One of our guest authors mentioned the website Agent Query as the place where she found her literary agent. So I went and checked it out and realized that I have come across this wonderful site before. It’s chock full of information about literary agents and it seems legit. You can search the database of agents with your own terms, and I found that my agent is listed as are other agents I know about. If this website had been around when I was starting out, I would have spent a lot of time on it.

Agent Query claims the database includes more than 900 “reputable” literary agents and their contact information. Agent profiles also include information such as the genres the agents specialize in and some of the authors represented along with the authors’ book titles (although this is not always up-to-date with the agent’s most recent acquisitions). In summary, the listings tell you everything you need to know about the agents short of whether he or she will represent you. And for that you’ll have to get busy querying the agents. For more on that see, How to Find A Literary Agent.

Agent Query has some very good articles for aspiring authors. I particularly like the one called “Beware of Scammers.”

Here’s a short excerpt–

How do I tell a reputable literary agent from a questionable one?
Legitimate literary agents make their professional livelihoods from the commissions they earn through the sale of their clients’ books to publishers. Reputable agents do not charge fees to review manuscripts, they do not refer writers to fee-charging editorial services, and they do not charge their clients up-front fees to cover the costs of doing business. Reputable agents earn their money through a 10-20% commission of the sale of book rights to domestic and foreign book publishers. Real literary agents with real book sales have real publishing contacts. They know editors. They know what editors like to read. And most importantly, literary agents know what specific editors want to buy.

Agent Query also has information about large and small publishers, writers’ conferences, grants for writers and much more. And it’s all free!

More information about finding a literary agent–

Writing Tips: How to Find a Literary Agent

Writing Tips: Literary Agent or Publisher?

Carleen Brice is a fiction and nonfiction author and also editor of the anthology Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife. She is a two-time finalist for the Colorado Book Award in nonfiction. Her first novel, Orange Mint and Honey (don’t you just love the title?) was published in February of this year to outstanding reviews from Essence magazine and others.

Connie Briscoe: You had been very successful writing nonfiction, including Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color, which sold more than 100,000 copies. Why did you decide to write a novel?

Carleen Brice: Fiction is where my heart is, but I think I was too chicken to start out with fiction. Writing a novel seemed like something other, more “special” people did, like going to the moon or something. My husband encouraged me to give it a shot, and I’m glad I did!

CB: How did you come up with the story idea and title for Orange Mint and Honey?

Carleen Brice: I set out to write a mother-daughter story about forgiveness and redemption. As I worked on it, it evolved to include the themes of gardening and music. The title comes from the orange mint the mother grows and uses to make tea, which she serves with honey. It’s symbolic of bitter and sweet coming together.

CB: Interesting. How much did you draw from your real life for the novel?

Carleen Brice: I have felt all the emotions the characters express: jealousy, resentment, love, joy, surprise, sorrow. And the characters have bits and pieces of my personality and the traits and personalities of people around me. But this novel isn’t directly autobiographical.

CB: Do you think that you’re strongest at developing plots, creating characters, writing dialog or something else?

Carleen Brice: Characters and dialog are my strong suits. Plot is definitely hardest for me, but I’d say that now after two novels I’m starting to get the hang of it.

CB: What has the publisher done to help you promote the book? What are you doing yourself, if anything?

Continue reading →

In an earlier post I suggested that fiction writers find a book agent before submitting to publishers. Naturally someone asked the logical question: OK, so how do I find a book agent? I’ll try to answer that here. Of course there are many ways to go about this, and I’m not saying that this is the only way or even the best way for everyone. But it is my way.

Here’s how I did it and I see no reason why it can’t work today. It goes without saying–but I’m going to say it anyway–make sure your manuscript is polished to perfection! This is the most important bit of information in this whole article. No method in the world is going to get you a book agent if you don’t have a great book.

1) Write at least the first 50 pages of your novel and a detailed synopsis of the rest of it. If this is a longer novel–say 400 manuscript pages or more–you might want to write up to 100 pages. Rewrite and polish it. I can’t say this enough. I spent almost as much time on the first several chapters of my first novel as I did on the rest of it. I knew that as an unknown, my work had to be fierce to attract an agent.

