Why Would You Even Want An Agent?
There are usually two reasons for finding a literary agent. The first is you are willing to spend the time and the extra effort to be published by one of the more established publishing houses such as Simon & Schuster.
Another reason to find an agent is that you are suffering from a badly bruised ego. You wrote the book. Actually, you wrote an interesting book. You had a good plot, your editing was good, and you really believed it should have done rather well. Self-publishing was your chosen venue, and you did it well. The problem is that your book is available as an e-publication and as a printed volume. In four months you’ve sold seven copies prompting zero commentaries. You are really hurt. Your book is better than that. If you are brutally honest with yourself, it will not take long to realize that while you may be a reasonably good writer, you are a lousy salesperson, and in the self-publishing arena, bad salespeople usually fail at selling their work.
Now that you are almost half finished with the next book, you owe it to the book to give it a better chance. The way to do that is to submit to the major traditional publishing houses. That step will almost always guarantee your receipt of a rejection letter stating they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts or queries.
An agent represents you because he (could be she, or any variety of current sexual preference) likes what you have written. He thinks what you have written is marketable, and he will get you past that first step. He will get someone in that traditional publishing house to take a determined look at your book. What a fantastic ego boost. But that’s not the only reason to have an agent.
Once you have reached a suitable agreement, your agent will point out whatever grammatical errors and deficiencies still remain in your book. Some of these might be nitpicking to you, but remember your agent knows the quirks of the bigger publishing houses. No matter how absurd it might strike you as being, try to follow your agent’s suggestions.
When you and your agent have signed your contract be assured he already has at least two, possibly more publishers he wants to see your book. To you, your book is finished and ready to roll through the printing press. Your agent might ask that you further develop a character or two. He might suggest some enhancements or changes to the plot. If you don’t agree, discuss in great detail. The communication over changes is critical to your success as a writer and his as your agent. Mutual communication between you both is crucial to your long term relationship.
OK. I Want An Agent. How Do I Find One?
The first and easiest way to find an agent is similar to the old fashioned word of mouth. You may, or should, belong to various writers’ groups. Probably, you are on at least one interactive writing group via Facebook. Drop the word you are looking for a literary agent in those groups who share your genre and try to ascertain if any of them use an agent. Those who try and convince you to not use an agent are as entitled to their opinion as you are to yours. Treat them accordingly.
A tried and proven methodology to find an agent is looking at the acknowledgments section of one of your favorite books. Usually, the author will thank the agent by name. You can then use Google to track down information about that agent and make contact with them.
You can use the search feature of Writers Digest to find listings of and about various agents. https://www.writersdigest.com/?s=Agents&submit=This provides helpful articles about finding agents as well as information about agents who are actively looking for clients. Look for agents who specify their genres of interest. If you have written a romance, an agent specializing in Westerns is probably not the best person to handle your book.
Another reference for finding an agent is The Association of Authors’ Representatives. http://aaronline.org/ This group has a roster of slightly over 300 member agents. I do need to state that this reference was provided to me second hand. I have had no contact with them. I mention that only because their web page is not secure. If that is of concern, please disregard the reference.
My last reference is also my favorite for almost all things writing. Poets and Writers magazine hosts a very large database of agents, https://www.pw.org/literary_agents.
Not Enough Information
There are still two salient points which should be covered. The first is how to make contact with a viable agent. The second concerns how you should agree on a contractual agreement.
The query letter might be one of the most important letters you ever pen. You certainly don’t expect the agent to read your entire novel as a form of introduction. There are definitive ways to intrigue your potential agent, and you want to know and understand these methods. This topic will be discussed in detail in my next post.
The second post pertains to the contract, which will bind you to him and him to you. There are pitfalls you need to be wary of, and there are things he will be wary of as well. This final post in the series will appear after the post dealing with the query letter.