Looking for Literary Agents



One of the many daunting steps after completing a manuscript is to look for literary agents that might be interested in your manuscript and who might hopefully represent and help you try to break into what is, essentially, a difficult market.
Of course, before you do anything, it’s essential that you have proofread and polished your manuscript so that it is error free and has been correctly formatted. It needs to be complete in its entirety. Not only that, but you need to ensure your work is professionally presented. You won’t get far if you submit sloppy, untidy work accompanied by a badly written submission.
Looking for agents isn’t about picking a name and sending them your manuscript. It involves research. Literary agents vary on what genres they prefer, what lengths they work with and whether they specialise in fiction or non-fiction. Time spent looking at agents and what they require is time well spent.
In the UK, writers can use the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, which contains full listings of agents and publishers, together with submission guidelines, and in the US, the equivalent is the Writer’s Market. The internet is also a good way of finding more about agents that represent countries outside of the UK and the US such Australia, Canada, Europe and Asia. There are a lot of different websites that can help, for example Australian Literary Agents’ Association and the Canadian Authors Association. For areas such as Europe or Asia, and elsewhere, you can find individual literary agency pages listed on the internet by doing a search of literary agents within your country.
Look for agents that will represent your genre. Some agents specialise in one genre or they might handle several. You don’t want to waste their time or yours sending a romance novel if they only deal with YA books.
The internet is great way to look up the agents and their websites so that you can see the kind of genres they want, the authors they represent and how long they’ve been established. That gives you an idea of their track record. That way you can gauge how reputable they are and the quality they represent. You can also check out Absolute Write for more resources on literary agents, or the Writer Beware blog, which highlights the less reputable agents and publishers and scammers out there.
A literary agent has to fit your requirements as an author as much as you have to fit theirs, so look for the kind of agents you’ll be happy to work with, because if you are lucky enough to be accepted, you may be asked to change or tweak the manuscript in order to fit with what they are looking for. This is where many writers come unstuck, because they simply won’t change anything because it doesn’t need changing, and if you cannot accommodate their advice or suggestions, then finding an agent will be made all the more difficult. You may find yourself rejected.
If you want their expertise and advice, be professional, not childish.
Don’t rush the process and pick out names from a long list because they sound good. Look for what they specialise in. Look for reputation and the authors they represent. Look at their track record. Look at why they might be good for you and your book. 
It pays to do your research and due diligence.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Makes a Story Dark?

If you’re a horror writer or you love to write dark, psychological stories and thrillers, or moralistic tales, this is the one question that needs an answer. Wanting a dark story and writing one are two different things, so how do you actually make a story dark? To answer that you first have to understand what is meant by ‘dark’. We usually define ‘dark’ as quantifiable elements that we know and are familiar with, but it’s more than that. Dark doesn’t necessarily mean scary or gory with a crazy psychopath going around chopping people into bits. Instead we have to think of ‘dark ‘as anything outside our accepted rose-tinted reality. Dark is the underbelly of our society; it’s the handling of ideas, themes, social issues and behaviours that would be seen as morally unacceptable. It’s less about fictional monsters but more about the real monsters that lurk in the shadows, something that is underscored by our fears and anxieties. It’s the unknown, because the things we don’t know
Read more

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Just how long should a chapter be? What’s the best length? And does a novel have to fit into a set amount of words? These are just two of the most common questions asked by writers.   They assume they have to work to a strict template of X amount of words and X amount of chapters, usually because most novels have around 30 or 40 chapters and around 80,000 words.   Novel Lengths Firstly, let’s dispel a few myths - novel lengths are dictated by the story itself, not the writer or the editor or a specific written formula.   Secondly, writers don’t have to fit their word count into generic set amounts.   Again, the story will dictate how long the novel will be. It’s also worth knowing the different types of novels that work well with different word counts.   Uncomplicated stories containing minimal characters tend to be short – usually around 20,000 to 60,000 words.   These are called novellas. Longer, more complex stories, which contain a handful of main characters and periphe
Read more

Cadence in Writing

Following on from last week’s article about purple prose, cadence – something many writers haven’t heard of – is something that writers aspire to but don’t always manage it, yet it’s the fundamental difference between poetic language and over-indulgent, flowery prose. Cadence in writing is a sense of rhythm and pace, it lifts the narrative from the page and makes it dynamic; brings a certain tempo to the words and sentences; it’s what makes prose poetic, layered and fluid without it being extravagant. Cadence makes the writing visual and evocative, and to an extent, beautiful . It’s an important element in fiction writing, because without it, narrative certainly won’t be as effective. Writers don’t actively think about cadence – they simply want to write and get the words down. It’s not until later, while editing, that they realise that a sense of rhythm might be missing from their narrative. When poetic description works, it’s called cadence. When it doesn’t work, people ref
Read more