2) Write a query letter, which should be only one to two pages long, briefly summarizing your novel and the main characters. A lot of books out there will tell you how to write a good query letter. You might want to head to the library or bookstore to check out one or two of them, as this letter is likely the first thing the agent will read. If you don’t impress her or him with the query letter, the rest will never be looked at. If you can’t write a good query letter, why should an agent expect you to be able to write a whole novel?

3) While you’re at the bookstore look for a book that lists literary or book agents and their contact information. The book should also mention the kinds of books the agents will consider. Most book agents specialize in a few or maybe several genres, and it would be a waste of time to send a manuscript for a mystery novel to an agent who will consider only romance novels. And you certainly don’t want to send an idea for a novel to an agent who accepts only nonfiction.

4) Pick three to five agents and send the query letter, sample chapters and synopsis, neatly packaged, out to them. It’s OK to submit to more than one agent at a time as long as you say in your letter that this is a multiple submission and that you’ve sent the same package to a few other agents.

5) Now you wait. Sit back, relax. Go shopping, spend time with your family. Read a good book! I began to hear back from agents within about a week of mailing my packages. It may take longer now. With computers on every desktop (and laptop), far more manuscripts are floating around out there. I would suggest that if you haven’t heard back within about a month that you submit to four or five more agents.

If you’ve followed the above steps two or three times and still haven’t heard anything, you might want to review and rework your submission package. Is the query letter brief, interesting and well written? Does it hook the reader in the first paragraph? Does the synopsis leave the reader wanting more? Do the chapters flow smoothly and are they error proof?

How long should you keep submitting? Only you can answer that. I found my agent with my first submissions. Later this week, we’ll hear from author Anita Bunkley, who got dozens of rejections before she finally found a publisher.

Photo credit: borisyankov/iStockphoto

Tomorrow (1/23) we begin an exciting new feature here on Page One–guest bloggers. About once a week a guest will be featured in a question and answer interview or an article. Guests will include authors, editors, publicists, agents–anyone who deals with books. The focus will be on how authors write and promote their work.

Tomorrow: Francis Ray, one of the most prolific romance authors around, has written 20 novels and contributed to a dozen anthologies. And she’s still going strong, with another novel–Not Even If You Begged–due out this week. In this interview with me, Ray tells us how she does it and how events in her life have influenced her writing.

If you had asked me this question several years ago, I would have said either was fine, with a slight preference for literary agents. Now I will tell aspiring authors to definitely try to find an agent before submitting to publishers.

Sending to publishers without an agent is still doable, as editors are always on the lookout for good books, but there are so many compelling reasons for submitting through an agent. Here are some of them.

1. An early second set of eyes. If you can get a reputable agent interested in your manuscript, chances are better that a publisher will like it and buy it. When I was writing my first novel I sent a query letter and the first three chapters to about five literary agents. One contacted me within days and said that when I finished the novel, she’d gladly represent me.

That was the fuel I needed to get going. A New York literary agent was interested in my work, so move over people. Nothing was going to get in my way now. About a year later I finished the novel and sent it to her. She went on and sold the work within days to a new editor at HarperCollins who was interested in the kind of fiction I was writing.

2. A good agent has contacts and knows the publishing houses inside and out. He or she knows which publishers and editors are looking for work like yours. You can research the market and learn some things yourself, but all the research in the world won’t beat having an agent who is meeting and lunching with the editors at publishing houses represent your work. And besides, wouldn’t you rather focus on your writing and let someone else do that stuff?

3. With computers on every desktop, writers are churning out manuscripts faster than ever before. Editors are being flooded with manuscripts. The result is that unsolicited, unagented manuscripts submitted directly to publishers sit in the slush pile longer. When an agent submits a manuscript, editors know that someone who is knowledgeable about the market thinks this is a good book and they will review it far more quickly.

4. If you’re an African American author, the road to publishing glory got a lot bumpier over recent years. Far fewer manuscripts by African American authors are being accepted by publishers now than were in the 1990s. In fact many previously published authors can’t get book deals. A reputable agent can to help smooth the road out a bit.

5. A good agent won’t stop after selling publication rights to a book publisher. He or she will help you try to sell paperback rights, foreign market rights, audio and electronic rights, television and movie rights and more if those markets are appropriate for your book.

6. An agent can likely get you a better financial deal. Need I say more?

Of course, all of this applies only if you’ve got a great manuscript that you have polished to perfection before you submit it.

Photo credit: Sharon Dominick/iStockphoto