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Hi everybody, it's Julie again. Today I'm going to go over how to find the right literary agent for you.
I've done some other videos on literary agents, regarding how to query them and why you might want to.
But I haven't actually discussed how you go about finding the lists of them,
different ways that you can find out who wants what, and there are so many ways that you can do that in today's modern world, so.
First I'm going to tell you about some older traditional ways that people have been going about finding representation
for what they write until very recently things have changed with electronic submissions,
but in the old days, I used to use this, The Writer's Market. And you can see that it says 2008 on it--
that should give you some indication of how long I've been using other options.
But The Writer's Market is still a very good resource for people who prefer black and white,
physical copies of things. Of course the down side is going to be that it's going to be out of date
probably by the time that it's published. But The Writer's Market is usually available at the library.
And you can look into the representation section, they do have a literary agent section,
and there will usually be some kind of insightful statements on what the literary agent wants,
and them describing all of the different kind of genres that they might wanna be queried with.
So, this is still a valuable resource, but because of the disadvantages,
I don't recommend it as the primary way for you to search for literary agents.
Another way that you can find more agents would be writers' magazines.
I've subscribed to a few in my time. Sometimes they will have sections on literary agency representation,
and sometimes publishing options, and you can read their interviews and get an idea of who's looking for what,
same kind of thing. Of course magazines are more likely to be more recently updated, but they do go out of date very quickly.
Now from going on from the printed materials, most of the other resources are all going to be online.
There are quite a lot of websites out there that are dedicated to gathering information
about literary agents for you to use in your querying search.
Electronic querying is the method that worked for me, so I will discuss that first.
The overall idea is to go to one of these websites which lists literary agents,
and then use their available tools to find an agent who represents the kind of book you've written.
The sites all work a little bit differently, but they primarily function
as a way of making you aware of the agents' existence, after which you should always look at their agency websites
to get up-to-date information about their querying preferences and the final word on whether they are accepting submissions.
I'll go over each of these websites briefly to show you how to use them for your agent search.
The Association of Authors' Representatives is at aaronline.org.
They are a somewhat limited website that lists only the agents who are members of the AAR.
Many agents are NOT members of AAR, and that doesn't necessarily mean they're not a good agent--
especially if they declare on their website that they abide by the AAR Canon of Ethics despite not being a member.
The ethics they abide by mean they've never charged authors directly for their services
and are out to actually make money selling rights to publishers on behalf of authors.
Someone who isn't an AAR member but abides by the ethics code may have just not been an agent long enough
or might have other professional activity outside of agenting which prevents them from joining.
You will miss some good agents if you only look here, but it's a fine place to start;
just be advised that many of these agents are very established and may not be taking new clients.
To find agents, go to the "literary agents by e-mail" section of their site and it will pull up an alphabetical list.
You can simply browse from A to Z or use the search bar to look for genres or names.
The details will show their genre preferences and possibly recent sales.
Always get their submission guidelines from the listed websites; don't ever query them directly without looking those up.
Preditors & Editors is another site that can be found at pred-ed.com.
They're an old-school site that compiles information about agents, and their real strength
is identifying the agents who are scammers, and they'll sometimes tell you why.
If you go to their Agents & Attorneys section, you'll see it's basically a phone book for agents, organized by name.
It's not the best resource to look for agents because many of them won't be appropriate for you
and their genre preferences and agency information isn't usually listed,
but they're great for looking up dirt on agents if you already have one in mind.
Seeing this site praise an agent is always a good sign.
You can trust agents that are listed here as AAR members, agents whose names say "Recommended,"
or agents with dollar signs next to their names--the dollar signs mean they have confirmed sales that are researchable on the Internet.
Now let's look at AgentQuery, available at AgentQuery.com.
AgentQuery has a very sophisticated search function to help you narrow down all this information
and streamline it to focus on agents who represent what you write.
Over on the left side they have a keyword search, so you can type in your genre and agents will pop up.
Each agent will have genres listed and hyperlinks to their websites so you can go check them out.
Notice that there will be multiple pages of results! You can also get an early feeling for who is accepting queries and who is not.
Make sure you go to their sites to look at their submission guidelines.
