Finding a Great Literary Agent
- In This Quick Guide:
- Affiliations
- Screening an Agent
- Where to Look for Agents
- Send Queries
- Exclusive Territory
- The Good Agent
If you’re a first-time author and want to sell your book idea to a large national publisher, you need an agent. In this guide, we tell you what you need to know to find a good one.
Affiliations
So how do you tell if an agent is the real thing? A large percentage of established agents in the business are members of the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR), the largest professional association of literary and dramatic agents for authors. To get a list of all its members or to search for an agent by name or interests, visit the association’s free website.
What does this list tell you? That the agents listed are what they say they are: experienced literary agents. To become a member of the AAR, you must be a well-established agent with several contracts negotiated on behalf of authors with major publishing houses. In addition, you must pass a rigorous application and screening process and agree to abide by the AAR’s strict Canon of Ethics.
In their Canon of Ethics, the members of AAR pledge loyal service to their clients’ needs. A member’s accounts must be open to the client at all times with respect to the client’s transactions, and members promise not to represent both buyer and seller in the same transaction. The AAR believes that the practice of agents charging clients or potential clients for reading and evaluating literary works (including outlines, proposals, and manuscripts) is subject to serious abuse that reflects adversely on the profession. Current and future members may not charge for reading and evaluating literary works and may not benefit from the charging of such fees by any other person or entity.
Screening an Agent
Are all good agents members of the AAR? Are all members of the AAR good agents? Many good agents are not members of the AAR and don’t charge fees. But evaluating them may prove difficult without checking with an association.
After an agent has offered to represent you, but before you sign up, feel free to ask for names and phone numbers of other clients. The agent should happily let you speak to some of his clients to get a better sense of who they are. If an agent is reluctant to hook you up with any other clients, take this as a red flag.
Not sure what kinds of questions you should ask an agent before agreeing to let him represent you? Here are a few questions that will help you sound him out:
- How long have you been in business as an agent?
- Do you have specialists at your agency who handle television and movie rights?
- Do you represent other authors in my area of interest?
- What is your commission?
- Do you issue 1099 (nonemployee) tax forms at the end of the year?
- What kinds of books have you sold lately?
You owe it to yourself and your book to be rigorous in your evaluation of a potential agent. Do most of your early research through books, online, and via any personal sources you might have. Don’t call and ask agents for their biographies or the names of potential clients until they’ve offered to represent you. After they’ve offered to represent you, it’s perfectly proper to ask such questions.
Where to Look for Agents
So where else do they hide, these agents? New York–area agents might have an easier time accessing New York editors face to face, but excellent agents live all around the country. Agents outside the Big Apple make frequent trips to New York. They pack their appetites in their carry-ons and schedule their breakfasts, lunches, dinners, drinks, and coffee dates with as many publishers as they can.
Besides checking the membership list of the AAR, you can find agents several other ways.
Look in a Book
The Literary Market Place is a very good but very expensive professional reference. Although it’s full of information, only one of the many sections in it is devoted to agents, so unless you plan to dive into the publishing business full time, you’re better off with the more commercial books for writers.
Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents is put together by literary agent Jeff Herman. He’s been doing it forever it seems, and he includes lots of personal and professional information about the agents he lists. Each agent listing includes the agent’s description of the type of book he or she likes to represent and the type of book he or she never wants to see again. If you’re just beginning your search for an agent, Herman’s book is great. Be sure to get the most current edition available because the listings change every year.
The Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents lists more than 750 agents who “sell what you write.” It’s concise, is kept up to date, and is an excellent resource not just for finding agents, but also for learning about the publishing industry. Buying a copy also gives you access to all their online information.
Face to Face
A great way to find an agent is through a recommendation from a friend or colleague, particularly a published friend or colleague. But what if you don’t know any other writers? Get thee to a writers’ conference!
In any given month, somewhere around the country, a writers’ conference is being held. Most organizers of writers’ conferences arrange to have a few agents on hand for potential authors to meet. These meetings are invaluable. Not only do they give you a chance to shake a live agent’s hand, but you also can often arrange for personal appointments with agents to discuss your project. This is time you wouldn’t be able to get from them on the phone with a cold call.
The important thing to remember when attending a conference where agents are present is not to rush yourself to the point where you think you need to finish the novel you started last Thursday or write a book proposal in one day just because you’ll have the opportunity to discuss it with an agent. Agents are used to getting follow-up contacts long after the conference is a distant memory. If they’re not in business that long, you’d be wise to select another agent anyway.
“I’d Like to Thank My Agent …”
Don’t know any writers? Can’t get to a writers’ conference? Well, you can open a book, right? That’s a great place to find agents! Take a book, any book, off the shelf. Open it to the acknowledgments page. (Not all books have such a page, but many if not most do.) This is where the author thanks his family for their patience, his editor for her guidance, and his agent for all those lunches.
Looking in the acknowledgments is a great tactic for finding an agent, particularly when you need to find one who represents books in your area. Writing a health book? Look inside the health books you admire. Writing a romance novel? Check out recently published romances. This method helps you find the agent who might be open to your type of writing.
Send Queries
So you’ve looked inside your favorite books. You checked out the AAR site, and you met eight great agents at a writers’ conference last weekend. You’ve highlighted, cross-checked, and pondered the selections. You know which agents represent your area. Do you have to just choose one? No! You’re in luck. It’s perfectly acceptable to send multiple queries, or queries to more than one agent at one time.
Still, you want to be somewhat selective about whom you send your precious queries to. What if they all responded at once and they all said “Yes”? Select your hottest prospects first.
Exclusive Territory
When an agent does respond and requests more material from you, she might also ask for an exclusive for a limited amount of time; 3 or 4 weeks is standard. What does an exclusive mean? It means that for the next 3 or 4 weeks, she can study your material closely and not have to worry that you might be swiped out from under her by another agent.
If an agent chooses you, do you have to choose her? No. But realistically, if someone does want to represent you and offers you a reasonable author/agent agreement (and if she doesn’t seem obnoxious), well, why not? Don’t try to interest an agent you really don’t want. You will waste both your time and hers.
The Good Agent
The best things to look for in an agent include the following:
- An established reputation
- A reputation for selling books in your field
- Accessibility (after she’s become your agent)
- A manner that lends itself to comfortable communication
- A passion about her work—and about yours
If you can’t find all these qualities in an agent who responds to you, move down your list until you do.
Armed with this information, you should be able to find a great agent who will get you published, and help turn you into a best-selling author! Good luck!
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published, Fifth Edition, by Sheree Bykofsky and Jennifer Basye Sander
