publishers who have lived in that city for far too long and are utterly oblivious to the sensibilities of the people Out There. There's no tinier village than mid-town Manhattan, where all the deals are made over lunches. That's deadly.

My agent's been in the business for almost thirty years, and, in all that time, she found one writer she took on who came to her via a query letter. Elizabeth George. So, do the math, and that's the cold, hard, heartbreaking reality.

There are, though, other ways to go if publication is your ambition (it was never mine), and that would be writing for local publications, magazines, assembling a resume and clip file, and then having something besides a finished ms to show to someone, maybe an editor at a newspaper who's hooked up with literary types. In this case, imagination - beyond that of plotting and character development - could serve someone very well, I bet.

[petgoat]

11. I found this book helpful in writing a pitch

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0399528288.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399528288/002-1905792-8092826?v=glance&n=283155

People should write the pitches before the book
is finished, since the pitch helps clarify what's
important and what's not.