Sometimes they're slightly different from what is listed on the AgentQuery site.
Clicking on their site can also give you a good idea of who the agents are and who they represent,
so you can use this information to find out if yours is a good fit with what they're already selling,
and they usually make submission guidelines easy to find if they have a decent site.
The AgentQuery site also has a drop-down list if you'd rather choose a fiction genre from the list instead of searching for a term.
You might also look at the various resources at the top of the AgentQuery page.
The resources section even has a section for agent and editor blogs,
and even if you don't want to query those particular agents, reading agent blogs and following them on their social media
can help you understand more about querying, publishing trends, and what it takes to get signed.
AgentQuery is the site I used the most when I was querying, so I highly recommend it.
And then there is QueryTracker.net. This site, though it's mainly supposed to be used by authors to track their query responses,
is actually a fantastic resource for finding agents, too. You don't have to have an account to search for agents here,
but consider signing up and reporting your querying data; it doesn't have to be public or shared with the site at all,
but your rate of rejection, response time, partial requests, full requests, and acceptances
are processed by the site and ultimately the data helps other writers know what to expect when querying certain agents.
To use the site, first go to the "agents" section. Choose "search for literary agents" and it will take you to an alphabetical list.
If you do not have a genre selected, it shows you all of the agents.
In the listings, if an agent has a "no" graphic next to their name,
it means that they've been reported as not accepting queries at the moment (or perhaps indefinitely).
You can still check their sites to see if that's changed, but this site keeps up to date pretty well.
The lightning-mail symbol means the agent accepts e-queries.
The computer-screen symbol means the agent has authors apply through an online form on their website.
To narrow down the list to only display agents who rep what you write, select a genre from the drop-down list on the left.
Once you do so, only agents who represent that genre will be in the list,
but you can further narrow it down OR expand it by choosing "and," "or," or "and not," and choosing another genre.
So if you write fantasy and young adult, and you'd ideally want your agent
to be able to represent all your projects, do this search and see who comes up.
Once you have a list of agents who represent your genres, you can click their individual names to see their Query Tracker profiles.
Here's one for my agent. You'll note that the profile includes all their social media links, their agency websites,
how they want to be queried or if they're open to queries, and all the tabs across the top can be clicked
to see QueryTracker members' comments on their experiences with the agent, what genres they rep, and even who their clients are.
You may also consider some websites that are not specifically geared toward literary agents,
but toward writing in general. Sometimes they will have an agent spotlight or an occasional interview.
Writer's Digest has a good agent spotlight. You can check out a pretty decent-sized list
of agent interviews wherein they'll talk about what they're looking for and provide insights into how to get their attention.
You'll get a sense of whether you want to work with them, and also, if they're accepting an interview
with Writer's Digest, they probably actively want new clients.
Another good site for agent interviews is Literary Rambles.
This site has all kinds of publishing information and fun, but they have a specific place to spotlight agents.
You can read about their schedule and then pick your genre.
This site only covers children's publishing, so they only go up to Young Adult agents.
You can check out the list of spotlighted agents if you're looking for someone in particular, too.
Another site you can try is Writer Unboxed. They have a digest feature called Uncaged
wherein they list some Twitter roundup info, and some of it has to do with agents.
The Agent Alert, under hashtag #WUAgent, will announce what agents are looking for
and tweet links to see their submission guidelines. You can follow Writer Unboxed on Twitter @WriterUnboxed,
or just come to their website for the collection they post at the end of each month.
Another site you should check out is Publishers Marketplace at publishersmarketplace.com.
Becoming a Publishers Marketplace member costs money, but subscribing to their newsletter is free.
You should subscribe to their newsletter and get their publishing news.
Publishers Lunch is a daily (or almost daily) e-mail newsletter. You sign up by registering.
Then you get all kinds of stuff in your inbox. You might not really care about some of it--
they have job postings and deal lists that are considered significant, but if you want to be a professional writer
you might want to keep your eye on some of the industry news anyway.
But as far as agents are concerned, sometimes in the "People" section of the newsletter
you'll get announcements about agents--who started a new agency, who moved to a new agency, who wants your stuff.
