How I found an agent
First, some ways that didn’t work…
Winning the Austin Writers’ League (now the Writers’ League of Texas) manuscript competition in conjunction with their 2000 agents and editors conference was a great springboard for launching me and my novel into print. Nearly as valuable as the contacts I made was the opportunity to ask questions and to network with publishing professionals. But, though I met a number of agents at the conference, a couple of whom asked to see a portion of my novel, none elected to represent me.
There are a number of guidebooks for the writer in search of agent, among them The Literary Marketplace (LMP); The Writer’s Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents, updated annually by Jeff Herman; and the Guide to Literary Agents published by Writer’s Digest Books, also updated annually. I had mixed results with these guides, receiving some of form rejection letters in response to my query but also one positive reply from an agent who ultimately offered to represent me. (More on this below.)
The LMP is bulky and pricey, impractical for most Writers’ home libraries, but can be readily accessed in the reference section of your public or college library. It’s also available by subscription online (www.literarymarketplace.com). The Writer’s Digest and Herman guides will run you somewhere between $20 to $28 (new) from any bookstore or online bookseller, or can be found at your local library. These guides contain alphabetical listings of literary agents along with brief (or, in the case of the Herman book, not-so-brief) descriptions of their interests, clients, and projects they’ve handled. The Writer’s Digest book also contains a handy index grouping agents by the type of work they’re interested in representing, which can save you from having to scan each individual listing in search of someone who handles, say, cookbooks or thrillers, as well as an index indicating various agents’ openness to new submissions.
...and one that did.
In the fall of 2000, about the time I was making the decision to split my manuscript into multiple books, a friend alerted me to something called the Maui Manuscript Marketplace. Affiliated with the prestigious Maui Writers Conference, the Marketplace was* a means for getting a short description and sample of your project in front of the eyes of a group of agents and editors interested in the genre in which you write.
The Maui r??⬨¬©sum??⬨¬©, as it’s known, consisted of a two-page form containing contact info, a one-to-three-sentence book concept, a brief author bio, and a one-page manuscript synopsis. You could also, if you wished, include the first page of your book, in order to give the evaluators a sense of your writing style. I entered the Fall 2000 marketplace and received my results about 10 weeks later, around the first of December.
“We have good news!” the response began. Of the 29 agents and editors who’d reviewed my r??⬨¬©sum??⬨¬©, six expressed an interest in seeing more—typically a detailed synopsis and the first three chapters. Though this seemed like a modest rate of return on my investment, the real payoff came at the next stage, after I’d submitted the requested materials and the responses began to come in.
Two of the six agents were sufficiently attracted by the sample to immediately request the entire manuscript, as was one agent I located through the Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents, and one short week later, I found myself in the unexpected position of having three agents vying to represent me. Two other agents I made contact with through the Maui Marketplace eventually asked to see the manuscript, though I respectfully declined, as by that time I’d received the first three offers of representation and had already made my decision. The remaining two agents wrote me personal letters stating their regrets that the project was not for them, and one offered to refer me to an associate, although I also politely declined that offer.
The agent I finally chose was, in fact, one of those from the Maui Marketplace, and within a few months my investment would pay for itself many, many times over.
*Alas, as of this update (May 2007) the Maui Marketplace is available only to those who have registered to attend the Maui Writers Conference. There’s bound to be some logic behind this decision, but I’m having some trouble figuring out what it is. I thought the whole point was to make the resources of the conference available to those who couldn’t afford to attend in person. However, as with so many things that frustrate and madden me, nobody asked me.
For complete, current information, see the Maui Writers Conference website at www.mauiwriters.com.