This isn't an agent-focused publication, but it is likely to be the FIRST place you'll hear about what some agents are doing, so it's a good bet.
Another option that's a little out in left field is pitching at conferences.
A Shaw Guides site provides a huge listing of what conferences and workshops are going on,
and certain conferences allow authors to sign up for a pitch session or participate in a pitch workshop with agents who are attending.
For instance, there's DFW Writers' Conference. They have a great pitch program and one of my agency siblings, Annie,
even got signed to my agent through a pitch session that happened there. Conferences are usually not cheap,
so you should probably choose wisely and go to them for way more than the chance at an agent,
but this is one way you can get signed, and I recommend the Shaw Guides site to find good conferences.
Next you could always try the contest circuit. Sometimes literary agents will participate in contests
that are organized by someone in the community, and they'll gather writers who are trying to find representation,
and they'll all enter, say, their query letters or their first 150 words, and the agents will participate
by looking at some of the weeded-out entries that get through to the higher levels of the contests, and they may make requests that way.
One blog you might want to follow for contests is Cupid's Literary Connection.
She is very active running contests that have authors sending in their entries
and having mentors give advice and choose winners, followed by agents stopping by the blog
to pick the writers they'd like to sample. Each contest runs differently, and sometimes (though not often) they have an entry fee.
I helped out as a mentor in Come and Get It one year, and it was a lot of fun.
Another blog that often does contests is Mother. Write. (Repeat.)
Krista participates in contests such as An Agent's Inbox and The Writer's Voice.
Watch her blog to see what she's participating in and see if you can hop in too.
Before I was agented I participated in The Writer's Voice and Krista gave me some nice feedback on my entry.
And there's Brenda Drake's blog. This gal has been very active in the contest circuit, organizing such gems as Pitch Madness and Pitch Wars.
Some of her contests groom contestants to have their entries viewed and bid on by agents,
and some have follow-ups on Twitter wherein the participating agents
will watch a contest hashtag and call out which manuscripts they want to see.
I'm supposed to be participating as a coach in the upcoming Pitch Wars contest.
Aspiring authors who want an agent can apply to get a coach, and if they're chosen,
they get personal feedback from one of us to be groomed for an agent round.
The contests are pretty exciting, and even when you don't get picked,
sometimes you will still get valuable comments from contest organizers or other participants.
And then there's Twitter.
First off, the obvious: Follow agents on Twitter. Sometimes they tweet about what they want,
or do interesting little tweet series about their query letters and what they're requesting or rejecting.
You can also check out who they're following and follow other people in the publishing industry--
or even if you don't want to follow them, you can still find agents' names that way and check out their websites.
GalleyCat has a great list of agents to follow on Twitter if you don't know where to start.
And hey, why not come follow me? I'm pretty cool. And I retweet stuff you might like.
But even better, there are also special Twitter-only inside scoops.
Try checking out the hashtag #MSWL, or Manuscript Wish List. Agents (and sometimes editors) will tweet
rather specific thoughts about what they want to see in their inboxes.
Manuscript Wish List events happen in coordinated streams, so you can spend all day on there checking it out--very overwhelming for some.
At Agent and Editor Wishlist Tumblr, you can see a well-organized list of the requests that come in
so you don't have to wade through the people talking about the hashtag rather than actually requesting on it.
Make sure before you go responding to the requests that you're approaching an agent, not an editor.
Publishers use this hashtag too and unless you specifically want to query a small publisher, stick to the agents.
(My agent has used Manuscript Wish List to find editors to query for my book, so it's a great tool for them too.)
You should try following people who do the contests or have active agenting-related accounts--
you'll figure out who they are just from watching your feed after you see who some of the people you start with are retweeting--
and you can hear about opportunities all over the place that way. I've seriously only covered a few of them
to get you started, and there's no way I could cover all the publishing-related hashtags or events
if I wanted to make this video stay under a reasonable length, so I'll have to wrap it up here.
Thanks very much for watching today, and if you know of a website or a resource
that I could recommend for writers that I didn't go over in this video, feel free to suggest it to me,
and I may be able to link it in the information section of this video! Thanks.